Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Kimpton CC 1st XI on Sat 30 May 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 5 wickets

Match report A heavily reshuffled St Albans 4XI side fell short versus Kimpton at Sandpit Lane, with Andrew Melling stepping in as skipper at the last minute on a day when half the previous week’s winning side where in the 3s and several 5s players brought in - a very stressful captains morning all round at SACC.

On a decent batting surface under warm conditions, St Albans were asked to field first and produced a mixed but ultimately spirited bowling effort against a Kimpton side that rebuilt strongly after early setbacks. The opening exchanges were tightly contested. James Witty set the tone early with a superb new-ball spell, finishing with 2-14 from 6 overs, including a wicket in his spell that put Kimpton under pressure. At the other end, Jamie Coffer kept things extremely tight, conceding just 19 from his 5 overs (12 of which was from the first), helping to squeeze the scoring rate.

St Albans struck regularly through the middle. Nadeem Arif and Ubed Talha both picked up wickets at key moments, while Tim Winfield’s spell had lots of swing to beat the bat and included the important breakthrough of Harvey Innes. However, Kimpton slowly rebuilt through Simon Thompson, who anchored the innings with a patient 61 from 118 balls, before Mally Edwards changed the tempo dramatically late on.

Edwards produced the decisive innings of the match, finishing unbeaten on 58 from just 42 balls, striking 12 boundaries and accelerating sharply in the final overs. His partnership at the death pushed Kimpton to 185-5 from their 40 overs — a total that was competitive, but still within reach if applied to properly.
St Albans’ fielding effort was generally solid, without being flawless, but Kimpton’s innings had momentum at crucial stages.

The 4s chase, however, never got established. St Albans lost early wickets and were immediately under pressure, with skipper Andrew Melling falling without scoring and the top order unable to build any stability against a disciplined Kimpton attack led by Savo Balac, who tore through the innings with 4-24 from 8 overs with his slow but consistent line.

Despite the early damage, Ubed Talha stood firm with a powerful counterattacking innings of 62, striking three huge sixes and three fours to briefly swing some momentum back towards St Albans. But with little support around him, the required rate quickly climbed and wickets continued to fall at the other end.

The lower order offered some resistance and support with Adam Khel (14), Nadeem Arif (15) and Tim Winfield (10) getting starts but unable to convert them into meaningful partnerships. Once Talha was dismissed, the chase effectively unravelled.

St Albans were eventually bowled out for 145, falling 40 runs short despite flashes of individual quality.
In the end, Kimpton’s greater consistency with both bat and ball proved decisive. While St Albans had standout contributions from Witty with the new ball and Talha with the bat, the lack of partnerships in the chase left too much to do.

A frustrating afternoon for the 4s, but one that again showed enough individual performances to suggest better cohesion could quickly turn competitive efforts into results.


(Match Report by Tim Winfield)

Kimpton CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 13w 2b 1lb 
for 5 wickets
17
185 (40.0 overs)		     
Ben Robinson lbw  J Witty 13 27 3 48.15
Robert James ct  U Talha b J Witty 0 4 0
Simon Thompson ct  J Coffer b N Arif 61 118 9 1 51.69
Arthur Cutler ct  Unsure b U Talha 23 36 5 63.89
Harvey Innes ct  A Melling b T Winfield 11 9 2 122.22
Mally Edwards Not Out  58 42 12 138.10
Mike Curry Not Out  2 5 40.0
Hugh Cutler  
Nicholas Burniston  
Savo Balac  
Matthew James  

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jamie Coffer5.001900.003.80
James Witty6.011427.002.33
Thomas Coulling5.002300.004.60
Tim Winfield8.0038138.004.75
Ubed Talha7.0043143.006.14
Nadeem Arif6.0128128.004.67
Adam Khel3.011700.005.67

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 3w 7b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
12
145		        
Nasibullah Maroofkhel ct  S. Balac 10 1
Andrew Melling b  S. Balac 0
Matt Shadwick ct  S. Balac 3
Vishwa Sirwar b  N. Burniston 0
Jamie Coffer ct  S. Balac 9 4
Adam Khel ct  B. Robinson 14 3
Ubed Talha lbw  M. Edwards 62 3 3
Thomas Coulling b  A. Cutler 6
Nadeem Arif lbw  A. Cutler 15 2
Tim Winfield b  M. Edwards 10 2
James Witty Not Out  6 1

Kimpton CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
N. Burniston6.0124124.004.00
S. Balac8.012446.003.00
B. Robinson6.0030130.005.00
A. Cutler8.0149224.506.12
M. Edwards4.221929.504.38