Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI v Ickleford CC 1st XI on Sat 04 Jul 2026 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 68 runs

Match report Those who've watched Bazball will be aware of how different cricketing philosophies can clash, England take the ball on, playing reckless attacking shots in a five day format, New Zealand played more in their own shell, playing each ball to its merit. General media frustration behind Stokes and McCullum's backwards way of thinking has reared its head, and the idea once thought of as effective is now ridiculed by the wider public. With that in mind, it's pretty astonishing that the 2nd XI, a team of dumb sloggers who don't value their wicket, could beat 3A darlings Ickleford, who all play really sensible shots all the time.

We turned up to the game and immediately were on the back foot, their number 3 in the nets with Pies facing "Banksy", faster balls bowled from around the wicket, a level of analysis not seen in the Herts league by even the keenest of badgers. Ickleford crowded the nets, Tim Harvey overseeing the operation. St Albans had a bit of a hit. Toss came and St Albans' stellar tossing record continued, batting first. A risky strategy as the Ickleford team had been reliably informed that we are rubbish at batting, surely 100 all out loading!

West and Rosson started watchfully, Rosson falling LBW to one that hit his hip. Howeson added a valuable 20, out trying to push the rate on, and Law once again fell early, continuing his awful form. Maybe we are all dumb sloggers after all. Church and West kept building sensibly, West reaching a chanceless 50. The runs kept accumulating gradually, Ickleford starting to have a few headlosses at their players, mainly returning Dan Harvey who no longer gets to pick his own end at Clarence. You have to wonder whether he'd consider coming back after this result... Church fell, caught at deep mid wicket from opposition captain/loopy off spinner, and West fell soon after looking absolutely shattered, a marathon 124 ball 77 giving us the base we needed to push on.

The finishers then did their job, Monis "Andre Russell" Haris with an excellent 53 off 37 balls, taking advantage of the fact that Ickleford's bowlers did the most damage when it's swinging, the old ball flying across the fast outfield. 232/6, it felt about par from the Saints but huge kudos to Westy for his 50 and Monis for his outstanding effort at the end of the innings, once again showing his value to this 2s side.

Obviously Ickleford were going to win because they play really sensible and mature cricket all the time, but St Albans set out to try and cause an upset. Ickleford started well, with their opener taking an early liking to Hammer, but he fell snicking one through to Jithin playing a really dumb slog off a perfectly fine delivery. Their number 3 scored 50 then chipped one back to Hammer, clearly he'd only faced 5000 tennis balls as opposed to the recommended 10,000. It was a bizarre display from Ickleford's top order, opting for boundaries as opposed to the recommended tactic of hitting the cones. Clearly they haven't been listening at nets.

We still needed to get the big wicket of George Crouch, Ickleford's captain who had blitzed a hundred at CP a year previously. He blocked every ball of Hammer then chipped Winners to point, another dumb slog in the context of the game. It's fine though because he made a point to mention what great blokes we are as he was walking off and definitely didn't have a huge headloss and sit on his own for an hour with his head in his hands at the top of the CP pavilion. Winners was on fire and took the middle order apart, snicking three bats off to Hounslow at slip, getting the old ball to talk and finding consistency despite his "sack" having lots of floaty bits in it (for reference, he has a bad knee). Drinks came, Ickleford stunned, 80 odd for 6 and reeling badly.

Saqib Malik, who had moved from Luton Town and Indians and was using one of Kashif Ali's bats, came to the crease with Draper. He gubbed his way to 28 before getting a really good LBW decision that he was really happy about and definitely didn't complain loads about to random people from our club who were watching (sorry Saunders). An attempt at a fightback came and went, Banks ripping through the tail, and Winners secured his 5fer with Dan Harvey's wicket, poetically caught by Law. His first 5fer ever, and long overdue.

What a win it was, we had battered top of the league in a true rags to riches story. A team of absolute clowns who don't value their wicket against a team as sharp and well-coached as Ickleford, do any cricketing stories compare? Ben Stokes' lone hand vs Australia, Ireland's shock 2011 World Cup win over England, England beating Mexico despite overwhelming altitude, these all pale in comparison to this team of misfits and sloggers taking on the best 3A has to offer. Well played chaps, now to beat Bushey on our own turf.

MOTM - Winners 5’fer
DOTD - m8
Shot of the day - Monis square drive for four
Holy moment of the day - Can't actually remember what we decided on but it was either oppo captain massive headloss or Chen catching a cricket ball through someone's legs in the warmup.

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 5w 5b 2lb 
for 6 wickets
13
232		        
Zach West b G Crouch 77 124 11 62.10
James Rosson lbw A Morris 13 24 1 54.17
Matt Howeson ct B Whelan b E Krishnamurthy 20 37 3 54.05
Rory Law lbw E Krishnamurthy 0 3 0 1
James Church ct A Morris b G Crouch 36 61 4 59.02
Monis Haris b E Krishnamurthy 53 37 4 143.24 1
Jithin Balan Not Out  17 13 1 130.77 1
Adam Hounslow Not Out  3 2 150.0 1
Jacob Winfield  
Thomas Banks  
Aidan Chennells  

Ickleford CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Axel Morris6.0123123.003.83
Daniel Harvey8.032300.002.88
George Crouch10.0066233.006.60
Eswar Krishnamurthy10.0042314.004.20
Samuel Draper10.013300.003.30
Joe Dalrymple6.003800.006.33

Ickleford CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 12w 4b 11lb 
for 10 wickets
28
164 (38.5 overs)		     
George Crouch ct M Ahmad Haris b J Winfield 13 41 1 31.71
Charlie Jupp ct J Balan b A Chennells 28 29 3 96.55
Ashish Mishra ct A Hounslow b A Hounslow 15 15 2 100
Joe Dalrymple ct A Hounslow b J Winfield 13 20 2 65.00
Eswar Krishnamurthy ct A Hounslow b J Winfield 0 7 0
Jack Edwards ct A Hounslow b J Winfield 5 6 1 83.33
Saqib Malik lbw T Banks 28 51 3 54.90
Samuel Draper b T Banks 28 43 4 65.12
Daniel Harvey ct R Law b J Winfield 6 15 1 40.0
Axel Morris lbw T Banks 0 2 0
Ben Whelan Not Out  0 5 0

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Aidan Chennells9.0045145.005.00
Adam Hounslow10.0135135.003.50
Jacob Winfield7.512955.803.70
Monis Haris6.011900.003.17
Thomas Banks6.002137.003.50

  • Umpire :
    Swapnil
  • Scorer :
    ourselves