Scorecard

Leverstock Green I v St Albans Cricket Club 1XI on Sat 30 Jul 2022 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 12 runs

Match report To join in with the weekends footballing cliches – the 1s trip to Leverstock
Green felt like a 6(0) pointer.
With the Saints turning up considerably earlier than their oppo and seemingly
no warmup from the side who remarked about the lack of training from St
Albans things were looking good. With a rapid and uneven outfield, and the
pitch looking surprisingly good, setting a total seemed the call on another dry
and sunny morning. Joe ‘Nasser’ Regan decided, upon winning the toss, he’d
put the Levvy Green late arrivals into bat.
Once again, the big mean opening bowler Adam “Cured Ham” Hounslow
began proceedings. As described by skipper Regan as the most unskilled
bowler in the side, he set about his task of restricting the opening pair. Billy
May back into the 1s joined him at the other end. Hammer showed his guile
once again and proved hard to get away, however Billy struggled to find his
areas – a Jaffer unfortunately bookended with a ball the left-handed opener
could get to the boundary.
Hounslow proved exactly why batsmen never sweep him, drawing a catch
from an ill-judged sweep and St Albans tails were up. However, the Levvy
Green opening batsman had other ideas. Managing to put every bad ball away
and growing into his innings, dealing almost exclusively in boundaries the
opener brought up his fifty in no time.
The oppo skipper at the other end was a mere onlooker as he chewed up balls
and struggled to get the bowling away - giving the Saints hope that a wicket
would bring back control. St Albans still toiled away, but as the left-hander
brought up is hundred the fielding side looked somewhat exasperated. With
the centurion on 110, the total was still only 140.
Eventually the opener fell, Mulvaney taking his wicket in the 33rd over with the
score on 162/2. St Albans now sniffed an opportunity to change the
momentum of the game with the main threat out, the skipper at the other end
still struggling.
Not long after the Levvy Green skipper fell to a soft dismissal, which about
summed up his innings. The score now at 173/3 the Saints felt now in with
more than a chance of stalling the fast start. Regan back into the attack after
taking the 3rd wicket, then drew the St Columbas Holy Moment of the Match
– in the words of Nick Kirwan from the boundary: “What you don't get on live
scoring is seeing Oli Coulman taking an absolute blinder at extra. One handed,
diving high to his right, feet off the ground – magnificent. Reminiscent of
Dwayne Leverock.” Spot on Nick, have you thought about writing match
repots?
St Albans tails were now up, Johnty Coulman spurring the side on in the field.
Some dreadful running by the oppo number 4 felt like a run out was always on
the cards – and potentially should have been, a direct hit from Tom O’Toole
deemed not out but “extremely close” by the umpire.
Mulvaney took the 5th wicket and Leverstock Green were now potentially
looking at a score of 220 when they were cruising their way to 300+ at one
point. Credit to the St Albans bowling attack and fielding display keeping
themselves in the fight.
Max “Hamburglar” Capaldi now into the attack to carry out his usual task of
cleaning up the tail. Almost immediately a hole-out to O’Toole at cow brought
his first wicket, the portly number 4 (interestingly both sides putting the more
rotund players at 4 this week) didn’t fancy running and thus the batsmen
didn’t cross. Regan Sr pointing out Mother Cricket could rear her head here as
the new man shouldn’t be on strike… and rear her head she did. The very next
ball chipped to Regan at midwicket. 213/7, could the Saints see off the tail and
come away on top? Unfortunately, some clubbing from the tail meant Levvy
Green ended up on 244/9, the Hamburglar and his little legs the pick of the
bowling with 4/47.
After a somewhat scarring tea break, with the away side having to listen to
Bancroft’s 9-course tasting menu exit his digestive system, St Albans began the
chase.
Alas the chase did not start well. Jamie taking the first ball, a half tracker
served up and dispatched straight to midwickets gracious hands. This led to
Mother O’Toole quite loudly questioning whether “that was called a duck?”.
Bancroft joining Regan to chase the target down started quite positively,
Regan picking up the Abbey Aquatics Shot of the Day with back-to-back
straight drives into the sightscreen. However, the Leverstock Green bowling
picked up and they began bowling very tight giving little for the batsmen to
hit. But some decent running and making sure the bad balls were put away
meant to scoreboard ticked over – however St Albans were already behind the
worm. With the score 69/1 in the 19th over Bancroft looked to go aerial,
unfortunately holing out. Levvy Green on top.
Coulman now joining Regan he began where he left off against Ampthill and
began trundling the 1s and 2s. Regan seemingly set and looking to bat long
then managed to let the chirpy infield get into his head – counting dots vs runs
– drawing the cardinal sin of getting out once again cutting an off spinner. Tom
O’Toole the next man in, surely the man for the job - despite proclaiming to
Coulman as he came to the crease that he didn’t know what to do. After trying
his hardest to get out at the beginning of his innings Tom began to find the
boundary, as did Coulman and the scoreboard started to tick along once again.
Coulman, after despatching the left arm off spinner decided he best give him
catching practice and chipping one back to him. St Albans chase stalling once
again. Mulvaney promoted to show his net batting out in the middle, came
and went without troubling Claire in the scorebox. Capaldi and Hounslow the
same and St Albans were on the ropes. O’Toole at the other end taking the
weight of the innings on his own shoulders and started putting the bowlers to
the sword. Sims now with O’Toole ably assisting him – albeit the famous Sims
demons on his shoulder telling him that he was rubbish even though he was
playing excellently in the situation.
The Sims/O’Toole partnership brought the Saints back into the game with a
sniff of victory now – and more points in the event of a loss. Sims however had
other ideas, somehow standing on his stumps, and thus effectively ending the
Saints hope. O’Toole carried on crashing the ball to the boundary – May falling
on his sword trying to get Tom back on strike.The innings ended with Chris
“Kendall” Mude being bowled trying in vain to clear the roped. St Albans and
agonising 12 runs short. TOT playing yet another fantastic innings for 80* and
getting the Saints close. Moreover, making sure they stay top by picking up 18
points in a loss – stunting Leverstock Green’s raucous celebrations as they left
the field.
To end with footballing cliches – 5 cup finals await the 1s in the run in.
Tavah Player of the Match – Tom O’Toole
St Columba’s Holy Moment of the Match – Coulmans emphatic catch
Abbey Aquatics Shot of the Day – Joe Regans textbook straight drive
DOTD – Jamie Regan for his batting masterclass

Leverstock Green I Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 7w 9b 5lb 
for 9 wickets
22
255 (50.0 overs)		     
Sol Tomlinson b  J Mulvaney 117 100 17 1 117.00
Charlie Mahanama ct  B May b A Hounslow 0 12 0
Dayle Littlejohn ct  J Mulvaney b J Regan 40 94 3 42.55
Nahim Iqbal ct  T O’Toole b M Capaldi 30 36 1 1 83.33
Riddah Friezlar ct  O Coulman b J Regan 4 13 30.77
Troy Henry lbw  J Mulvaney 2 5 40.0
Buddhi Attanayake ct  T O’Toole b M Capaldi 15 10 2 150.0
Jed Fernando ct  J Regan b M Capaldi 0 1 0
Jamie Wallis st  C Mude b M Capaldi 21 22 2 1 95.45
Harvey Reeves Speed Not Out  3 7 42.86
Adam Thomas Not Out  1 1 100

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Adam Hounslow10.0329129.002.90
Max Capaldi10.0047411.754.70
Jamie Regan8.0052226.006.50
Joshua Mulvaney10.0045222.504.50
George Sims7.003800.005.43
Billy May5.003000.006.00

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 12w 2b 6lb 
for 10 wickets
22
243		        
Jamie Regan ct  A Thomas b R Friezlar 0 1 0
Joe Regan ct  J Wallis b T Henry 46 83 4 55.42 1
Will Bancroft ct  S Tomlinson b C Mahanama 28 58 5 48.28
Oliver Coulman ct  S Tomlinson b S Tomlinson 24 24 3 100 1
Tom O'Toole Not Out  80 72 8 111.11 2
Joshua Mulvaney b  T Henry 3 9 33.33 1
Max Capaldi ct  H Reeves Speed b T Henry 3 7 42.86
Adam Hounslow ct  N Iqbal b S Tomlinson 6 8 75.00
George Sims hit wicket  T Henry 27 25 4 108.00
Billy May run out  (Unsure) 2 7 28.57 1
Chris Mude b  B Attanayake 2 7 28.57 1

Leverstock Green I Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sol Tomlinson10.0061230.506.10
Charlie Mahanama7.0126126.003.71
Adam Thomas9.004400.004.89