Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Kimpton CC 1st XI on Sat 31 May 2025 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 3 wickets

Match report
After some pre match warning shots via Instagram, claiming Saints should be ‘bricking it’ (?) Kimpton arrived at a sunny Sandpit Lane to take on the 4s.

In an interesting new approach to the pre-match proceeedings, Saunders proceeded to opt to bat first, after both flipping the coin and losing the toss.

Following the skipper letting it slip he would’ve much preferred to bat, Saints took to the field, under instruction to play fair but win. Altaf and Nathan shared the new ball responsibilities, with both finding their stride early. Altaf struck first as the opener chipped a simple catch to Manny at mid-wicket - Manny, no sign of panic at all in his eyes as the ball looped to him. At the other end, Nathan settled into his rhythm after a few attempted grill-testers, producing a beauty to clean up the Kimpton number 2, who looked a good bat.

With the intent to only bat one way clear, plenty of chances came Saints way as the Kimpton middle order came to terms with Sandpit Lane’s lack of/excess bounce. A sub-par catching display allowed let offs early on and truth be told, it could’ve easily been a very different picture after 10 overs. Poor fielding allowed Kimtpon to build, but both Altaf (1-36) and Nathan (3-29) worked hard and bowled tidily, finishing their spells with 4 wickets between them. The game was nicely poised at 97-4 at drinks.

Channeling his inner Warnock, the skipper called for more fielding discipline at drinks, and he got his wish - a testament to the power of a good bollocking at all levels of the game.

Uti (1-27) and Saunders (2-33) resumed and led from the front, giving very little away and picking up important wickets at a regular rate. A special shout out to both golden hands Toby, who made up for Saints earlier poor catching ability by claiming 3, and Altaf who put his body on the line to take a good grab at deep long on and earning a split finger in the process. Down to 10 men for the final 10, a late spell from PK (2-4) and Alfie (1-1) mopped the tail up.

Kimpton finished on a sub-par 144, all out in 36 overs. The assessment at tea - 30 more than it should’ve been, but very chaseable.

Manny and PK opened up for Saints, and faced some tidy bowling, which yielded 2 early wickets for Kimpton. Andy Wright (17) in at 3 showed great temperament to steady the ship, finding the boundary twice, and stopping a classic potential St Albans collapse we are all too familiar with. Naj (22) at the other end looked in great nick, finding the fence with ease, before getting caught. Toby (21) joined Andy, and both produced some fine strokeplay to take Saints past the 50. Andy found himself back in the shed just before drinks, with Saints around 80-4 after 20.

‘3 an over and keep it ticking’ was the plan Toby shared with Alfie after drinks, and to be fair, it was working well until Toby fell victim to the famous straight one, bringing Altaf to the crease. With Alfie taking his time to get off the mark at the other end, and Kimpton finding their voice, tensions amongst the batting team were high.

Interesting field settings dictated the way to play and the bad ones were put away decisively, including a big 6 over mid-wicket into the trees from Alfie. The need for a new ball brought the Kimpton chirp to an end, and it was now their turn to be tense.

Some nice hitting from the pair brought Saints to a point where they needed 30 to win. Alfie proceeded to scoop one to cover, and the bandaged Altaf similarly found a fielder, meaning Uti and Nathan found themselves together to bring it home. A lovely hard sweep from Uti for four meant the 4s now needed below 20.

‘Nathan hits a long ball’ claimed Andy. Almost as if he heard this, Nathan decided to show everyone he’d had his Weetabix that morning and finished the game in style, launching three huge sixes in quick succession to wrap it all up at SLCG, including shot of the day with a maximum that landed some distance beyond the fielder on the rope. Strong celebrations on the boundary edge followed.

Andy Wright summed this one up nicely - ‘we lost that game and won it 3 or 4 times today’. A great win, and a real team effort with everyone contributing, but one that should have been more comfortable. The 4s got the job done in the end and took the 30 points back to CP, leaving us 3rd in the table, 1 point shy of 2nd. With some catching practice, there’s no reason we can’t continue this fine start to the season.

MOTM - Nathan Roos (3’fer and boom boom boom)
DOTD - Saunders for not understanding how a toss works


(Match report by Alfie Button)


Kimpton CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 1w 12b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
15
144 (36.0 overs)		     
Ben Robinson ct  N Nisar b A Husain 0 16 0
Mally Edwards b  N Roos 22 15 5 146.67
Harvey Innes ct  T Crisp b N Roos 24 27 4 88.89
Simon Thompson lbw  A Saunders 27 43 5 62.79
Arthur Cutler b  N Roos 4 4 1 100
Charlie Thompson ct  T Crisp b P Khatavkar 36 15 3 240.0
Iain King ct  A Button b U Vijender 0
William Barford ct  A Husain b A Saunders 8
Hugh Cutler Not Out  2
Nicholas Burniston ct  T Crisp b A Button 0
Savo Balac b  P Khatavkar 1

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Md Altaf Husain7.0136136.005.14
Nathan Roos8.022939.673.63
Andy Saunders8.0133216.504.13
Uttam Vijender8.0027127.003.38
Prath Khatavkar3.20422.001.20
Alfie Button2.01111.000.50

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w 4b 1lb 
for 7 wickets
8
146		        
Nauman Nisar b  W Barford 8 1 1
Prath Khatavkar ct  Unsure b A Cutler 5
Andy Wright lbw  N Burniston 17 2
Najib Khan ct  Unsure b N Burniston 22 4
Toby Crisp b  C Thompson 21 1 3
Alfie Button ct  Unsure b C Thompson 23 3 1 1
Md Altaf Husain ct  Unsure b S Balac 19 2 1 1
Uttam Vijender Not Out  7 1
Nathan Roos Not Out  18 3
John Webber  
Andy Saunders  

Kimpton CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
William Barford8.0113113.001.62
Arthur Cutler5.0028128.005.60
Nicholas Burniston6.031226.002.00
Mally Edwards8.003500.004.38
Charlie Thompson7.0227213.503.86
Savo Balac2.5024124.008.47