Scorecard

St John Fisher CC v St Albans Cricket Club 5XI on Thu 28 May 2026 at 6pm
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 8 wickets

Match report Five games into the 2026 season and the mighty St Albans 5XI remain unbeaten in both friendlies and league cricket. Stalwart skipper Imran Ahmed could not attend the midweek friendly T20 we were playing today, and so he entrusted captaincy to maintain this impressive streak to the only man capable of doing so: Ciarán Walsh.

During the pitch inspection, Walsh revealed his plans to bowl first should he win the toss. This was almost immediately met with consternation and disgust from everyone else on the team, after which Walsh found himself beaten into submission and agreeing to bat first upon winning the toss. He lost said toss and St John Fisher CC put the Saints in to bowl first, much to Walsh’s glee. This would prove to be a tactical masterstroke, I promise.

Bearing in mind the sentiment of “everyone gets to bat or bowl”, Walsh elected to open the bowling with 5XI legend Tom ‘Hadsy’ Hadden, accompanied by Women’s 1XI representative/TikTok superstar Molly Green. The pair got to work, with Hadsy almost finding immediate reward, which was soon denied by lackadaisical fielding: several dropped catches in his very first over caused frustration, meaning he bowled an overall excellent and economical spell but with no well-deserved wickets to show for it. Green echoed this spell, keeping runs tight and the only real opportunity for a wicket presenting itself in an impressive attempt at a diving catch from our skipper at mid-off, which he unfortunately shelled to allow the Fisher opener to get to his 6th life. The pair retired wicketless, making way for absentee gun Frank O’Leary and recently-appointed vice captain George Pelham.

This combination of pace and leg-spin proved troublesome for the bats, stalling the run rate for a brief time as both openers eventually retired on 25, as agreed before the match. We were starting to get somewhat irritated in the field, as fielding management had been handed to Pelham, but this news had not been relayed to the rest of the team. This resulted in about four different people trying to shift about the field, at times conflicting with each other, amidst various drops and misfields contributing to our frustration. Eventually, Tom Cocks took the game by the throat from behind the stumps, effectively managing the field to choke out the singles and accommodate for the bigger hitters. Pelham eventually found the breakthrough, clean bowling the number 4 to ease our moods and remind us that there was still very much a game to be played. O’Leary supported him well, not finding wickets but ensuring runs were hard fought. Amidst this, Cocks was able to facilitate two nifty run outs, easing the pressure before our bowlers relented and made way for youngster Jacob Broome and El Capitano to take the ball for the death.

Walsh had told Broome to “get loose”, anticipating some off-spin, before seeing Broome mark out an impressively-long runup and realising he actually had no idea what Broome bowls. What does he bowl, you may ask? Some bloody lovely seam: Broome kept things religiously tight, putting the squeeze on early and giving virtually nothing away. Walsh supported this performance with a great spell of his own: he bowled his 3 overs, kept things tight by giving away only 10 runs and took 3 wickets thanks to a firm hold from youngster Finn Newton and two clean bowled wickets. The hat trick opportunity did present itself (Walsh’s second in three games), but Walsh couldn’t quite find his way through the new batter’s respectful forward defensive.

Come the break, the target was set at 120: a run a ball. Some big hitters of our own were lurking in the changing rooms, so this felt by no means insurmountable.

Straight back to business: Yasser Afghen and Cocks began paving the way for us, going somewhat slowly at first but opening up once they had settled in. The two men started testing the boundary markers with ease, with Yasser dispatching a short one over the boundary by a good two feet for a maximum- oh, hang on, umpire Pelham’s signalled a four- ah no, he’s listened to the spectators and fielders who both told him it was 6 and he’s now reversed his decision and given the 6- hang on, he’s changed his mind AGAIN and signalled the 4. Right, well Yasser DID hit the 6 that went down as a 4, but it became immaterial soon after as Yasser reached the retirement milestone and made his way back to the scorer’s table covered in glory.

Prathamesh ‘PD’ Deshpande then strode up to the crease, having exchanged his bowling overs for a batting promotion. He facilitated some sharp running between the wickets, striking a classy 4 amidst this before finding himself caught on a regal 9. This made way for the heroic teen Zac Johnson to get in there and show everyone who’s boss. He set about striking controlled singles and doubles, while dispatching the ball to the boundary in true T20 style, upping our run rate to the necessary rate to keep us ahead. Amongst this, Cocks reached retirement, having tried to argue with the scorer that his score on the board was too high, before smashing a 4 to bring himself past the 25 mark anyway. Johnson would join him in retirement soon after following an incredible performance, allowing Newton and Hadden to get to work.

Newton did an excellent job of getting the necessary singles and doubles to keep the scoreboard ticking, ably supporting his partner’s run calls, but was unfortunate to find himself bowled on 9. Some time-wasting ensued, as Walsh (who was in next) realised he had lent his pads to Hadden, who was still batting, and so told Pelham to get padded as quick as he could to get out there. Pelham then realised he had misplaced HIS pads, necessitating Walsh borrowing the outgoing Newton’s pads and bat (all of which were junior size for our overweight 6”2 captain), and hurriedly waddled out to the crease to help Hadden see out the game.

And see out the game they did: Hadden and Walsh worked together to get the singles and doubles where they could, before Hadden masterfully top-edged one to the boundary, bringing the game to a close in favour of the Saints with just above one over to spare.

The 5XI unbeaten streak remains intact, thanks to some expert performances from the team. We kept our heads on and our top order were unfazed, three of them reaching retirement and everyone contributing to the total. Special shout outs to Yasser, Cocks and Johnson, all of whom were a major part of the victory with the bat, and also to Walsh for stepping in to conservatively mop up the tail end of the oppo batting, preventing the total from getting away from us. An excellent all round team performance, which we hope to be recreated this Saturday to maintain our strong league position!

Fineable Moments:

Walsh and Pelham for ‘PadGate’, leading to a sizeable delay between wickets.

That’s about it, everyone else was above fines.

St John Fisher CC Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 14w 4b 1lb 
for 6 wickets
21
119 (20.0 overs)		     
Aithen Retired Out  31
Smart Retired Out  26
Stewart Not Out  20
Reeves b  Pelham 6
Hoskins run out  Cocks 0
B.W run out  Cocks 7
F.S ct  Newton b. Walsh 8
M.C b  Walsh 0
J.T b  Walsh 0
M.K Not Out  1
L.H  

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tom Hadden3.001800.006.00
Molly Green4.003100.007.75
Renzo O'Leary4.002400.006.00
George Pelham3.0021121.007.00
Jacob Broome3.001100.003.67
Ciarán Walsh3.001033.333.33

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2w 2b  
for 2 wickets
4
120		        
Yasser Afghen Retired Not Out  25 29 2 86.21
Tom Cocks Retired Not Out  30 25 2 120.0 2
Prathamesh Deshpande ct  Unknown b. Tattler 9 9 1 100
Zac (Isaac) Johnson Retired Not Out  27 25 1 108.00
Finn Newton b  Lucas 5 6 83.33 1
Tom Hadden Not Out  7 4 175.00
Ciarán Walsh Not Out  4 3 133.33
George Pelham  
Jacob Broome  
Renzo O'Leary  
Molly Green  

St John Fisher CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Deacon0.001300.000.00
Reeves0.001100.000.00
Tattler0.0015115.000.00
Matt0.001400.000.00
Coe0.001900.000.00
Smart0.0016116.000.00
Lucas0.001000.000.00

  • Umpire :
    Ourselves
  • Scorer :
    Ourselves