Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Ware CC 1st XI on Sat 17 May 2025 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 8 wickets

Match report The 4XI’s first home fixture of the new season was almost marred by a missing gate key but luckily skipper Saunders had a magic spare to hand and entry to the fabled turf of Verulam School playing fields was granted.

The opposition were Ware 1XI, who because of a strange bureaucratic quirk, were demoted three divisions below their natural placing in the league and were thus coming into this fixture unbeaten in the last 20 or so games. They were a 2’s outfit to be fair and were as apologetic about their strength as we were trepidatious.

Saunders lost the toss, natch, and Saints were out into bat on the hard, dry deck. It was obvious from the start that Ware had a decent bowling attack, hitting their lines and lengths from the off and giving few freebies to the Saints openers Manny and PD.
The pair got their heads down and ground out the runs, “keep wickets in hand until drinks,” being the skippers pre-match instructions. In truth it was an impressive display of obdurate, focused batting as Manny accumulated and PD played the supporting role before eventually falling for 9 hard earned runs.

Manny continued the fight through the bowling changes, which saw no let-up in quality, and reached an impressive 48 before allowing one through the gate and returning to the hutch frustrated at not nailing what would have been his 51st half century for SACC.
Andy Wright then continued a noteworthy start to his St Albans tenure following his transfer from Wheathampstead in the winter, and notched a thoughtful 38 before he too was bowled.

The scorecard then notes a trio of single figure scores and in truth some of these dismissal shots are best forgotten. However, a late rally from John Shaw with an attacking 28 and debutant Tom Dawlkins in a supporting role , running hard and scoring 11 much needed runs, took the final total to 161-7, and Saints can take credit for batting out the overs against a very good bowling unit.

It felt like a reasonably competitive 40 over total on an early season pitch, and against well-matched opposition Saints would have been confident of a result if the bowling was up to scratch. However, as mentioned, this was not an evenly matched contest and the two openers set about the bowling with alarming relish.

It needs to be said – the bowling was not too bad. Our South African ringer Nathan Roos generated some hostile pace from the off and Utti Vijender got some movement but found himself in the arc of the belligerent Price who slogged him to the leg side boundary whenever his line wavered a fraction.

Young paceman Neel Aswani bowled with confidence but the experienced batters were perhaps a level above what he had competed with before and took no mercy, but credit to the young man; he kept calm throughout and is an excellent future prospect.
Saunders brought himself on from the Sandpit Lane end to try and stem the carnage in partnership with Deshpande and immediately gave the two opening batsmen pause for thought as the “pace off” switch stemmed their more extravagant strokeplay.
The swashbuckling Parker (“we know he’s too good for us but he’s been at the club since he was a kid and just likes it,” said one of their senior players) was approaching a flawless hundred until on 99 he made the first mistake of his innings and went back to a Saunders special, missed it and was trapped LBW. If only the Germans had a word for it.

Niraj Aswani claimed the other opener’s scalp not long afterwards - a smart catch from birthday boy Hugo Thomas behind the stumps - but in truth the game had been up for a while and Ware cruised to an inevitable and leisurely 8 wicket win in under 24 overs.
Credit to them, they could have been arrogant but played the game in a great spirit, and although it was ultimately a mismatch everyone enjoyed their afternoon in the sun and we wish them well.

You get games like this in the 4s occasionally; coming up against strong teams working their way through the lower divisions to reach their true level and the only thing to be done is play hard, keep smiling and take comfort in the knowledge that there will easier days ahead.








St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 1w 9b 2lb 
for 7 wickets
13
161		        
Nauman Nisar b K Meakin 48
Prathamesh Deshpande ct Unsure b A Price 9
Andy Wright b G Unwin 38
Hugo Thomas ct Unsure b K Meakin 8
Uttam Vijender ct Unsure b G Unwin 1
Nathan Roos ct Unsure b K Meakin 5
John Shaw b A Price 28
Tom Dalkins Not Out  11
Neel Aswani Not Out  0
Niraj Aswani  
Andy Saunders  

Ware CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Hugh Reid8.013400.004.25
Jack Issitt8.012900.003.63
Adam Price3.011300.004.33
Kevin Meakin8.012337.672.88
Graeme Unwin5.0021210.504.20

Ware CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 7w 4b 2lb 
for 2 wickets
16
162 (23.0 overs)		     
Tom Parker ct Unsure b N Aswani 31
Adam Price lbw A Saunders 99
Hugh Reid Not Out  5
Unsure Not Out  11
Kevin Meakin  
Jack Issitt  
Steve Risby  
Will Tyrer  
Unsure  
Graeme Unwin  
Jamie Don  

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nathan Roos6.013100.005.17
Uttam Vijender3.003100.0010.33
Neel Aswani3.003000.0010.00
Andy Saunders5.0020120.004.00
Niraj Aswani2.0010110.005.00
Tom Dalkins1.00600.006.00
Prathamesh Deshpande4.002800.007.00