Scorecard

Old Minchendenians CC 2nd XI v St Albans Cricket Club 4XI on Sat 29 Aug 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 4 wickets

Match report On a Saturday when the rain wiped out every other game in Division 9E and the vast majority of fixtures across the wider league were either cancelled or abandoned , the heroic Tad Casuals somehow managed to complete 73.5 overs of cricket away at Old Minchendenians in Cockfosters.

Quite how sensible that was depended largely on which (tiny) dressing room you were sitting in.

With Old Minchendenians threatened by relegation and desperately needing the points to survive in Div 9E, the hosts were understandably determined to get the game played. That determination extended to fielding a suspiciously strong-looking 2XI, featuring a number of players more familiar with their 1XI and who had made few, if any, appearances for their seconds during the season.

What followed was a hard-fought and, at times, fractious afternoon played in extremely difficult conditions.
With heavy rain having saturated the ground, the pitch was wet and variable while the run-ups became increasingly treacherous. For the Saints bowlers, simply staying upright became almost as important as line and length. Despite that, St Albans produced a disciplined bowling performance after Old Minchendenians batted first. Abhishek Roy-Choudhury set the tone with a hostile spell of 1-28 from eight overs, including three maidens, while Tim Winfield, at his wily best, somehow negotiated the soaking run-up and boggy crease (much sawdust was applied) to concede just 15 runs from his six and was unfortunate to emerge wicketless.

The early stages of the opposition innings were all about caution - their strategy was to block out our bowlers in order to keep wickets in hand and indeed after 20 overs they had only scored 50 runs. But it was a ploy that worked because the second half of their innings yielded over double that tally as caution was abandoned and some hard hitting took over that saw them reach what looked like an above par total on the fast deteriorating pitch .

Rocky Depala (12 matches previously for their 1XI, only one for their twos) top-scored for Old Minchendenians with 38, while Madhav Menon finished unbeaten on 35 and all-rounder Gopi Krishna Ammireddy (seven games previously for their 1XI none for their twos) notched a rapid 34 from just 17 balls to give the innings some late impetus.

Andy Saunders returned 1-33 from his eight overs taking his 300th wicket for the club in the process, Uvanesh Paramesh took 1-28 and Altaf Husain was the most impactful Saints bowler with 2-32 including the scalps of the two ringers. Captain Sam Davey also picked up a wicket as the hosts finished on 164-6 from their 40 overs.

A target of 165 was challenging but certainly not impossible. Unfortunately, however, the Saints chase began badly when Toby Crisp fell without scoring after just two balls and Olly Roberts departed for only four. With specialist batting already thin on the ground this was not ideal.

Peter Melling dug in for an obdurate 15 before Hugo Thomas (who had earlier rolled back the years to field excellently in the covers) launched the first serious counterattack of the innings, striking seven boundaries in an excellent 37 from 44 balls, briefly giving Saints momentum despite the increasingly unpredictable surface.

Alongside him, 15-year-old Zac Johnson showed enormous courage. Facing experienced and genuinely quick bowling in deteriorating light, Johnson was struck on the helmet by one of the Old Minchendenians fast bowlers. After being checked over, he dusted himself down and carried on, eventually making a hugely determined 12 from 49 balls.
It was an impressive display of bravery from the youngest player on the field, particularly as conditions became progressively more difficult and the opposition became increasingly more aggressive in their determination to win.

The atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense too. Old Minchendenians, with their Division 9E status potentially on the line, approached the game with a win-at-all-costs intensity. Their interpretation of the responsibilities that come with self-umpiring also occasionally appeared to lean rather more towards self-preservation than even-handedness, which did little to improve relations between the two sides.

One of the more controverisal moments saw the wicket keeper and slip insist that Zac Johnson was bowled when in fact the ‘keeper had dislodged the bail with his knee. Both Saints umpires were unsure but before they could give their decision Johnson , unsure of what had happened, walked after some serious intimidation by the opposition. Although he was eventually called back it was a very unsavoury moment and was frankly nothing less than unacceptable bullying.

Win at all costs.

Saints, however, kept fighting. Davey produced the innings' most aggressive contribution, smashing 31 from only 24 balls by thankfully not playing "properly" this week including three fours and a six, to keep alive hopes of an unlikely victory. But Ammireddy (remember him?) proved decisive with the ball, taking 4-29, including Thomas, Paramesh and Husain.

As the innings moved towards its conclusion, another opponent entered the contest: darkness.

By the final few overs the light had deteriorated dramatically, making an already difficult batting surface even harder to negotiate. With a wet, variable pitch, the ball increasingly difficult to pick up and no sight screens , batting had become an exercise in survival as much as run-scoring, particularly as the opposition refused to take their fast bowlers off.
Roy-Choudhury added a useful eight and Winfield remained unbeaten on six, but when last man Saunders was bowled for one in the gloom, Saints were finally dismissed for 140, 24 runs short.

While literally everybody else in the division lhad ong since accepted the verdict of the weather, Saints somehow played virtually a full game of cricket on a soaking wet afternoon, against relegation-threatened opponents who had assembled arguably their strongest side of the season and were absolutely determined to take the points.

They did.

But on an afternoon of slippery run-ups, unpredictable bounce, questionable light and the occasional difference of opinion (but no real dissent from Saints to their credit) over the finer points of self-umpiring, the 4XI could leave knowing they had competed until the very end.

Perhaps the lasting image of the afternoon was 15-year-old Zac Johnson walking from the field after an innings that required considerably more courage than his 12 runs will ever show in the scorebook and more class than the entire opposition team collectively demonstrated.

Old Minchendenians got the points they desperately needed. Saints left empty-handed, but with considerably more reason to be proud of how they had played the game.

Old Minchendenians CC 2nd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 14w 5b 1lb 
for 6 wickets
21
164 (40.0 overs)		     
Marc Wetherill ct  O Roberts b A Roy-Choudhury 3 25 12.00
Srinivasa Narayanam ct  O Roberts b A Saunders 11 57 19.30
Rocky Depala ct  S Davey b A Husain 38 74 4 51.35
Pavan Siddihally b  U Paramesh 20 24 3 83.33
Madhav Menon Not Out  35 41 3 85.37
Gopi Krishna Ammireddy b  A Husain 34 17 6 200
Shaakir Rafique b  S Davey 1 2 50.0
Prakash Pandey Not Out  1 1 100
Naveed Rafique  
Ramki Seera  
Murali Krishna Kodali  

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Abhishek Roy-Choudhury8.0328128.003.50
Tim Winfield6.001500.002.50
Andy Saunders8.0133133.004.13
Sam Davey4.0022122.005.50
Uvanesh Paramesh8.0028128.003.50
Md Altaf Husain6.0032216.005.33

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
10w 12b  
for 10 wickets
22
140		        
Toby Crisp ct  M Menon b P Pandey 0 2 0
Olly Roberts ct  Unsure b P Siddihally 4 9 1 44.44 2
Peter Melling ct  Unsure b G Krishna Ammireddy 15 38 1 39.47
Hugo Thomas ct  Unsure b G Krishna Ammireddy 37 44 7 84.09
Zac (Isaac) Johnson ct  Unsure b P Pandey 12 49 24.49
Sam Davey b  M Krishna Kodali 31 24 3 1 129.17 1
Uvanesh Paramesh b  G Krishna Ammireddy 4 2 1 200
Md Altaf Husain b  G Krishna Ammireddy 0 1 0
Abhishek Roy-Choudhury ct  Unsure b M Krishna Kodali 8 7 1 114.29
Tim Winfield Not Out  6 14 42.86
Andy Saunders b  P Siddihally 1 13 7.69

Old Minchendenians CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Prakash Pandey8.0228214.003.50
Pavan Siddihally7.5122211.002.81
Gopi Krishna Ammireddy8.002947.253.63
Naveed Rafique1.00900.009.00
Murali Krishna Kodali8.0036218.004.50
Srinivasa Narayanam1.00400.004.00