Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI v Wheathampstead CC 1st XI on Sat 02 May 2026 at 13:00
Match was Abandoned Abandoned

Match report Following what can only be described as a series of captaincy masterclasses from 1st team captain Dan Baylis in the sauna at Fitness First, 2nd XI captain Rory Law turned up an hour early to watch the first team train and assess the state of our newest Kiwi recruit after he'd been inducted into the Jacob Winfield academy the previous evening. First test passed, he seemed quite mentally competent (a rare feat after spending an evening with Adshead and Baylis talking about Spain). The rest of the team turned up pleasantly on time, good starts to the season ahead.

Inspired by the IPL, we had named some impact subs. Hammer was keen to bowl but had to get back home, Murph had to work and had forgotten to put his availability up (shock), leaving Adshead and Baylis on standby on the sidelines. Baylis ran the warmup, it was tepid, we probably need to learn how to do it. We tossed up and won and batted first. New rules in play, free hits for no balls (a constant for the 1s and 2s this season), and slightly more lenience on the wides at the request of the opposition skipper (he ended up regretting this).

Westy and Priyesh strode out to face the new ball, some movement on offer on a slightly green surface. Priyesh smashed one onto his pad, the wicket keeper (/captain) went up huge, given. Keeper told him he knew he hit it. Clearly had forgotten that it was pre-season. Priyesh's wife turned up to watch him bat about 5 minutes later. Unlucky mate. Fortunately for the Saints, this seemed to be the only way to get out after hitting the ball as Wheathampstead's fielding left quite a lot to be desired, they've probably watched our efforts at it last season. Charlie started finding his feet, playing shots with absolutely rapid hand speed, certainly keen to take on the bowling when it was there. He was eventually castled. Westy looked in supreme touch, strong off the front foot and cautious early on, and started motoring. Highlight being a genuine straight drive, probably unlucky not to be mentioned in shot of the day discussions. He passed his 50 at a run a ball, Churchy batting nicely at the other end. Westy went straight after 50 (a theme in the innings in question) and looked very grumpy as he strode off. "That was a rubbish shot" is an almost exact quotation of what he said.

Church kept going, rotating well against the barrage of spin that was meeting him, joined by Law who had moved himself down the order after looking blind in a series of net sessions pre the game. The rate started soaring as Churchy hit a massive six over mid wicket, Law was moving his feet and kept check driving the off spinners over their heads. We reached 190 in a blink of an eye, both bats bringing up their 50, before Law ran past one in a protest that Church kept making him run 2s. Sadly, this started the 2nd XI collapse (I wonder how many times I've written that in a match report). Jimmy LBW sweeping, Churchy caught trying to go large, Jithin bowled after clearing long on for yet another large six, then Murph bowled playing a shot that is totally impossible to describe. Banksy managed dismissal of the day, dollying a catch back to the bowler first ball after spending most of the 1st innings moaning that he was too far down the order. Ryan and Yusuf blocked a few then Ryan decided to take one to the bowler. 220 all out. Probably should have been 250, but still a decent effort.

Tea break saw us lose a man, but Hammer had arrived. The bowling started tightly, Hammer keeping it straight and not offering any width. Banksy keeping it tight and reining in his natural wicket-taking instincts to find a good line and length, bar one misfield at cover, we were flying. No wickets in the opening salvo, but Saints on top with run rate squeezed. Then arrived Ryan Magee, an unknown "Staggy" who had spent most of the first innings listening to Murphy's chat, a true initiation. First ball, extremely late in swing, Badsy's finger eventually went up (many thanks to him for once again being an excellent clubman and volunteering to umpire). It only took another couple of balls for another wicket, caught well by Law at mid off. They finally realised by this point that it was swinging in, but the damage was done. In came the skipper, who wasn't enjoying the non wide calls for the balls that just went down leg. Probably a good idea not to ask for them not to be given wides next time I'd suggest. After a series of nibbles, he nicked off down leg, caught well by Jithin diving forward.

By this point Dan Baylis had entered the fray as a sub fielder in his training kit, hoping to impress his girlfriend's uni mates who were visiting for the day. Sadly, he decided to drop an absolute dolly at point, a catch so staggeringly easy that the team couldn't contain their laughter. He clearly doesn't trust the process. Charlie was introduced to bowl, an exciting moment to see his debut in yellow. He started with a front foot no ball and there were a few along the spell. Good signs when it was right, we go again next week. Westy came on and snagged the opener who doored it, caught once again by Law. A deserved wicket for Westy who had hit his lengths nicely, only issue being that the batters seemed to think he was bowling more quickly than they were. Ryan got his fourth soon after, caught again by Jithin, earmarking a pretty impressive stint behind the stumps.

Then, the rain came. We decided we didn't want to brave the wrath of Cales for ruining the square during a pre-season game so called it early and got going with the first fines session of the year, led by umpire/impact sub Badsy. All in all a pretty impressive start to the season from the Saints, 3 fifties, some good bowling and fielding, good energy and a good result against a team a division higher.

MOTM - Ryan Magee (4fer, looked good at bowling)
DOTD - Adam Murphy (terrible shot, left at half time)
Shot of the day - Church large six into the tennis courts
Holy moment of the day - Banksy golden duck, catching practice, first ever golden duck, generally quite funny dismissal.

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 5w 1b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
9
220		        
Priyesh Patel lbw S Bottomley 6 11 1 54.55
Zach West ct Unsure b S Booth 52 52 9 100
Charlie Ferguson b R martin 25 39 2 64.10
James Church ct I Zeeshan b M Rodic 56 68 4 1 82.35
Rory Law st Z Sialvi b M Rodic 52 39 7 1 133.33 2
James Rosson lbw M Rodic 3 7 42.86
Jithin Balan b M Rodic 11 11 1 1 100 2
Adam Murphy b J Danbury-Nolan 1 2 50.0
Yusuf Mayet Not Out  5 4 1 125.00
Thomas Banks ct J Danbury-Nolan b J Danbury-Nolan 0 1 0
Ryan Magee run out  (M Rodic) 0 7 0

Wheathampstead CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charlie Archer6.003000.005.00
Steven Bottomley6.0122122.003.67
ross martin4.0023123.005.75
Steven Booth6.0040140.006.67
Ben Bruce-White6.003600.006.00
Marco Rodic8.0048412.006.00
Joshua Danbury-Nolan4.011829.004.50

Wheathampstead CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 6w 2lb 
for 5 wickets
11
77 (19.0 overs)		     
Marco Rodic ct R Law b Z West 16 32 1 50.0
Alistair Sykes lbw R Magee 7 30 1 23.33
ross martin ct R Law b R Magee 2 3 66.67
Zeeshan Sialvi ct J Balan b R Magee 14 24 3 58.33
Adam Robbins Not Out  5 9 1 55.56
Issa Zeeshan ct J Balan b R Magee 11 5 2 220.0
Ben Bruce-White Not Out  11 14 1 78.57
Steven Booth  
Charlie Archer  
Joshua Danbury-Nolan  
Steven Bottomley  

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Adam Hounslow5.011300.002.60
Thomas Banks4.001100.002.75
Ryan Magee5.001443.502.80
Charlie Ferguson2.001700.008.50
Zach West3.0020120.006.67

  • Umpire :
    TBC
  • Scorer :
    Us