Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI v Phil Milton Memorial Match v St John Fisher CC on Sun 28 Jun 2026 at 1pm
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 40 runs

Match report And so, it comes around once more: the Phil Milton Memorial Match. A hallowed day in St Albans and a firm fixture in the diaries of two cricket clubs, brought together by one man: St Albans CC and St John Fishers CC. The meaningfulness of today was amplified even further by the memorial of another SACC legend: Subash Bose. Phil and Subash were two phenomenal men, contributing more than we could even begin to describe towards not just the cricket played within our beautiful club, but who contributed even more to the people who play within it. Two men, united by fond memories, Herculean dedication to the club and smiles at the mere mention of their names by all who were privileged enough to have known them. It’s safe to say, without these two heroes, the SACC we know and love would not be standing today. Phil, Subash: we miss you both, and we know you’d have loved today’s game.

Today’s match was spearheaded by debutant captain Ben ‘Biceps’ Hingston, who opted to approach the game with the mentality of “everyone gets to play and everyone gets a real chance with both bat and ball.” An excellent attitude, particularly given that we had a commendable 4 junior players in the side today, all of whom would go on to play a blinder in various respects. Local village idiot Ciarán Walsh found himself tasked with the challenge of winning the toss and batting, but his heart sank when the virtual coin on the oppo captain’s phone turned up heads. Thankfully, they elected to field, so Walsh’s Jedi mind tricks clearly worked. Given SJF only had 9 players, we donated Tom Coulling to their cause (clearly forgetting he’s gun) and we lent them a fielder throughout the innings to ensure no disadvantages. Again, we foolishly lent them players that were excellent at cricket, which would come back to bite us, as Daiwik took a steepling catch and Walsh performed a stunning piece of acrobatic fielding to save a 4.

We opened with the might of youngster Daiwik Khedekar and 4XI skipper Sam Davey, since our usual opener characteristically didn’t turn up on time (shock horror). Daiwik went with intent, smashing the first ball of the day for a contemptuous 4, laying down a marker to SJF: “you’re in for a long day.” He was unfortunate to fall on 5 shortly after, bowled by an absolute hoop of a ball. Davey was in a hurry, knocking a fiery 18 featuring four 4s, before meeting the same fate as Daiwik.

Our next youngster, Suli Nisar, stepped up to try his hand: he played a cautious but sublime innings, shaking off the dust from his break from cricket excellently and contributing a useful 19 runs to the cause, before traitor Coulling forgot his yellow and blue roots, claiming Suli’s wicket (whose decision was it to give Coulling away…). Captain Biceps stepped up next, eyes gleaming at the prospect of more Sunday runs. He set about the task with a gleeful malice, terrorising SJF with a swift 50* comprised of ten 4s and a brutal 6, retiring to make way for our next form of attack.

Moksudul ‘Moksy’ Islam and Pete Melling approached, with Moksy echoing his skipper’s aggression. He blazed his way to 33, before a sharp catch ended his weekend. Melling played conservatively, trying to find a bad ball to punish but finding none in the face of good bowling. He eventually found himself bowled on 4, which we can only blame on his lack of cover drives.

Two more youngsters stepped up to steady the ship in the form of Xander Molvik and James Hallam, both lads making their senior debuts for the season. The boys batted in pleasing tandem, both finding the boundary and contributing 19 (Hallam) and 11 (Molvik) to help keep our score competitive. Molvik was the first to fall, another sharp catch ushering Walsh to the crease after an unexpected promotion.

Walsh started well, hitting his first ball over the bowler’s head for a double, before repeating the shot with more authority, this time reaching the boundary. He scored another single on the final ball of the over, and was told by Hallam in the break between overs “honestly that was a solid shot mate, if you want to be the aggressive batter here I’ll happily just be the anchor.” Walsh’s eyes lit up: “a licence to swing, you say? Say no more.” He proceeded to bludgeon the very next ball into another postcode for a massive 6 on the leg side and went on to notch his 250*. At least, this is what he envisioned: what actually happened was him charging down the wicket, taking a wild swipe at a straight one and missing, turning around to see his middle stump cartwheeling, dismissed for 7.

Altaf ‘Daddy’ Hussain and aspiring 2XI player John Shaw approached following Hallam’s dismissal, with Altaf successfully running out the youngster for 19. Another miscommunication led to Shaw being similarly run out for 3, ushering Biceps out of retirement and back to the crease to score a further 4 runs, before Daddy decided SJF need some catching practice, departing on 14. We ended with a score of 205, keen to fire up some deadly bowling attacks.

Tea came and went, with a glorious guard of honour for Subash being implemented by players and spectators alike, as his relatives proceeded through in honour of a great man. A touching moment, reflecting upon the life of a better man than we can describe.

Back to business: Hingston threw the new ball to Daddy and Walsh, and so we got to work. Papa bowled conservatively, keeping things tight across his 4 over spell, conceding only 10 runs and putting the pressure on the batters early. Walsh followed suit, bowling a lovely initial spell, giving little away and claiming a wicket thanks to a sharp caught and bowled from a delivery that was absolutely leathered at him, his hand still being bruised and stiff while typing this paragraph. The pair retired after this breakthrough, handing the reigns to Hallam and Shaw, AKA “Altaf’s Victims CC.”

Hallam echoed his predecessors in his conservative bowling, not finding a wicket but again putting pressure on batters who were staring down a total that was already getting further and further away from them. Shaw found more success in and amongst a lot of leg side bowling (they do profile wides in the 2s just so you know, John), and found another wicket thanks to a well-watched hold from Davey at slip.

The pair took a blow, allowing Molvik and Davey to take over. Molvik had been quietly assessing an increasingly-intimidating batter who was starting to score slightly too quickly for comfort, before deciding to dismiss the danger man, a good grab from Daiwik allowing us all a sigh of relief. Molvik didn’t stop there, though: another danger man approached, laying down a marker with some big shots - ah, never mind, Molvik’s absolutely gun and just dismissed him too (another well-watched catch courtesy of Biceps). Davey ably supported him from the Knill-Jones end, clean bowling traitor Coulling to add another wicket to the SACC tally.

Daiwik and Suli began their spells, Daiwik finding the next breakthrough with an effortless caught and bowled (a well-earned ‘Dai-Wicket’, if you will). Suli, as ever, was reliable in his economy: he may not have found a wicket, but certainly deserved one after bowling so well.

Moksy and Hingston came into the attack next, with Moksy starting off with some unidentified spin bowling, before remembering he can bowl pace and using this to claim two clean-bowled wickets. Hingston bowled from the other end, and I think we’ll leave it there. Less said about 2 overs for 27 runs, the better, but his wife’s a lucky woman, we can say that much.

A reintroduced Walsh entered the equation, bowling a 7 ball over, every single delivery down the leg side, AKA absolute pump. Mystifyingly, he still didn’t give much away, and the following over surprised everyone (including himself) with a Yorker to clean bowl the batter. Shaw and Hallam made cameos, Hallam working tirelessly to beat the bat and Shaw eventually ending the game by clean bowling their number 11, who was in the middle of attempting a reverse sweep. Sensational stuff.

A win, a fun game and one played in the spirits we know both Phil and Subash would have loved. Smiles, jokes and beers were exchanged between both sides, engendering exactly the kind of atmosphere that such a day warrants. Good cricket was played, with some phenomenal fielding, batting and bowling from the youth contingent, alongside Hingston adding yet another Clarence Park 50 to his ever-growing collection. Humorous moments were enjoyed, featuring the aforementioned reverse sweep on the final ball, not to mention the good-natured jibes directed towards Coulling while graciously filling in for the opposition. As much as we miss Phil and Subash every day, it’s games like this that remind us of all they did, all they stood for and all the beautiful memories they gave us. Without these two great men, St Albans Cricket Club likely wouldn’t be standing today, let alone standing at the level and quality it does. Phil and Subash may be gone, but today reminded us that we find a piece of them in every game we play, in every ball we bowl, in every bat we swing, and every Brewpoint we indulge in every Saturday evening. Phil, Subash: we wouldn’t be here without you, and we know you’d have loved what today turned out to be.

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 6w 9b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
19
206		        
Daiwik Khedekar b J. Tatlock 5 8 1 62.50 2
Sam Davey b J. Tatlock 18 19 4 94.74 1
Sulaiman Nisar ct Cormack b. Coulling 19 25 1 76.00
Ben Hingston Retired Not Out  54 29 10 1 186.21
Moksudul Islam ct ? b. Cormack 33 20 5 165.00
Peter Melling b Cormack 4 8 50.0
James Hallam run out ? 19 26 1 73.08
Alexander Molvik ct ? b. Walmsley 11 25 1 44.00
Ciarán Walsh b Cormack 7 4 1 175.00 1
Md Altaf Husain ct ? b. Walmsley 14 13 3 107.69
John Shaw run out ? 3 13 23.08

Phil Milton Memorial Match v St John Fisher CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
John Herbert5.002700.005.40
Julian Tatlock4.0126213.006.50
Tom Coulling4.0026126.006.50
Andrew Jackson1.002000.0020.00
Keith Cormack8.0133311.004.13
Jon Walmsley7.1034217.004.74
Oli Bailey2.002000.0010.00

Phil Milton Memorial Match v St John Fisher CC Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 15w 5b  
for 10 wickets
23
165 (37.1 overs)		     
Cormack ct & b. Walsh 5
Walmsley ct Khedekar b. Molvik 30
Khalifa ct Davey b. Shaw 0
Coulling b Davey 1
Jackson b Islam 32
Walia ct Hingston b. Molvik 21
Bailey ct & b. Khedekar 7
Tatlock b Islam 18
Sathwana Not Out  14
Herbert b Walsh 2
Keene b Shaw 12

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Md Altaf Husain4.011000.002.50
Ciarán Walsh6.001929.503.17
James Hallam4.001900.004.75
John Shaw4.111427.003.36
Alexander Molvik4.001829.004.50
Sam Davey3.0015115.005.00
Daiwik Khedekar4.0011111.002.75
Sulaiman Nisar3.001300.004.33
Moksudul Islam3.001427.004.67
Ben Hingston2.002700.0013.50

  • Umpire :
    Ourselves
  • Scorer :
    Ourselves