Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI v Abbots Langley CC 1st XI on Sat 30 May 2026 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 8 wkts

Match report An intriguing encounter awaited the new table toppers of Division 1. Saints’ ultimate bogey team from last year in Abbots Langley made the trip to CP, a side we failed to beat on 2 occasions last season, despite Abbots only just surviving relegation that year. This year around Saints once again flying high, and Abbots once again nearer the foot after the opening exchanges, claiming their first win of the season last time out against Chorleywood.

With last year in mind you’d have thought any complacency would have exited, and that preparations in the run up to the game would have been meticulous. However, the pre-match offering of a Simmons proved this was not the case for our captain. Despite a thumbs up to Simmons Sec Mulvaney’s message the previous night, Baylis found himself stranded outside the Hatfield Road branch, the more eagle-eyed trio of Mulvaney, Adshead and Regan arriving at the correct location at an unusually quiet Quadrant.

Once we had arrived and moved several lovely chairs out from the pavilion, focus turned to the game. With the conditions absolutely roasting for the second week running you’d have been forgiven for thinking we’d rocked up on a Saturday in Alicante rather than Clarence Park, or as our carded number 6 Perrin had managed, Worthing.

Baylis took a deep breath as the coin landed the wrong way. His rather dejected gaze at his shoelaces indicating we were probably bowling, although this could well have been his customary presentation regardless. Any hopes dashed when he confirmed our fears, trudging back slower than Eberechi Eze after slamming one into the advertisement boards.

Will squared opened up and the cinema began. Abbots opening batsman wasn’t troubling the red thing travelling towards him, let alone the scorers. The lad at the other end guided one into impact sub Cawood’s gut on the third legal delivery he had faced. Eventually pouched at the fourth time of asking. After this performance and the offerings of a fist bump from the umpire following a back and forth battle with Rooney’s front foot and the blue lines, you wouldn’t have been mistaken for thinking the cinema had turned into a circus after just 2 overs.

Not much happened for the remainder of the opening overs, despite the best efforts of our opening duo who didn’t bowl badly by any means and were the victims of the vacant gaps behind square all too often. Frustrating, and not particularly entertaining to watch, clearly shared by the umpire who had resorted to refreshing play cricket to keep us updated on how his son was bowling for Chorleywood 2s instead of actually watching what was going on in the middle.

Despite this, we managed to stay fairly upbeat, knowing a couple of quick wickets could quickly change our fortunes. The introduction of spin duo Mulvaney and Kumar duly bought this to us. First a catch by Jones at first slip, deflected off Bancroft’s pads, and then a smart take by the keeper off an under edge from Abbots’ captain who had looked very good for 40.

Knowing 4 and 5 were Abbots’ key contributors throughout the season so far, we knew the 4th wicket was likely to dictate the outcome of the game. Mulvaney from one end bowled with excellent control, Kumar bowling a lovely pace, and Baylis sending down rockets back of a length. The partnership must have been crucial as all attacking intent evaporated from the Abbots batting performance, clearly thinking keeping us out there for 50 overs was a more important factor.

Baylis claimed the vital breakthrough just after drinks, snicking off the left handed number 5 with a beauty, who had scored back to back tons going into the game. A well held one handed grab from Bancroft, the second to him in the game. Mulvaney kept toiling to no further avail in the wickets column but 10 overs 1-20 on a very good batting deck tells you all you need to know about his display. Baylis claimed a second via a dreadful shot from the new batsman off a long hop outside off, presenting Priyesh with the simplest of catches.

Anti-fun cricket then returned after a brief hiatus last weekend. Adshead settling in with stretches aplenty, breaking through the defences of the number 7 with a middle stump yorker in his first over. Wickets continued to tumble at regular intervals, 3 more to Adshead and one to Kumar. All fairly awful shots from the Abbots lower order and eventually the number 4 who after making us stand and watch him door it for 30 overs decided to try and run another Adshead yorker down to third man.

156 all out a fairly dismal showing on a very good wicket, made even more bizarre by the lack of intent shown throughout and the massive drop off in batting ability in the second half of the order. Saints in fairness had bowled tightly and built dots effectively, the Cawood and Regan dot counter making regular appearances.

Sadly a football match was a large talking point at half time. Could we get off early enough to make the start of the game? Bancroft’s intent from the off showing that he was making the 5pm kick off regardless. Teeing up some big shots of which some connected and some flew past the outside edge. Following a few crunching drives through the covers he eventually perished in the powerplay caught at backward point after a quickfire start. Regan followed shortly after through his own admission “an awful shot.” Suddenly at 44-2, Abbots had their tails ever so slightly up and getting through to drinks without further damage was now the most of our worries rather than whether Kai Havertz would put the ball in the top corner of the net or the stands.

Priyesh and Joe navigated these slightly tricky conditions well, knowing that with time the runs would come. Priyesh in particular being asked if he’d just been promoted from the 2s which seemed fairly rich given the viewing of the previous 3 hours. However, once the ball had stopped moving and loose deliveries kicked in, the scoreboard started to tick again and in truth the innings played out by both were chanceless. Abbots knowing the game had probably got away from them after 25 overs decided one last throw of the dice. You’d probably assume this would be a batter who doesn’t bowl trying to buy a wicket. No, their opening seam bowler came back on bowling off spin.

Adshead’s remarks of his off spin is better than his seam looked fairly inane when Regan sent the next 2 deliveries crashing into the fence, victory now a foregone conclusion with Regan and Priyesh bringing up well made 50s, Priyesh’s first for the club. If that wasn’t enough the umpire chimed in to try and cheer the Abbots players up by letting them all know his son had taken a 5fer for Chorleywood. Every cloud chaps.

Mardelli’s acclaimed ‘best player through mid wicket in the club’ bought up the winning runs. 30 more points on the board in 30 overs of batting. Professional job done in what has been a tough game in years gone by. We will for sure have tougher tests than we did on Saturday, but if we can keep the wins rolling then we can stay top of this league table all the way to September 5th.

Next week is a trip to the Colosseum. Sadly not the one in Rome, but the one at Lutonian. Comparable on many levels though so we’re really looking forward to it.




Abbots Langley CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 13w 8b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
24
156 (44.3 overs)		     
Luke Mortimore ct  W Jones b J Mulvaney 17 39 2 43.59
Anuj Khorwal ct  B Cawood b W Rooney 0 5 0
Matthew Parkins ct  W Bancroft b S Kumar 42 50 6 84.00
Poojan Vyas b  B Adshead 51 89 5 57.30
Brad Finch ct  W Bancroft b D Baylis 12 42 1 28.57
Oliver Sills ct  P Patel b D Baylis 1 2 50.0
Mahin Kohli b  B Adshead 0 10 0
Ben Chase ct  D Baylis b S Kumar 5 9 1 55.56
Meet Patel ct  D Baylis b B Adshead 0 5 0
Alex Chase Not Out  4 15 26.67
Harshal Shah ct  W Bancroft b B Adshead 0 1 0

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Will Jones6.021900.003.17
Will Rooney7.0040140.005.71
Joshua Mulvaney10.0120120.002.00
Sammy Kumar7.0038219.005.43
Dan Baylis8.001728.502.13
Ben Adshead6.301243.001.85

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 5w 4lb 
for 2 wickets
10
157		        
Jamie Regan b  O Sills 15 25 2 60.0
Will Bancroft ct  A Khorwal b O Sills 28 23 6 121.74 3
Priyesh Patel Not Out  50 68 10 73.53 1
Joe Regan Not Out  54 69 7 78.26
Will Jones   1
Ben Cawood   1
Joshua Mulvaney  
Will Rooney  
Ben Adshead  
Dan Baylis   2
Sammy Kumar  

Abbots Langley CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Alex Chase3.012200.007.33
Oliver Sills9.0047223.505.22
Meet Patel6.002400.004.00
Matthew Parkins6.002700.004.50
Harshal Shah4.011900.004.75
Ben Chase2.401400.005.25