Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 6XI v Ampthill CC 4th XI on Sat 07 Jun 2025 at 1pm
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 8 wickets

Match report For the second time this season, the SACC availability proved good enough to yield a 6XI, and a bloody good one at that. From seasoned club veterans to promising young guns, the only potential obstacle was the threat of thunderstorms between skipper Ciarán Walsh and his first ever win as captain. The jet-black clouds loomed ominously, with a further delay to kickoff due to only 1 of the opposition having turned up before the agreed upon start of 1pm. Finally, enough of their team had arrived to allow the toss to be done away with and an agreement for them to bat first. Many thanks to friend of the Thomas family, Leo, for graciously stepping in for the opposition to eventually bring them to a full XI.

With the sentiment in mind of “get through the overs quickly” thanks to the aforementioned horrific weather forecast, we opened with the combined might of two of our youth contingent: pace merchant Neel Aswani and the most well-liked Witty in the club, Freya. The pair both bowled sensational spells, keeping the run rate to a meagre sum and worrying the opening bats on more than one occasion. A highlight was one of the openers deeming Freya “the only one we’re gonna score runs from”, hitting a 6 and then struggling to get it off the square as Freya tightened up her lines even further and taught the opener a valuable lesson: “you only get one of those, champ.”

The pair retired without a well-deserved wicket, allowing for our next youngster, Archie ‘Daredevil’ Hill, and notorious Sandpit Lane Swinger, Tim Winfield. These two bowled a disgustingly good spell, slicing through the Ampthill top order like men possessed, Archie taking the lion’s share with 3 wickets with an excellent change of angle and Winfield claiming 2 for himself. It’s worth noting that Winfield’s two wickets were both solid catches from Captain Walsh at gully, who had to be reminded where exactly to stand multiple times despite literally being in charge, but hey: it’s not like he’s a qualified umpire or anything. Daredevil and the Swinger retired, making way for our next form of attack: overseas unprofessional Fin Mcnab and returning prodigal son George Thomas.

Mcnab bowled his usual delightful leggies, baffling the batters on several occasions, going on to restrict that run rate even further and Mcnabbing 3 wickets to put an even bigger dent in the Ampthill order, thanks to catch from James Grant, a sharp stumping by Hugo Thomas and a clean bowled wicket to bamboozle the oppo number 7. He had a great chance for a 4th wicket, one of the batters skying the ball very high and not very far, into an area with no less than three capable fielders prepared to claim the catch. Walsh, at gully, opted to disregard this detail entirely, sprinting in at full pelt, ignoring the much more reasonable call of “Granty’s” and bellowing “WALSHY’S”. To be fair, had he dived at the end of his run, there was a chance, but he instead just kind of toppled forward on to his knees about two feet away from the ball while Granty looked on in bewilderment. Apologies Granty and Fin, he’s working next Saturday so you won’t have to tolerate him for a while.

George had the nerve to tell his skipper before bowling “apologies in advance, I haven’t played in a few years so this could go anywhere.” He then went on to bowl some excellent leggies of his own, his deliveries getting better and better with each over. He was unfortunate not to take a wicket, but definitely never needed to apologise in advance for bowling of that calibre.

The next three overs saw our skipper bring on himself and Alex Hill, father of Archie who very kindly volunteered to help out earlier that week when we were short on numbers. Alex bowled one over, claiming a great wicket thanks to a great hold from George. Walsh bowled 1.4 overs, conceding no runs and seeing keeper Hugo delightedly whip the bails off to run out the final Ampthill wicket.

A total of 108 to chase in 40 overs. With the batting in our shed, hardly a tall order. With the weather in mind (which had so far held out), we chomped through our meals trying to get back out there to beat the rain, but just as we stepped on to the pitch: the heavens opened and necessitated a brief break as we waited for it to pass. We did eventually get back out there, opening with Hugo and Granty, the pair advised to “take your time but also don’t take too much time, we’re fighting God himself here with the rain so be slow and quick at the same time.” Stunning words from our skipper, what a dude.

Hugo and Granty set about the task well, scoring quickly and each finding the rope on many occasions. Granty was clearly in the camp of “let’s do this quickly”, striking six 4s and facilitating sharp runs between the wickets with his broken-toed partner. Hugo was only slightly more circumspect, soon opening up and troubling the scorers with several 4s and a booming 6. Walsh, having not discussed with the Ampthill skipper the policy of when people should retire, saw Hugo had reached 41 and decided “ah we’ll say retire on 50 since he’s already breached the 40s.” He then looked up from the scorebook to see Hugo striding off the pitch, retiring himself to allow the younger players a chance to bat. An excellent attitude, even if Hugo was slightly dismayed when he discovered he hadn’t actually reached the 50 milestone.

Youngster Daniel Leal then stepped up to see out the innings, displaying excellent defensive technique and awareness of the context of the game. He struck a clean single to find the gap in the field, then was unfortunate to be run out trying to turn another single into a double. Soon after, Granty would find himself dismissed on 33 thanks to a solid catch, allowing for our next form of attack to take the field: Mcnab and George.

Mcnab, as ever, dug in and gave the bowlers no chance, rotating the strike and cleanly probing the gaps in the field to accrue a thoughtful 6. George, in sharp contrast, had clearly been enraged at the second weather break of the day (many thanks to the hail), and struck two singles before booming a big 6 of his own to rival his father’s. He then tested the boundary markers several more times, eventually creaming a 4 to bring home the bacon for the Saints in a sensationally hard-fought 8 wicket win.

The first win of the season for our mighty 6XI, signalling what I’m sure will be the beginning of a biblical run for the side. It’s always amazing to be able to field 6 teams, and to field such a strong one speaks volumes to the depth of talent at SACC’s fingertips. Our seasoned veterans held down the fort excellently, while our youth contingent and Women’s 1XI representative bowled up an absolute storm. A big shout out to Hugo for top scoring today and graciously retiring himself to allow the youngsters a go with the bat, and another big shout out to Archie and Mcnab for their respective 3fers to choke out the oppo’s top order. Daniel, Neel and Freya also deserve serious recognition for their composed fielding and the latter two for opening the bowling with undeniable class and confidence. And, finally, not to toot my own horn, but it’s always lovely to see WalshBall claims its first ever victory (top ten things no one ever wanted to see). Roll on next week when, availability providing, we can hopefully deploy another 6XI for the same result!

Fineable Moments:

Walsh for A) still not knowing where to stand for gully after 15 years of playing the game and being a literal qualified umpire, and B) dashing any hopes of a Mcnab 4fer with a ludicrous call for a catch that was very much at the discretion of no less than 3 fielders, all of whom were significantly better positioned to take it.

George for “apologising in advance” and then bowling delightful spin and batting like the ball owed him money with a 4 to bring home the win.

James Witty for faking a foot injury just so he didn’t have to get outclassed by Freya on the pitch.

Ampthill CC 4th XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 21w  
for 10 wickets
27
108 (32.4 overs)		     
Presswell b  Archie Hill 6
Gurney ct  Walsh b Winfield 22 2 6
Wingham ct  Grant b Mcnab 20 1
Krebs ct  Unsure b Archie 0
Leo ct  Walsh b Winfield 0
T. Barron ct  Unsure b Archie 0
Salisbury b  Mcnab 20 4
V. Johnson run out  Hugo 3
N. Johnson st  Hugo b Mcnab 4 1
B. Barron ct  George b Alex Hill 4 1
Bradley Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club 6XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Neel Aswani5.001000.002.00
Freya Witty5.021700.003.40
Tim Winfield5.011025.002.00
Archie Hill5.011635.333.20
Fin McNab5.011735.673.40
George Thomas5.002500.005.00
Ciarán Walsh1.41000.000.00
A.N. Other1.00616.006.00

St Albans Cricket Club 6XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
13w 2b  
for 2 wickets
15
112		        
Hugo Thomas Retired Not Out  41 5 1 1 1
James Grant ct  Unsure b B Johnson 33 1
Daniel Leal run out  Unsure 1
Fin McNab Not Out  6
George Thomas Not Out  22 3 1 1
Freya Witty  
Ciarán Walsh   2
Tim Winfield  
Archie Hill  
Neel Aswani  
A.N. Other  

Ampthill CC 4th XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Gurney3.001100.003.67
Wingham4.003400.008.50
Salisbury3.002600.008.67
Barron3.002500.008.33
B. Johnson2.00414.002.00
Krebs1.001100.0011.00

  • Umpire :
    Ourselves
  • Scorer :
    Ourselves