Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI v Saints CC on Sun 24 May 2026 at 12pm
St Albans Cricket Club Lost

Match report The annual Saints Derby: a staple of the Sunday 2XI calendar that always signals a fun day and an opportunity for us to ruin Tom Hadden’s 100% win streak as captain. We’ve been unable to pull this off in previous years, but did that stop us THIS year? Yep.

Today’s match saw a week-long fumble to get an actual XI on the pitch for Sunday: unfortunately, our availability wasn’t quite as strong this week as it has been recently (what with people selfishly studying for crucial exams, getting married and other, similar nonsense), and so oppo skipper Hadden was forced to relinquish his hold on the two SACC stars he had poached for the occasion. Thus, Ben Hingston and Ciarán Walsh reluctantly trudged their way over to Sunday 2XI skipper Tom Cocks to betray their spiritual home of baggy maroon caps. The format today was a welcome change of pace: a T20 test format, consisting of two innings for each side, plus the added addendum that the batting order from the first innings must be reversed in the second. The Toms ambled on to the square to conduct the toss, with Cocks returning to announce SACC were batting first on an absolute scorcher of a day.

With the batting order carefully structured with the above laws in mind, our openers were two of our youth contingent: Zac Johnson and Finn Newton. Despite playing some lovely shots each, the boys were unfortunate to be felled on 4 and 0 respectively, a controversial LBW dismissing Johnson and a sharp c&b dismissing Newton. Ungy ‘Promise’ Jones and Suleiman ‘Suli’ Nisar were up next: the perfect combination of aggressive intent and tactful strokeplay. Promise wasn’t one to die wondering, marching down the wicket on almost every delivery and attempting to put it into another postcode, racking up 37* with frightening speed. Suli remained more thoughtful, picking the gaps carefully and dabbing up a storm, despite Hadden deliberately adjusting his field to avoid this. Suli would later find his stumps akimbo, felled on a useful 13. Moksudul ‘Moksy’ Islam cameoed for a spell, hoping to recreate his heroics the week prior. Sadly, he did not, presumably unwilling to bat well for any captain not named Walsh or Wright: he bludgeoned a quickfire 12, another sharp c&b ending his innings.

Now for the good stuff: Hingston, betraying his brothers in maroon, sauntered on to the pitch, his granite-esque muscles stretching his controversial top to breaking point. The Adonis struck the ball with venom and vigour, fielders unable to stop the onslaught due to getting lost in the starlight of his eyes while those behemoth biceps rippled beneath his supple, sun-kissed Australian skin. He boomed two 6s amongst this smokeshow, notching his 51* with ease and departing in retirement. Captain Cocks made a brief appearance, while Hadden eyed him up before declaring “new bowler: Hadden.” The battle was intense, both sides trading good blows: Hadden would deliver a wide, Cocks would swing and miss - it was breathtaking. Finally, Cocks found himself tempted by one such wide delivery, stretching out to meet it and chopping it straight on to his own stumps, departing for a brutal 1. Altaf ‘Daddy’ Hussain conservatively held down the fort with Promise for the remainder of the innings, seeing us through to the break before we took to our first bowling innings to defend 142.

Straight back out there: Cocks threw the new ball to Walsh and Women’s 1XI representative Molly Green and so we got underway. Walsh bowled conservatively, giving away few runs (bar the occasional full toss), with no wickets to reward him. A pre-planned mankad was attempted on Hadden, which Cocks had reluctantly agreed to let happen, with the condition that if it were given, the appeal would be immediately withdrawn. Walsh attempted it, despite Hadden being nowhere near leaving his crease, and looked a fool, doing nothing to change people’s perception of him. Green started her spell by bowling her first ball backwards, before claiming the scalp of an opener to dismiss him for a duck. She went on to take a total of three wickets, allowing Alzheimer patients everywhere a sigh of relief, before they wondered why they were sighing.

Zac and Suli took the reins, but by now the bats had their eye in. In true T20 style, they set about bludgeoning the ball regardless of the quality of the delivery, with two of them retiring on 50*. Our youths bowled well, but these were very good bats with one thought in their head: whack it. Cocks saw this deluge of runs and thought: “well I’m not keeping this innings, let me take the ball and save the day.” He bowled one over, and I think we’ll leave it there. Promise and Altaf closed out our attack, with the bats continuing to make scoring look easy. They surpassed our total with ease, beating our first innings by roughly 50 runs: not a great start for the Sunday Guns.

Following a delectable Tavah tea, our batting order was reversed and so our previous 9 and 10 bats opened up: Green and Walsh. Green started with intent, hitting two 4s in the first over, followed by a couple of singles, before being forced into retiring out due to exacerbating a back injury. Walsh found himself joined by Altaf, and then the fun REALLY began to start.

Picture Heracles fighting the Neamean Lion. Picture David fighting Goliath. Picture Troy and Gabriella standing up to Sharpay. These moments of heroism only just begin to explain the sight of Walsh with the bat today. He strides up to the crease, sticks his bat blindly in front of the stumps and asks “What’s that? Yeah that’ll do.” He then proceeds to smoke two 4s to reach 66% of his personal high score, followed by a respectful single to bring him to 75%. Then, another single to bring him to 10*. Now, you’re probably thinking “Walsh consistently bottles hitting his high score”, but hey: if Arsenal can stop being useless bottle jobs for one season, so can our Walshy. He surpassed his personal best in style, cannoning a 6 into the tennis courts (and a poor passer by’s shoulder) to bring himself to 16*. He then smoked a 4 to bring him even further, then adding another 4 and a single to reach 25, before Hadden had clearly had enough of watching Walsh make his bowlers look silly. He brought on a new bowler, and the bottom of Walsh’s considerable stomach dropped when he saw the keeper taking about ten steps backwards. He found himself caught behind, signalling the end of a historical innings. I do realise Hingston hit 51*, but this was weirdly better.

Anyways, I suppose other people batted too. Altaf joined Walsh back at the scorer’s table having notched 9 runs, while Cocks tacked on 4 more until he left a straight one. Hingston and Moksy settled in for the long haul, knocking 34 and 41 respectively, until oppo bowler Ward-Manning put paid to any notions of more 50 milestones for SACC. Suli and Promise saw us through to the end of the innings, Suli notching 11* and Promise notching 1*.

Going into the final innings, we found ourselves with a 95 run lead to defend. We obviously would have preferred a higher total in the face of the batting we already knew was coming our way, but given the bowling in our shed we didn’t feel this was unachievable. As mentioned, Green was too injured to rejoin us to field; passer by Andy Wright did kindly offer to fill in and field for us, but was met by Captain Cocks telling him we’d rather field with a team of 9.

Thus, Newton and Walsh got to work. Newton bowled a tidy spell, learning quickly what types of deliveries would be dispatched and adjusting accordingly, putting the squeeze on early. Walsh was slightly looser, but did perform a sharp c&b to dismiss an opener, his hand still being bruised while typing this report. He had an opportunity to repeat the feat on his final ball, but the challenge proved too much for him, despite an admirable dive and getting a hand to it but being unable to close down the chance. Don’t worry though: he’ll get other chances.

Daddy Altaf took the reins alongside Hingston, the latter being Cocks’ secret weapon, known as the ‘Big Red Button’ to hit in case of emergencies. Daddy echoed Newton’s spell in how little he gave away, with Johnson seeming to appreciate this, taking a splendid diving catch in the covers to reward Altaf for his hard work. Hingston bowled only 2 overs in his initial spell, his runup like a dance: mesmerising, enchanting and beautifully-haunting, those rippling muscles screaming to burst through his clothes, he bowled admirably, before Cocks decided this was starting to stray too far from PG to allow to continue for a third over.

Promise and Moksy were up next, with Promise earning a wicket thanks to a well-watched catch from Walsh at mid- off. Moksy saw this and thought “yeah, I’ll have some of that.” He went on to take a similar wicket, but this time Walsh had to struggle to get to the ball a bit more, being forced to dive forward and take the catch one-handed just as the scores had drawn level. A consolation wicket for sure, but we all mainly wanted to force Hadden to come out and try to hit the winning runs himself. Sadly, it was not to be: Cocks hit that Big Red Button one last time, causing onlookers to sweat over more than just the weather. Hingston’s siren-like stature couldn’t stop the winning runs being struck, bringing the game to a close in favour of the London Saints.

A truly enjoyable day, interspersed with some very enjoyable cricketing content. Congrats to Hingston on adding yet another Clarence Park 50 to his ever-growing collection, and another congrats to Molly for a solid 3fer in the first innings, not to mention Walsh for his heroics with the bat and taking 3 great catches in the field. A huge thanks to Hadden and the London Saints: they were, as ever, a joy to host, engaging in playful banter with our Sunday Guns both on the pitch and in the bar, acting as a true credit to the game. We can’t wait to exact some longstanding revenge in next year’s fixture, but until then, we look forward to our next game in honour of Phil Milton: surely Walsh opens the batting?…


Fineable Moments:



Molly for bowling her first ball backwards.

Hadden for wearing black shorts to bat.

Walsh for injuring an innocent tennis player through his majestic 6 into the tennis courts (worth it).

Hingston for stubbornly wearing his London Saints whites and training gear in protest over being told he’s playing for SACC today.

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Batting - 1st innings
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 8w 4b 2lb 
for 5 wickets
16
142		        
Zac (Isaac) Johnson lbw Studd 4 6 1 66.67 1
Finn Newton ct Formosa b. Formosa 0 2 0
Ungy Jones Not Out  37 48 7 77.08
Sulaiman Nisar b Studd 13 19 1 68.42
Moksudul Islam ct Hurji b. Hurji 12 10 2 120.0 2
Ben Hingston Retired Not Out  51 29 8 2 175.86 1
Tom Cocks b Tom 'Virgin' Hadden 1 6 16.67
Md Altaf Husain Not Out  1 3 33.33
Ciarán Walsh  
Molly Green  
Ann Other  

Saints CC Bowling - 1st innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
T. Studd4.001929.504.75
D. Formosa3.00717.002.33
K. Hirji3.0016116.005.33
K. Haig2.00700.003.50
W. Thomson2.003200.0016.00
J. Ward-Manning2.002400.0012.00
R. Gopaldas2.001400.007.00
T. Hadden2.0010110.005.00

Saints CC Batting - 1st innings
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 6w 5b 1lb 
for 3 wickets
15
192 (20.0 overs)		     
D. Formosa ct Islam b. Green 0 1 0
K. Hirji Retired Not Out  50
R. Gopaldas ct Johnson b. Green 6
T. Hadden ct Islam b. Green 4
J. Ward-Manning Retired Not Out  52
K. Haig Not Out  30
M. Williams Not Out  35
   
   
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Bowling - 1st innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Molly Green3.0031310.3310.33
Ciarán Walsh3.001600.005.33
Zac (Isaac) Johnson3.002400.008.00
Sulaiman Nisar3.003700.0012.33
Tom Cocks1.001200.0012.00
Ungy Jones4.004300.0010.75
Md Altaf Husain3.002300.007.67
St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Batting - 2nd innings
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 6w 2b  
for 6 wickets
10
146		        
Ciarán Walsh ct Williams b. Haig 25 31 4 1 80.65 3
Molly Green Retired Out  10 12 2 83.33
Md Altaf Husain ct Haig b. Haig 9 7 2 128.57
Tom Cocks b Studd 4 18 22.22
Ben Hingston ct Unsure b. Ward-Manning 34 24 6 141.67
Moksudul Islam b Ward-Manning 41 22 5 1 186.36
Sulaiman Nisar Not Out  11 7 2 157.14
Ungy Jones Not Out  1 1 100 1
Finn Newton  
Zac (Isaac) Johnson   1
Ann Other  

Saints CC Bowling - 2nd innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J. Singh3.001200.004.00
D. Formosa3.001800.006.00
K. Haig4.001125.502.75
T. Studd2.0014114.007.00
T. Hadden3.003400.0011.33
K. Hirji1.001500.0015.00
J. Ward-Manning2.001929.509.50

Saints CC Batting - 2nd innings
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 1w 5b 1lb 
for 5 wickets
10
100 (15.1 overs)		     
T. Studd ct Walsh b. Walsh 15
W. Thomson ct Johnson b. Hussain 12
J. Singh ct Walsh b. Jones 17
M. Williams ct Jones b. Jones 22
K. Haig Not Out  13
J. Ward-Manning ct Walsh b. Islam 11
R. Gopaldas Not Out  0
   
   
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Bowling - 2nd innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Finn Newton3.001500.005.00
Ciarán Walsh3.0023123.007.67
Md Altaf Husain3.0016116.005.33
Ben Hingston2.101300.006.00
Ungy Jones2.0020210.0010.00
Moksudul Islam2.00717.003.50