Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 6XI v OA's V on Sat 21 Jun 2025 at 1pm
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 36 runs

Match report Once again, the SACC availability proved good enough to warrant a 6XI. OAs were the opposition, the weather was a scorcher and it was true: win toss, bat first.

Skipper John Webber promptly lost said toss and the Saints were put in to bowl first. We had quite a bowling-heavy team, each bowler a force to be reckoned with in their own right. They had a job ahead of them, with local traitor Qasim having defected to OAs and showcasing a batting masterclass. However, our bowlers proved too much for him, with Niraj Aswani eventually taking his wicket to end the batting threat. His son, Neel, would go on to take the lion’s share of the wickets, claiming 3 and missing out on a potential hat trick by just a hair. The bowling lineup was chopped and changed several times, plus extra drinks breaks to inflate our innings for a considerable amount of time. Injuries didn’t help to speed up proceedings, with Webber taking a ball to the foot and Archie Hill rolling his ankle and retiring from heatstroke. The pair soldiered on though, and eventually we ended the innings with a total of 223 to chase. A tall order, but hardly an impossible task. Many spectators, including the neighbouring teams, began quietly rioting upon discovering that local moon man Ciarán Walsh had, for the second match running, seen his skipper “forget to bowl him”. Everyone’s fears were allayed, however, upon discovering that Walsh had been offered a free ticket in the order, to many groans from the rest of the team. He chose a “respectable 6” and told Webber “you just sit back and watch the fireworks mate.” Strong last words.

After tea, we opened with the combined might of Webber and Praveen Kumar, the stuff of dreams. Webber was unfortunate, seeing himself bowled on 2, while Praveen batted like a man possessed for a brief spell. He found the boundary with alarming regularity, before seeing himself bowled on a a contextually-crucial 21.

Our next form of attack came in the shape of newcomer Michael Nathan, fresh off a tidy bowling spell seeing him claim two wickets. Neel joined him, and the pair got to business. Neel wasted no time, immediately off the mark with a brutal 4, a nifty single and then seeing himself caught on what looked more like a juggling act than actual fielding. Michael stuck around, keeping the scoreboard ticking excellently while scoring fluently, testing the boundary markers on many an occasion. He would eventually see himself unbeaten on a regal 73*. An excellent debut for the club: couple of wickets, an unbeaten half century, what a bloody guy.

Women’s 1XI captain India Newman managed to stop her recruitment drive pestering the Dunstable female player on the other pitch for long enough to come and have a hit. Like Neel, she established herself early, off the mark with a brutal 4 and digging in to see out the overs. She facilitated a number of sharp runs for bother herself and her partner, while Walsh took great pleasure in emulating her ‘vocal’ performance at Bedford CC a couple of weeks prior, screaming at her to “RUN HARDER YOU HYPOCRITE.” I stand by every word, and India clearly took heart, eventually falling to a solid catch for 7.

Youngster Jacob Broome then stepped up to try his hand, testing the boundary rope himself several times with some booming shots that surprised everyone except Webber, who sat back smugly and said “yep, he can hit a long ball.” It seemed true, with Broome amassing a respectable total in little time, being unlucky to get bowled on 18.

Now for the real reason you all came to read this report: WalshDogg was seen swaggering on to the pitch, fresh from having spent an innings giving chat to Qasim and swapping bails over thinking he was Stuart Broad. The oppo were giving him chat right back, the good-natured laughs being shared on the field. This paragraph is suddenly becoming quite long despite the actual length of Walsh’s innings, so I’ll condense what happened: he played a convincing block, a convincing leave, followed by another leave that looked convincing up until he realised he’d left a straight one. Walsh, have a serious word with your next skipper, you need to get bowling because this batting lark is a joke.

After having seen what we hope was the last of the ‘Walsh Batting Experiment’, James Witty stepped up to try and calm down the rapidly-increasing required run rate. He played some lovely shots, rotating the strike to Michael where he could and striking his share of boundaries to alleviate some pressure. He would eventually fall on a regal 20, ushering in our second Women’s 1XI representative, Annie O’Gorman.

O’Gorman was our injured hero today, but also still fresh off a sensational half century at Bedford CC only a couple of weeks prior. While Walsh frowned to himself trying to muster up the brainpower to make a pun out of her name and her form (Annie O’Form-An? Annie In-Form-An?), Annie was unfortunate to be run out on nought. A shame, but sharp fielding was becoming our real enemy today.

Niraj Aswani stepped up to see out the innings, bludgeoning a rapid 9 before another sharp catch dismissed him and ended the game. A loss, but one with far more positives than negatives. Our youth contingent played excellently, from unreal bowling performances (shoutout Neel, Archie and Broome) to classy and aggressive batting performances (shoutout out to Broome again). Debutant Michael Nathan certainly established himself well, sharp bowling and an unbeaten half century all but ensuring he won’t be in the 6s again for a while. Our Women’s 1XI contingent also played excellently, sharp fielding from both of them and Newman’s time with the bat helping us to give the game a serious go. Roll on next week when, availability providing, we can deploy another 6XI!

Fineable Moments:

Walsh for trying to get every batter ahead of him to play a ramp for their first shot, then leaving a straight one himself.

Webber for forgetting to bowl Walsh, leading to Walsh having the opportunity to leave a straight one.

Qasim for being a traitor and batting far better against us than he ever did for us.

Report by Ciaran Walsh

St Albans Cricket Club 6XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 25w 4b 1lb 
for 9 wickets
31
186		        
John Webber b Taylor 2
Praveen Kumar b Ben 21 4
Neel Aswani ct c. Qasim b. Ben 5 1
Michael Nathan Not Out  73 9
India Newman ct c.? b. Matthew 7 1
Jacob Broome b Mike 18 3
Ciarán Walsh b Mike 0
James Witty lbw Ciaran 20 2
Annie O'Gorman Run out  0
Niraj Aswani ct c.? b. Taylor 9 1
Archie Hill  

OA's V Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben7.0136218.005.14
Taylor7.0137218.505.29
Mike5.001929.503.80
Matthew S6.0041141.006.83
Freddie5.001500.003.00
Ciaran5.0034134.006.80

OA's V Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
7nb 32w 10b  
for 8 wickets
49
223 (35.0 overs)		     
Andrew Johnson Run out  12
Matt Hudson-Reeve ct c. Niraj b. James 18
Taylor Fetters b Jacob 8
Qasim Khan ct b. Neel 87
Matthew French Lbw  12
Ben Tossell ct b. Michael 28
Joe Brason b Neel 0
Mike Fetters Not Out  3
Ciaran Knowles b Michael 6
Freddie Rowland  
Chris Knowles  

St Albans Cricket Club 6XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Neel Aswani5.011929.503.80
James Witty4.0122122.005.50
Jacob Broome5.0046146.009.20
Praveen Kumar6.002300.003.83
Niraj Aswani6.0029129.004.83
Michael Nathan4.0032216.008.00