Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI v Ickleford CC 1st XI on Sat 17 May 2025 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 9 wickets

Match report 2XI arrived at Clarence Park on Saturday morning, to a pitch transformed since their last home league outing thanks to hard work of head Groundsman Phil Caley. A pitch that looked worthy of top level cricket, and that is what the 2XI hoped to offer up. First job of the day to set the tone was a solid team warm up, skipper Rory Law dutifully plinking 90% of the hits in the warm up drill, maybe a tactic to get these out of the way early. Second job of the day win the toss and bat on what looked like a flat surface, the team very pleased to hear the skipper retaining his 100% tossing rate in 2025...

Opening up for the Saints, last week’s centurion Ben Ca(key)wood along with the returning Steve Perrin. The Ickleford bowlers started well, with Krishnamurthy from the Pavilion end, forcing umpire Macca to raise his finger, Cawood Lbw to a vicious dipping knee high full toss. Bringing Howeson to the crease at 3, with his first ball guided through backward point for 4, that was the beginning and the end of the free flowing runs from his bat…. Both opening bowlers started with tidy line and lengths, and no real freebies, this soon forced the wicket of Pez falling for 1(20), bowled perhaps trying a little too hard to take advantage of a rare half volley from Morris. This wicket left St Albans reeling at 10-2 after 6 overs, and brought captain Rory Law to the crease, a period of rebuilding commenced, taking St Albans to drinks at 88-2, the skipper dominating the partnership.

Shortly after drinks Howeson went, having survived an earlier bbq attempt from his skipper, this time opting for the self-bbq on 22, a hugely optimistic call of yes having hit it just to short extra cover’s left side, prompting an immediate entirely valid “NO!” from the in form Rory Law who had by this stage reached his 50.

From this point it is fair to say it was the Rory Law show, batsmen came and went all offering brief support around him, but wickets fell regularly. Jithin, immediately playing some strong shots, unfortunately fell to a decent delivery for 13, Murphy, O’Toole and Winfield all making double figures but falling. The Ickleford attack bowled well, with few freebies, but on a decent wicket all other batsmen would have hoped to have supported the skipper better. St Albans 2XI finishing their innings on 228-9, with Rory’s excellent 127 very much the backbone, this coming from 133 balls, including 19 4s, and 2 6s (one of which expertly fielded by watching boss Jasper on the first bounce just in front of the pavilion)

With a much changed bowling line up from a week earlier St Albans knew they would need to bowl well. Only Winners’ pace bowling, and the leg spin of Stuart Murray in the side from the previous weeks’ 130 run win at Totteridge. Despite a score that most weeks would be a winning score, this was a good wicket, and the opening bowlers had an important job in setting the tone early.

JC started operations from the York Road end, a bowler who has shown he can present a threat in 2XI cricket, but at times struggled to hit his lengths from ball one. The middle of the pitch was well tested, and in doing so also the middle of the openers bat, prior to the ball hitting the fence on the off side boundary. At the Pavilion end Chaz Smith did what he always does, settling straight into his work and finding good rhythm, swinging the ball into the two right handed openers, rewarded with a wicket at the end of his second over, clipping the top of the off stump, St Albans briefly felt in the game with the opposition 27-1 from 4 overs. A change at the far end brought Winfield which stemmed the flow of runs a little.
With the seamers largely nullified, a change of pace brought Adam Murphy and Stuart Murray into the attack, whilst Murphy provided some control, the batters never looked troubled. Stuuuuu unfortunately struggled to consistently land his leg spin in the right spot and both batters took full advantage.

Richard O’Toole was, as always, on the money, bowling 3 tidy overs, but the truth is after the early wicket, what followed was largely a procession. Taking nothing away from the Ickleford batters George Crouch who finished with a dominant 122 not out, and Eswar Krishnamurthy who hit 89 not out, the St Albans bowlers will be very disappointed with the bowling display. We like to be gracious hosts and make our opposition feel welcomed to CP, our guests certainly felt that, a veritable buffet served up including not just the odd half volley, full toss volovants, accompanied by beamers, and half trackers, not the standard we need to hold ourselves to if we want to compete in this division. Improved availability next week will undoubtedly provide a sterner test for the 2s visitors, Hemel Hempstead, a significant improvement will be demanded….

All the above said it’s worth remembering the only real positive of the day for St Albans, a superb hundred by skipper Rory Law.

MOM - Rory Law - 127(133), 19 4s, 2 6s.
Shot of day - Rory, Sixer to pavilion
DOD - JC, for opening the buffet early
Holy Moment - Charlie Smith wicket



St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
13w 2b 7lb 
for 9 wickets
22
228		        
Ben Cawood lbw E Krishnamurthy 1 4 25.00
Steven Perrin b A Morris 1 20 5.00
Matt Howeson run out  (C Jupp) 22 67 4 32.84
Rory Law ct B Mason b R Peareth 127 133 19 2 95.49
Jithin Balan b A Morris 13 14 2 92.86
Stuart Murray b A Morris 4 5 1 80.0
Adam Murphy b D Jenner 10 24 1 41.67
Richard O'Toole b R Peareth 14 18 1 77.78
Jacob Winfield b N Akhtar 11 12 1 91.67
Joey Curran Not Out  1 1 100
Charles Smith Not Out  2 2 100

Ickleford CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Axel Morris10.0434311.333.40
Eswar Krishnamurthy10.0320120.002.00
Nadeem Akhtar9.0236136.004.00
George Crouch5.003700.007.40
Duncan Jenner10.0153153.005.30
Richard Peareth6.0039219.506.50

Ickleford CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 14w 1b  
for 1 wickets
21
232 (32.4 overs)		     
George Crouch Not Out  122 95 20 1 128.42
Axel Morris b C Smith 0 10 0
Eswar Krishnamurthy Not Out  89 92 15 96.74
Duncan Jenner  
Charlie Jupp  
Matteo Peareth  
Ben Mason  
Sam Giggle  
Nadeem Akhtar  
Richard Peareth  
Ben Whelan  

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joey Curran4.006000.0015.00
Charles Smith7.0230130.004.29
Jacob Winfield8.014600.005.75
Adam Murphy4.002400.006.00
Stuart Murray4.004100.0010.25
Richard O'Toole3.001200.004.00
Steven Perrin2.001400.007.00
Matt Howeson0.40500.007.50

  • Umpire :
    Macca
  • Scorer :
    Ourselves