Scorecard

Ickleford CC 1st XI v St Albans Cricket Club 2XI on Sat 05 Sep 2026 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 1 wickets

Match report The equation was not extremely straightforward for the 2s going into the final day. Play cricket being down across the entirety of the UK not particularly helpful as we knew results elsewhere would affect how many points could keep us up. The intention set out for the majority of the squad who made it to the correct Days Bakery in Hitchin was to win the game. Banks and Awonuga completing their tour at Ickleford a whole 15 minutes late much to Hounslow’s annoyance. We had to remind him that Banks might still not be allowed to utilise motorways, which seems to be a common theme with being late to cricket matches for Tom.

The warm up was somewhat of a success, but my word was it long. Would our rigorous practice translate into the middle after Rory won the toss and elected to bowl?

On the other side of the field, opponents Ickleford had their own season to settle. They required 14 points to gain promotion, whilst the Saints required as many as possible to avoid exiting the division out the other side of the league.

Hounslow and Winfield took the new ball, the former starting like a dream as the Ickleford opener decided to leave the fourth ball of the game on middle and off. Winfield began his contributions to the 41 extras the 2s conceded, far too high yet again, with the ones in the right spot clearly asking plenty of questions. Ickleford rotated the strike well before Hounslow struck once more with what must have been the 5th loud LBW appeal against the Ickleford number 3.

This was to become a bit of a theme throughout the first innings, not that the Ickleford umpire was particularly bad, but on another day some of the shouts probably do go your way and the scorecard looks a touch different. The most bemused of all the bowlers would end up being Adshead who was introduced at Hounslow’s end following an excellent opening spell which yielded a further wicket to leave him with figures of 3-20 off 10.

Adshead ended up doing battle with Ickleford Captain George Crouch who looked a class above the other batters in the lineup. Denied a huge caught behind appeal following a very evident noise with the bat out far away from any other object but the ball. The question was if it wasn’t the bat and ball combination then what was it? From the other end Awonuga started well, relieved to see out a 10 over spell without a 5 wides included, but perhaps with too many loose deliveries to the field set.

In truth, it all became a bit too easy for Ickleford in the latter stages of the innings. Adshead did remove the skipper Crouch for a well made 56, and Awonuga claimed 2 wickets of his own. Catches began to go down, extras kept stacking up and on the whole we probably let Ickleford get about 30 runs too many on a deck that offered assistance for seam bowlers. Once again extras getting far too close to raising the bat, which has been a common theme of the 2s season.

Nonetheless, Ickleford’s total of 228-9 meant 9 bonus points were secured and now it was a case of trying to chase it down to give ourselves the best chance of staying up. The state of play for Ickleford was simple, 6 wickets and they were up.

There was good news and bad news to trickle through as the second innings got underway. The good news that Ampthill had been skittled and the 1s were promoted, the bad news that Bushey had won meaning we could no longer leapfrog them. This was compounded by a slow start and Howeson falling early. Rudlin also gaining an early life following a fairly regulation slip catch going down, it’s fair to say there was cause for concern.

However, Rudlin and Caswell dug in well against a good Ickleford seam attack and after being patient were able to start accumulating somewhat quickly and after 30 overs the Saints sat on 110-1 with Rudlin bringing up another 50 in what has been a good season for him.

Unfortunately from there, things began to unravel rather quickly. Needing a run a ball we just couldn’t get things going. Wickets began to fall and barring a promising cameo from Rory, there was little resistance. It became clear that winning the game was going to be a tough ask and as a result we now had to look to bonus points to keep us up. With Cockfosters 5 down at Totteridge, we could have tied with them if we got to 215 and the total there was chased with no more wickets lost. However, as soon as another one went down, the grim reality kicked in.

Winfield was the last to go, Dan Harvey got 5 wickets, we lost by 40 runs. Relegated by just 4 points behind Totteridge, the same side we claimed our last victory against 5 weeks ago.

On reflection, there were plenty of reasons you could point the finger at as to why the 2s ended up where they ended up this season. Availability was fairly horrific, 37 players used in a division against club 1XI’s is always going to be tough to manage and regularly compete. Throwing games away against Bushey and Cockfosters, capitulating in important games against Welwyn, bowling an obscene amount of extras, no batters scoring 300 league runs. The list goes on but the bottom line is we were not good enough and deserved to go down.

News of the 1XI promotion brings fresh optimism and the hope of a strengthened club next season. Life in Division 3B could be what the 2s need for a season or two in order to hopefully come back stronger in Division 3A at the next time of asking.

Ickleford CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
10nb 20w 11lb 
for 9 wickets
41
228 (50.0 overs)		     
Charlie Jupp ct  J Caswell b A Awonuga 33 76 2 43.42
Eswar Krishnamurthy b  A Hounslow 0 3 0
Duncan Jenner lbw  A Hounslow 6 37 16.22
Joe Dalrymple ct  R Law b A Hounslow 7 21 1 33.33
George Crouch lbw  B Adshead 52 66 8 78.79
Akein Perera b  A Awonuga 5 29 17.24
Ashish Mishra run out  (Unsure) 46 36 6 127.78
Mark Schumann ct  J Caswell b T Banks 21 23 3 91.30
Daniel Harvey Not Out  12 16 75.00
Axel Morris run out  (J Caswell) 5 5 100
Michael Day  

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Adam Hounslow10.012036.672.00
Jacob Winfield10.016000.006.00
Thomas Banks10.0055155.005.50
Ben Adshead10.0132132.003.20
Alexis Awonuga10.0150225.005.00

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 18w 3b 6lb 
for 10 wickets
28
185		        
Andy Rudlin b  A Morris 56 95 9 58.95
Matt Howeson ct  M Day b E Krishnamurthy 7 24 1 29.17
James Caswell b  A Morris 34 63 5 53.97 2
Rory Law ct  E Krishnamurthy b D Jenner 32 43 3 1 74.42 1
Tom McCormick b  D Harvey 5 17 29.41
Jithin Balan b  D Harvey 7 15 46.67
Adam Hounslow lbw  D Harvey 1 3 33.33
Alexis Awonuga lbw  D Harvey 4 6 66.67
Thomas Banks b  D Harvey 10 7 1 142.86
Jacob Winfield ct  D Harvey b D Jenner 1 3 33.33
Ben Adshead Not Out  0

Ickleford CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Eswar Krishnamurthy10.0127127.002.70
Axel Morris10.0323211.502.30
Daniel Harvey10.023757.403.70
Michael Day6.002100.003.50
Akein Perera3.002000.006.67
George Crouch1.00800.008.00
Joe Dalrymple2.00800.004.00
Duncan Jenner4.1032216.007.68

  • Umpire :
    Macca
  • Scorer :
    Mountain