Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI v Dunstable Town CC 3rd XI on Sat 23 May 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 124 runs

Match report After a masterclass in leadership the previous week and regular 3s skipper, West, continuing to be the 2s best player, Telkman was once again given the reins as the 3s welcomed Dunstable to a sunbathed SLCG. A relatively sanguine mid-week selection process was punctuated by Boro-ultra, Charlie Smith, keeping the club on tenterhooks as his availability hinged on his ability to secure playoff final tickets. Thankfully, late on Friday morning Boro’s loss was Saints’ gain and Smith made himself available.

Anyway, onto the game. The tone of the day may have been set when Dunstable arrived at SLCG before Saints (“we like to be prompt”) but, despite this, Saints ably coordinated erecting the marquee which, ironically, may have been the only thing the 3s did ably on this day. Telkman, head giddy from the prior weeks’ glory, decided to buck the trend of every club game in the entire country that day (verified via >2 hours searching on Play Cricket) and, upon winning the toss, decided to bowl first. Alarm bells probably should have started to ring when, on announcing this, the Dunstable skipper turned to their umpire and in full earshot simply declared “that was odd”. Safe to say the rest of the Saints’ players shared this sentiment and there were murmurs of this being equivalent to Nasser Hussain’s decision to bowl first in Brisbane in 2002. A full-kit warm-up followed on the sun-drenched plains of the SLCG right in front of the away side and it’s safe to say that if St Albans were looking to instil a sense of fear their opponents despite the decision at the toss it failed miserably and all it resulted in was 50p fines all round. This was rounded off by Saints’ effectively taking the field with 9 players as Smith arrived at SLCG in his dropdown Mini Cooper (“not really an opening bowlers car is it” remarked Murphy) on the dot of 1pm and Murphy was due to arrive late after toiling away trying to keep the economy afloat that morning. Why did Saints choose to bowl first, you ask?

Telkman and Smith duly opened the bowling and immediately the runs began to flow: a couple of edges to third man combined with some sumptuous drives through the offside along an electric outfield saw Dunstable race to 28-0 off 3 overs. Telkman hooked himself from the attack after just 2 overs and turned to the left-arm twirlers of Shaw in the hope that it would yield a wicket and stem the flow of runs. Despite bowling well, both Smith and Shaw were unable to prise a wicket as Dunstable’s openers played well, Keshav (72 off 71), in particular, punishing anything off length. The opening partnership of 93 was finally broken after St Albans’ premier all rounder, Dean, bowled Dunstable’s skipper and quickly followed it up by removing Keshav, again bowled, to leave Dunstable 102-2. Dean bowled excellently in hot conditions and was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with 2-32 off his 8 overs. Saints continued to rotate their bowlers and 2 more wickets fell - one to Shaw and one to Hicks (which involved a half-decent, one-handed catch over his shoulder by Telkman, desperately trying to win back some favour) - but Dunstable continued to accumulate runs briskly despite the best efforts of Saints’ spin triumvirate of Shaw, Hicks and Murphy who each bowled well. The heat began to take its’ toll and a couple of dropped catches combined with excellent late hitting (a six over extra cover from the last ball of the innings a highlight) from Dunstable saw them finish on 228-6 off 40 overs. Saints were weary but hopeful of being able to chase down the score on a good SLCG wicket with a fast outfield.

Rudlin and Street opened up the innings determined to get Saints above the asking rate and set a platform for the chase. They duly obliged. Some excellent shots combined with a little fortune from both players got the 3s off to a strong start. Rudlin, in particular, set the tone despite being initially deprived of somewhere between 10 and 15 runs via a Play Cricket malfunction (the scorecard has since been subject to a stringent third party audit and is now correct) albeit was the first to go for 32, chopping on. Unfortunately, this wicket spared a now trademarked St Albans collapse that saw a significant contribution to the Duck Cup. 75-0 quickly became 78-6 as pads and gloves were flying in all directions and the Saints’ batsman fell to a combination of poor shot selection, bad luck and classic Division 7, dibbly-dobbly but highly accurate bowling. Turns out 67mph half volleys against the bowling machine on a Thursday evening might not be the best preparation for the rigours of this division. We live and learn. Not much more needs be said about the batting effort: Rudlin (32) and Street (29) were the only players to meaningfully contribute, numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 contributed an aggregate of 5 runs (Hicks at 8 contributing all 5), Shaw (20 off 32) put his name in the hat for an elevation with some good quality hitting and “Nasser” Telkman simply tried to stay out there as long as possible to avoid the ire from his team mates. Dunstable were deserved winners and will likely be one of the favourites to take the Division 7A title.



Dunstable Town CC 3rd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w 2b 3lb 
for 6 wickets
8
228 (40.0 overs)		     
Robbie Coe b  A Dean 23 44 2 52.27
Paras Keshav b  A Dean 72 71 12 2 101.41
Ben Adamson st  B Hingston b J Shaw 9 16 56.25
Jason Strong ct  J Telkman b B Hicks 8 5 2 160.0
Harry Griffin Not Out  50 50 5 100
Darryl Barnett st  B Hingston b A Murphy 48 39 5 2 123.08
Ben Stevenson ct  B Hingston b J Telkman 1 3 33.33
Muhammad Shoaib Not Out  9 3 1 300
Alan Priestley  
Aidan Rumball  
Haroon Khalid  

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jamie Telkman5.0044144.008.80
Charles Smith8.003900.004.88
John Shaw8.0036136.004.50
Ashish Dean8.0132216.004.00
Ben Hicks5.0031131.006.20
Adam Murphy6.0141141.006.83

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 7b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
13
124		        
Andy Rudlin b  M Shoaib 32 41 5 78.05
Samuel Street b  A Priestley 29 63 3 46.03
David Wynne-Griffith run out  (R Coe) 9 15 2 60.0
Ethan Witty ct  D Barnett b D Barnett 0 7 0
Ashish Dean ct  P Keshav b D Barnett 0 2 0
Adam Murphy b  D Barnett 0 4 0
Ben Hingston ct  H Khalid b A Priestley 0 4 0 1 2
Ben Hicks b  A Priestley 5 6 1 83.33
Jamie Telkman Not Out  16 30 2 53.33 1
John Shaw ct  D Barnett b H Griffin 20 32 2 1 62.50
Charles Smith b  B Stevenson 0 2 0

Dunstable Town CC 3rd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Haroon Khalid6.011700.002.83
Muhammad Shoaib8.0029129.003.63
Darryl Barnett8.022137.002.63
Alan Priestley8.032438.003.00
Ben Stevenson3.3021121.006.00
Harry Griffin1.01010.000.00

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