Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI v Holtwhite Trinibis II on Sat 16 Jul 2022 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 28 runs

Match report On a scorching Saturday morning St Albans 2s arrived not just without supreme leader Coulman but also without regular VCs Howsecaptain and Jimmy. Step forward Billy (Chilli) May who at late notice set upon leading a 2s side featuring multiple rascals.

With any potential issues now a distant memory for the 2s, the changed lineup took on Holtwhites Trinibis who themselves were in need of 30 points in their fight to stay in the division. The warm-up began with much to be desired as half the team headed to the catching ramps and the other half settled on the veranda, in particular JC who had been chasing around all morning for the signature of Phil Caley ahead of his hugely anticipated quiz. Manny’s decision to warm up in bare feet also raised a few eyebrows but the 2s prayers were shortly answered as May won the toss sending Holtwhites out into the field. With the football crowd setting the atmosphere early on, confidence was high that the 2s could use this to fuel their batting innings. Unfortunately, the early loss of Adil chipping a full toss back to their captain second ball was reminiscent of St Albans City’s demise on the same day. In fairness to City, they were playing high quality opposition.

Manny was joined by Nick Ralfe, many of the squad seeing the opportunity today that Nick could be given out by his own father. This wasn’t to be the case, rather fortunately for the Saints as Manny fell shortly after, bowled by the impressive opening bowler, although Adshead inexplicably put this down as caught behind in the scorebook. Ralfe was joined by captain Billy (Chilli Mayo) who set about stabilising the St Albans innings. Although scoring was slow the crowd were certainly still getting their money’s worth with an array of extravagant leaves from the St Albans skipper, so good that it actually won Abbey Aquatics shot of the day. Whilst May recognised the importance of staying at the crease, Ralfe looked to up the scoring rate and found the boundary regularly off the seamers. With 89 runs on the board after 27 overs you could argue the Saints had got off to a slow start but this was a tricky pitch, which was about to get a whole lot trickier as Holtwhites bought their young leg spinner into the attack. The young man quickly removed May and Murray, both bowled around their legs (huge fine) and then Ralfe was cleaned up from the other end by the seamer for a valuable and well-made 48.

On return a full count back of his innings was conducted by Ralfe, in disbelief he hadn’t secured himself a jug. With the leg spinner getting turn and bounce this proved to be the undoing of Tooley and Rayden, Murphy at the other end watching the wickets tumble. A very village bat swap had to take place between Murphy and Adshead before the latter played a booming cover drive off the seamer and was caught at slip. “Do you want the bat back” mumbled a dejected Adshead as he slowly made his way back to the pavilion.

Sadly, there was to be no late heroics from JC as he succumbed shortly after Murphy had departed, leading to an iconic underarm helmet throw in the changing room. 132 all out. Saints down in spirits, but certainly not out of the contest on a tough pitch.

Saints opened up with the fearsome duo of Adshead and JC. Adshead’s first over contributing to two thirds of the runs he conceded in his spell, the opener swinging through the line and sending the ball to the boundary. JC however proved to be too much for him to handle, drawing a false shot which led to a well taken catch by D Ross. Adshead got in on the act cleaning up the other opener, 18-2 and the 2s looking much more confident in their chances of winning the game. Whilst the runs dried up thanks to number 4s refusals of playing an attacking shot and the first signs of some comical running between the wickets from Holtwhites, St Albans really began to liven up in the field. Murphy in particular drawing a ginormous nibble from the number 4 who after blocking every ball tried to send Adshead into the tennis courts, unsuccessfully. Chilli decided to change the attack up with the ball softening and the wicket evidently favouring spinners.

D Ross’ cutters were extremely effective from one end and he removed the number 4 who spooned one to the bucket hands of Stu Murray at mid-off. Rosson’s cutters also seemed to do for the number 5 as he chipped an inviting catch to mid-wicket. Circling underneath it none other than the quiz master himself. As the ball hit the ground the once chirpy JC was muted for 5 overs. Special mention must also go to Ralfe who after saving the Saints with the bat bowled 10 tight overs for no reward, leading to him claiming the Tavah player of the match. The other contender hadn’t even got going yet. Billy had clearly been watching the bowling warm up with some interest and decided to give Adil (Dilley) a bowl, his first league overs for the Saints. Adil bowled a remarkable spell 10 overs and his figures of 3-7 tells the story; all of the last 5 overs being maidens. The highlights of this cameo being his dismissal of two batsmen who despite being very out claimed they were hard done by, and then the St Columba’s Holy Moment of the day as he bowled an absolute seed to dismiss the number 9 first ball. A certain voice from Spain commenting “Did say Adil can bowl as well.” How right he was.

With Holtwhites now staring down the barrel after thinking the game was won at half-time their number 3 had to go off retired hurt with a hand injury and Murphy was duly bought into the attack. During this stoppage Manny indulged in the delicacies he’d packed in his whites, the confusion amongst the Holtwhites team giving him sufficient time to execute his smoke break to perfection.

Murphy’s first few overs were tight, with Holtwhites last remaining recognised batsman seeing it off. The last over bought a flurry of boundaries, “don’t bowl there” aplenty. Despite the beauties sent down by Stu in the warm-up the skipper decided to get into the action with the ball and reintroduced Rosson from the other end. With both bowlers finding their areas runs were somehow becoming an issue despite only 132 on the board in the first innings and the number 10 seemed to rotate the strike. With him hitting the ball to Adshead on the ring he called through for a single, sadly for him the number 8 was unmoved. Despite the pearolling throw sent in, Rayden calmly removed the bails to put Holtwhites 8 down.

Back came the number 3 but he too was to fall victim to some awful running. This time the number 8 calling him through for a run, both batsmen ended up at the same end. As the number 3 fell on his sword for Holtwhites, Tom Rayden fell over the stumps collecting another Adshead throw. He gathered himself to remove the stump from the pitch and complete the run out. Saints relaxed at this point that JC wasn’t umpiring as he believed Rayden’s antics would have led to a dead ball. Billy had one ball at the number 11 which flew past the outside edge leaving Rosson to finish the job off, a well-executed yorker on off stump and the Holtwhites 8 played all around it. 104 all out, a great defence shown by the Saints.

In truth this was a performance of real character from a much-changed Saints lineup. Every single player had contributed especially in the field and on another day we could easily have lost this game. With the quiz looming JC descended on the showers, leading the team in a post-match karaoke. Chilli Mayo’s Barmy Army had done the job.

Tavah Player of The Match: Nick Ralfe
DOTD: JC
St Columba’s Holy Moment of The Day : Adil Sharif 3rd wicket
Abbey Aquatics shot of the day: Billy May expansive leave

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
12w 3b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
18
132		        
Adil Sharif Caught  0
Nauman Nisar Bowled  12 2
Nick Ralfe Bowled  49 8
Billy May Bowled  19 2
Stuart Murray Bowled  4
Adam Murphy Caught  21 1
Richard O'Toole Caught  1
Thomas Rayden Caught  1
Ben Adshead Caught  5 2
Joey Curran Caught  2
Daniel Rosson Not Out  0

Holtwhite Trinibis II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Holtwhite Trinibis II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
11w 5b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
18
103 (38.3 overs)		     
  b B. Adshead 1
  ct Unsure b J. Curran 16
  run out (B. Adshead) 24
  ct Unsure b D. Rosson 8
  ct Unsure b D. Rosson 11
  b A. Sharif 3
  lbw A. Sharif 3
  b D. Rosson 19
  b A. Sharif 0
  run out (B. Adshead) 1
  Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Adshead6.0318118.003.00
Joey Curran4.0118118.004.50
Daniel Rosson8.321635.331.88
Nick Ralfe10.041700.001.70
Adil Sharif10.06732.330.70
Adam Murphy4.021500.003.75
Billy May2.01500.002.50