Scorecard

West Herts CC 3rd XI v St Albans Cricket Club 3XI on Sat 31 May 2025 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 21 runs

Match report The 3XI travelled out to the sticks of Aldenham for their second away day of the year, facing off against West Herts 3s. Calling this a ‘home’ fixture for them is a slight misrepresentation however, as the journey out to Penn Street Cricket Club’s ground which they use as one of their second pitches takes them the best part of an hour. Still, a quaint setting with the lovely Hit or Miss pub garden overlooking the pitch, there’s definitely worse places to play. It’s a shame the diaries didn’t align for the annual Last of the Summer Wine tour.

All cricket tosses are important, but this one had the added pressure of both skippers having late arrivals in their ranks. With a very short boundary to protect on one side, and an almighty hill running away to the rope on the other, batting first would be ideal in order to have 11 fielders in play for the full 40 overs. Murphy being the late arrival for the 3XI, the skipper put in a call to him en route to the ground to gather his thoughts on what call to make – tails was the reply. West knows better than to listen to anything Murph says, and called heads. 3XI batting first – you beauty.

The now lesser seen opening partnership of years gone by in the 3s was reunited to tackle the West Herts openers. You’d have thought Rudlin and Murray would know eachother’s preferences by now, but a Chuckle Brothers style ‘to me, to you’ commenced when deciding who would take the 1st ball. Stu eventually took on the burden, and looked in good touch from the off, as did Rudders until he had a rotter of a delivery barely get up off the floor and he was adjudged out LBW.

Just under 30 on the board and West arrived to partner Stu in the 5th over, together they put on a 50 partnership to steady the ship including a classic West on drive, and some glorious pick up’s over deep square by Stu for a pair of maximums. Not long after venturing out to bat, the skipper had felt his hamstring go, and in a bid to ‘hit out or get out’ in the knowledge that running wasn’t much of an option he departed for 27, which commenced a classic St Albans collapse. Stu followed West into the pavilion in the next over, with a well made 40 to his name. The returning cult hero Moksy didn’t stay long, and then Ethan missed a straight one. 83-1 was soon 87-5. JC having told Murphy we were 5 down before this collapse occurred in a jokey bid to get him to the ground faster had ironically backfired it seemed.

Tooley and specialist batter Banks took the field after drinks, and did a fantastic job. ROT had done what he’s done many a time before in a St Albans shirt and dug the 3XI out of a hole with a key contribution of 44, to take us up to 149-6 with 8 overs left. Anything under 200 was going to be a challenge to defend, but with the work of Murph, Banks, and what would turn out to be an immeasurably important 10* from JC at the end, we battled our way to 194 at the close. JC strutting out to the middle, refusing to take guard, and then gazing over to the direction of cow corner had a fair portion of the 3XI in fits. We may have been spared the inevitable JC verbals if Rudlin had thought best to secure his lift home from the ground by not giving Ben out LBW to one that hit his thigh pad / box however…

Thanks to JC ‘helping’ West apply an artificial tape hamstring to the back of his leg in the break (some accused him of just wanting to ogle the ass and thigh of his captain, can’t blame him) he allowed West to bowl what was quite frankly the spell of his life.
Opening up with the new ball it took 4 balls to strike, their talented young keeper batsman according to county teammate Banksy, sent packing caught and bowled.

A few sets later, and 1 ball after the skipper had fluffed a run out chance to the same batter, he had him pinned LBW, and the same over ended with a run out courtesy of excellent work from Ethan Witty and Ben Hingston. West Herts reeling at 15-3 after 5 overs.
JC having been asked to also bowl through an injury at the other end, took a while to get into rhythm with his shoulder, but soon had a wicket to his name in classic JC style, a full toss outside off finding it’s way to the safe hands of Banks at point. Wild celebrations ensued, followed by confusion of an incorrect no-ball call which was soon overturned by the standing umpire.

Sam Davey entered the attack in place of JC, and after a few looseners in his first, West was at the double in the next over taking two in two. Murph having to be credited for the first somewhat, after some well timed chat concerning the batsman’s guard possibly prompting him to leave a straight one. With a hattrick ball and a chance for a maiden Herts league 5-fer, West couldn’t convert his chance, but by the time his spell was over West Herts were in deep trouble at 67-6.

Witty into the attack, and he joined the party straight away getting the key wicket of their set top order batsman, thanks to the safe hands of Murph at cow corner. At 76-7, the 3XI waned in their concentration and even after a stern word from the captain at drinks to get the job done, this was followed straight after my Murphy hiding behind a tree on the boundary to ‘deceive the batsman’ much to the amusement of JC…

Tooley and his bad knees was soon called upon, with Murph joining the attack at the other end to partner him. The former was ever reliable, prompting Banks to encourage him to keep the West Herts batsman ‘locked up’. Tooley would later recount that he was trying his best to do just that, but it didn’t help that Murph kept on opening the door and letting them out at the other end. West Herts were starting to build what looked like a dangerous partnership, but it was one that Tooley soon broke, and with Murph taking a sharp caught and bowled in the following over, the oppo needed a last wicket stand of 50 off the last 10.

In the end, Witty was on hand to send their number 9 packing, out for an impressive half century that prompted questions as to why he wasn’t further up the order. With the margin of victory only 20 runs, it all got a little close for comfort thanks to some powerful hitting from the West Herts number 11.
With the 30 points secured, it was more a sense of relief at the final result. St Albans had eventually been forced to win the game 3 times with the ball, but credit must go to everyone for showing some grit and sticking at it when it mattered to see out the game.

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 9w 13b 3lb 
for 9 wickets
26
194		        
Stuart Murray ct A Raja b K Shah Akbari Zadran 40 58 3 3 68.97
Andy Rudlin lbw M Raja 2 11 18.18
Zach West ct E Raja b F Rehman 27 37 5 72.97 1
Moksudul Islam b F Rehman 0 2 0
Ethan Witty b K Shah Akbari Zadran 4 7 57.14 1
Richard O'Toole ct K Shah Akbari Zadran b V Chandramoulisekar 44 41 6 1 107.32
Thomas Banks b E Raja 21 45 1 46.67 1
Adam Murphy ct Y Khurana b M Raja 17 26 2 65.38 2
Ben Hingston lbw M Raja 2 6 33.33
Sam Davey Not Out  1 4 25.00
Joey Curran Not Out  10 4 2 250.0

West Herts CC 3rd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mudassir Raja7.0147315.676.71
Yaamir Khurana5.001400.002.80
Valance Jayasuriya8.022000.002.50
Ebrahim Raja1.001000.0010.00
Kamal Shah Akbari Zadran4.0021210.505.25
Faisal Rehman7.0037312.335.29
Vikas Chandramoulisekar8.0029129.003.63

West Herts CC 3rd XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 5b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
10
173 (37.1 overs)		     
Har Singh ct Z West b Z West 0 5 0
Abdullah Raja run out (E Witty) 2 10 20.0
Kumaran Thangiah lbw Z West 5 11 45.45
Vikas Chandramoulisekar ct A Murphy b E Witty 39 39 8 100
Yaamir Khurana ct T Banks b J Curran 3 10 30.0
Ebrahim Raja b Z West 14 18 3 77.78
Ali Jafri b Z West 0 1 0
Mudassir Raja b R O'Toole 18 31 1 58.06
Kamal Shah Akbari Zadran b E Witty 51 66 4 3 77.27
Valance Jayasuriya ct A Murphy b A Murphy 2 5 40.0
Faisal Rehman Not Out  29 30 4 1 96.67

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Zach West8.011844.502.25
Joey Curran5.0032132.006.40
Sam Davey5.013600.007.20
Ethan Witty4.1020210.004.80
Richard O'Toole7.0116116.002.29
Adam Murphy8.0044144.005.50

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