Scorecard

Ampthill Town CC Saturday 1st XI v St Albans Cricket Club 1XI on Sat 16 May 2026 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 4 wickets

Match report The forecast drew up a lot of questions for the Saints side travelling to Ampthill, one
of those days where you felt with the grey clouds overhead you would be off the pitch
at any point.

However, the pre-match trip to Simmons threw up even more
questions. Was Ben Cawood going to make it after personally requesting Simmons
the night before? Would Oli Coulman deliver on his Friday night promise of a
guaranteed ton? Had Dan Baylis remembered the teamsheet? Unfortunately, as it
transpires, the answer to all 3 questions was no.

We then set off on one of the longest journeys of the season, only beaten by Reed.
Many took the more conventional route to Ampthill via car. This was all apart from
two. Perrin receiving a call up to the 1s and the luxury of being able to walk to the
ground, and the aforementioned Baylis reportedly scratching around on the Met Line
bemused that Ampthill did in fact not have a tube station.

Once we’d arrived at the ground we were presented with a used wicket (yes, on week
two) and with that in mind Baylis decided to bat first.

The opening signs were fairly strong, 2 fours struck in the first over and the other
opener seemingly unable to land one on the strip. A shame that he didn’t need to
when removing Bancroft who chipped the simplest of catches back off a full toss.
Perrin continued to put the rubbish in the bin before a bowling change was made
before he slapped a half volley at mid-wicket to leave Saints 2 down.

The scoreboard carried on motoring with Jones and Cawood putting away a fair bit of bad bowling
from the home side and with 60 runs on the board in the powerplay you would argue
Saints had won the opening 10 overs, despite losing 2 wickets.

Sadly, things then began to unravel very quickly. Jones chopped on in the 11th,
shortly followed by Coulman adjudged LBW off his thigh pad in the 12th, and then
Cawood trapped in front in the 17th. All of a sudden 5 down and needing a rebuild
from somewhere. McCormick and Padki began to bat with more caution which was
needed and kept the scoreboard ticking, a few hammer blows from McCormick
before he got one which spun back a mile and clipped the leg stump.

This bought Mulvaney to the crease just after the halfway mark. Whilst Padki batted
sensibly from one end, Mulvaney elected to live a more charmed life. Dropped no
less than twice by the same fielder at mid-off, one of them in truth an absolute dolly
before Mulvaney had even got out of first gear. This proved costly to Ampthill with
Mulvaney beginning an assault on their ever-weary bowling attack. The returning
dibbly dobbler in particular taken apart with some massive sixes, including one
deposited over the bank and almost into the rugby club; Mulvaney bringing up his 50,
a timely one, and Padki similarly made his way to the milestone a couple of overs
later. Excellent partnership batting which had wrestled the game back in Saints’
favour.

Padki shortly departed after reaching 50. Some more swinging from Mulvaney
eventually drew his demise trying to mow ‘Ronnie’ into the scorebox. 72 Josh ended
on, his highest website score. Baylis and Ferguson then departed in fairly cheap
fashion, leaving Adshead stranded on 12 in the final over.

Having seen both how to bowl and how not to bowl in the first innings the plan
couldn’t have been clearer for the second. Pitch the ball up, back of a length and let
the ball do the talking off the pitch. For the first 10 overs this plan couldn’t have been
replicated much better. Jones seemingly untouchable by the Ampthill top order who
just played and missed at everything, the scoreboard hardly moving. From the other
end Adshead claimed the first scalp, a dubious decision of caught behind, before
the umpire decided to level the playing field by denying a stonewall LBW shout on
the number 3 the very next ball. Third man appeared the only scoring zone in the first
10 overs and Saints were firmly in the driving seat.

The opening pair were replaced by Padki and Baylis, both throwing up a bit of a
mixture to start with. Baylis then found his stride and really began to settle in,
beating the bat on numerous occasions. It was then Padki from the other end who
claimed the next wicket but that doesn’t tell half the story. A big shot from the
number 3 over cow sent Ferguson off running around the boundary, just as the
umpire was getting ready to signal 4 he leapt across the ground and plucked the ball
out the end diving to his right. A seemingly improbable catch from where he was
which drew scenes on the field, surely a catch of the season contender come
September.

Baylis would then strike himself with 2 crucial wickets either side of drinks. A clinic
in fast bowling, building pressure on Ampthill’s 2 senior batters before pinning both
plumb in front of the stumps. At 98-4 with seemingly Ampthill’s best 2 players back
in the shed, this should really have been as good as won.

Unfortunately, Ampthill had other ideas. In fairness, their overseas batted well
hitting a few very nice shots but he was also given quite the helping hand by a
catalogue of errors from St Albans in the field and with the ball. We let pretty much
everything go through us when diving or bending down, bowled too short on a pitch
that was just sitting up and thus struggled to build any kind of pressure on the 5th
wicket partnership.

Coincidentally the rain had massively picked up and we now found ourselves having
to deal with a wet ball. Fortunately,this somehow sprung our bowlers into life a little
bit, Mulvaney, Adshead and Padki managing to show some resistance as Ampthill
looked to be walking home to victory. Mulvaney claimed first the key wickets of the
overseas and number 5, the latter inducing arguably the biggest headloss you’ll see
all season.

With 7 & 8 now in there was a glimmer of hope and credit to the bowlers who
managed to stem the flow of runs to give Saints a chance. With the last over
beckoning Ampthill still needed 5 to win. Sadly 2 balls into the final over the number
8 planted a massive 6 over extra cover (unbelievable shot) which condemned St
Albans to their first loss of the season.

It isn’t all doom and gloom, but on paper despite absentees this was a game St
Albans should really have won. But when you lose 5 early wickets, field as badly as
we did on the ground, and bowl as many bad balls as we did, you have to say if we
had come away with the 30 points it probably wouldn’t have been deserved. We have
to learn our lesson as we go into next week where we face Letchworth, one of just 2
sides with a perfect record in what looks to be a closely contested Division 1.

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 5lb 
for 10 wickets
10
238		        
Will Bancroft ct D Brooke b D Brooke 4 4 1 100 1
Ben Cawood lbw B Slawinski 32 43 5 74.42
Steven Perrin ct D Brooke b M Sargentina 21 23 4 91.30
Will Jones b M Sargentina 15 15 3 100
Oliver Coulman lbw J Gage 1 3 33.33
Tom McCormick b B Slawinski 19 35 2 54.29
Ashish Padki ct B Slawinski b R Mlambo 50 89 4 56.18
Joshua Mulvaney b R Mlambo 72 60 7 4 120.0
Ben Adshead Not Out  12 15 1 80.0
Dan Baylis ct R Mlambo b R Mehmi 2 5 40.0
Charlie Ferguson b R Mehmi 0 7 0 2

Ampthill Town CC Saturday 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Max Sargentina9.0153226.505.89
Devon Brooke2.0018118.009.00
Ronald Mlambo6.0023211.503.83
James Gage10.0142142.004.20
Ben Slawinski10.0240220.004.00
Rohit Mehmi9.4038219.003.93
Kieran Smith3.001900.006.33

Ampthill Town CC Saturday 1st XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 1b 2lb 
for 6 wickets
8
242 (49.2 overs)		     
Rohit Mehmi ct W Bancroft b B Adshead 7 12 1 58.33
Liam Everitt lbw D Baylis 43 71 8 60.56
Lee Taylor ct C Ferguson b A Padki 28 50 4 56.00
Ben Slawinski lbw D Baylis 19 19 3 100
Will Glenister b J Mulvaney 31 33 5 93.94
Max Sargentina ct C Ferguson b J Mulvaney 74 70 10 3 105.71
Ronald Mlambo Not Out  19 25 1 76.00
Toby Amos Not Out  13 17 1 76.47
James Gage  
Kieran Smith  
Devon Brooke  

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Will Jones8.031100.001.38
Ben Adshead10.0157157.005.70
Ashish Padki10.0050150.005.00
Dan Baylis10.0145222.504.50
Charlie Ferguson1.201900.0014.25
Joshua Mulvaney10.0057228.505.70