Scorecard

Watford Town 1 v St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI on Sun 22 Jun 2025 at 12:30pm
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 34 Runs

Match report Round three of the Chess Valley campaign meant a trip to Watford Town—a venue not held in the fondest regard by many of the Saints, given our history of coming up short there. Could today be different?
Things started disastrously when Lawrence, inspired by Saturday night’s “flippy flippy,” called heads and lost the toss. We were bowling on a used deck.
Chen opened the bowling, and when his first ball landed somewhere near the adjacent strip, there were some nervous glances that it could be a long 45 overs. Thankfully, he settled quickly and snicked off their opener with his fourth ball. A hobbling Winfield then struck next, thanks to a stunning one-handed grab from Murray in the gully. Unfortunately, this brought their overseas pro to the crease, and from that point, the game began to drift. The Aussie cleared the ropes at will—turns out bowling moon balls with three cow corners may not be a winning tactic. A Murph google sent the other opener, who had been quietly ticking along, back to the pavilion. That opened the door slightly, and Baylis stepped through, nabbing wickets regularly on a deck that was turning slower and lower—not ideal for a chase. The Aussie brought up a destructive century (and then 150) before finally mistiming one to Josh at mid-off from Baylis. Sims picked up a consolation wicket at the death, before Baylis was launched for two monstrous sixes by Watford's resident showman. Baylis responded with his maiden Chess Valley five-for. Watford Town set 280 to win.

Murph and Stu got the Saints off to a flyer, dismantling the Watford seamers and racing to a 100-run partnership by the 13th over. Murph (47) was the first to fall, evidently keen to make it to Subway before closing time. Stu followed not long after, unfortunate to be caught given the number of sitters already shelled. Then came spin. Rory and Sims suddenly looked like they were batting on a different pitch. Rory, keen to be stumped, somehow survived a wild charge, only to give the keeper another chance soon after. That brought Josh in with the score at 156/3 off 26.
Josh looked to get a move on with a few crisp boundaries but then forgot to hit a straight one while stepping across—bowled for a brisk 11. Rayden managed to chop a wide ball onto his own stumps, much to the joy of the Watford wild man, who celebrated with knees higher than morale in the Saints dressing room. Lawrence joined Sims as the pair made the Watford spinners look like Murali and Warne, struggling to rotate the strike with the required rate creeping up to 8s. Sims finally missed a slog sweep, Lawrence followed soon after, and Jimmy—fresh off a heavy Saturday—saw little reason to hang around either. Baylis, grill still askew from Saturday’s rage, came in with 70 needed off 9. Clearly opting to “take it deep,” he blocked out a maiden, watching balls outside off sail into the keeper’s gloves like a man whose controller had disconnected. Eventually, he chipped one up and walked off satisfied that he’d bumped the asking rate from 8s to 12s. Chen smashed his second ball for six before being brilliantly caught by—you guessed it—the Watford mad man at long-off (video now up on the Chess Valley All Stars Insta). A heavily injured Winners limped out at No. 11 who hit his first ball for 4 before Lawrence missed a straight one, leaving him stranded and the Saints 35 runs short.
From title contenders to relegation battlers in the space of two weeks, the Sunday Pro’s will now turn to a team bonding day next weekend—with no fixture to distract from some much-needed morale rebuilding.


Watford Town 1 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 10w 5b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
18
280 (45.0 overs)		     
Gunjan Hazarika lbw  Murphy 37
Areeb Jalali ct  Rayden b Chennells 0
Ashwin Sooraj Pulla ct  Winfield 3
Riahn Pieris ct  Murray b Winfield 176
Usama Ahmad b  Baylis 14
Tauseef Jan b  Baylis 12
Naveedkhan Eisakhil Not Out  21
Thrishul Kailash Muruganandh b  Baylis 6
Pritul Patel b  Baylis 3
Chirantan Hazarika run out  Murphy 3
Waj Rajpurkar ct  Rayden b Baylis 0

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Aidan Chennells5.0023123.004.60
Jacob Winfield10.0139139.003.90
Joshua Mulvaney5.001900.003.80
Adam Murphy4.002400.006.00
Stuart Murray5.004600.009.20
Dan Baylis9.0066513.207.33
George Sims7.0031215.504.43

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 13b 4lb 
for 10 wickets
22
247		        
Adam Murphy Caught  47 6 1 1
Stuart Murray Caught  53 8 1 1
Rory Law Stumped  25 1
George Sims Bowled  36 4
Joshua Mulvaney Bowled  11 2 1
Thomas Rayden Bowled  1 2
James Lawrence Bowled  22 1
James Rosson Lbw  0
Dan Baylis Caught  10
Aidan Chennells Caught  7 1
Jacob Winfield Not Out  6 1

Watford Town 1 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
    Tbc
  • Scorer :
    All