Chadwell Heath vs. Debden/South Loughton

Here we were again, Chadwell Heath, the scene of two previous successes last season and the season before. With Josh Phillips out of from the week before, in came Lee Baker, and Alistair O’Donnell was back to give us 11 (Yes, you heard right, we actually have 11 again!). After going out towards the middle for the toss, the Chadwell Heath skipper asked me what we would want to do. I said we would like a bat first, and he seemed happy to bowl first. Siddy and Zack went out to the middle, but it was not the opening partnership we had wished for. Zack got a duck, the first of the season, and hopefully, the last. Jenan then came to the crease at number 3 with the score on 9. Jenan played some solid defence shots against some tricky bowling from the CH openers. Siddy was looking at his best once again. Jenan started to look a bit uncomfortable in the middle and played a couple balls a bit early. This led to his downfall as he was too early on a pull shot and lobbed the ball up for a simple catch for the keeper. The score now was on 33 and Ahmed came to join his brother in the middle. With a lack of form behind him, Ahmed was a man on a mission. They say the hardest thing to do is to get off the mark. This was done after his first ball. So, off the mark now, this ruled out the chance of a hat-trick of ducks, he had to score at least another 49 for a long awaited half century. The pair joined forces in the 10th over, and after seeing off the opening bowlers, there was not much that could compare. After they bowled out their 8 overs each, the score was 60 off 16 overs. The Chughtai attack took advantage of the weaker bowling attack, scoring quickly and entertaining the small crowd. The pair were at the crease for almost 20 overs and shared an amazing 139 run partnership until Sid fell just short of his second Debden century after smacking the ball back to the bowler very low, and he somehow got down to the ball and kept it off the ground. It looked as though Siddy’s luck had finally run out. Siddyhit an incredible 20 fours out of his total of 94, this just shows how classy his knock was. Ahmed now had to take control of the innings and help reach a total of around 240. Lee ‘Half Century’ Baker came to the crease, and a total of 240 seemed very straightforward. However, Ahmed denied Lee from getting off the marks after he called for a suicidal single, and the fielder threw the ball to Lee’s end, and this left Lee 50 short of a half century. When have you seen Lee score a duck? Matthew ‘Muthmar’ McCarthy then came to the crease with immediate effect and his first ball was creamed for four. This triple M effect didn’t last long, as we faced the ball of the game which swung in and shattered his stumps. With5 wickets down, number 7 Andy Oliver came to the crease to feed off of what Ahmed was on, and get some form back with his batting. And he did just that. As Ahmed reached his 50, the pair put on a 50 run partnership in the last 7 overs to bring out total up to 243. Andy finished on 20 not out and Ahmed finished with an impressive 71 not out as he was back to his best. This was our highest total for a long time. If only we could have batted like that last week.

During the lunch break, Josh S Evans, once again, was at the centre of entertainment when Mr McCarthy placed a meatball in his plate, which had been all over the place, the floor, rolled around the table, and god knows where else. Yet, Mr Spunky Evans did not notice anything and just ate the meatball, which lead to a burst of laughter from the Debdeners. Once Josh realised, he just carried on eating.

Now, with all jokes aside, no hand bags though, we took to the field to restrict the Chadwell Heath lads from reaching our healthy total of 243. Alistair was back to open with Steve. Alistair started off bowling quite short and got some punishment in his second over. Steve started as he always does, tight bowling, and he produced two maidens first up. The run rate was not threatening; however, all 10 wickets were still in hand, so we couldn’t get too comfortable. Then came the wonder arm of Stevie S, producing the break through when he trapped the batsman in front of the stumps and spirits were raised as we drew blood. Alistair followed this up with an LBW of his own, sending batsman number 3 back after scoring just one run. The new batsman came in and started playing his shots front the start. His first ball he faced off Alistair, he hit a mighty cover drive between Lee and Andy for a single. Mind you, even if it went straight to Andy, I would run single too. The following over Steve produced a chance when Batsman number 2 hit the ball high up and Steve shouts out “JACK’S!” As I saw Jenan running in, we confused each other, and ended up letting the ball fall just in front of us both. Would we have to pay for this? It certainly looked as though we would as he hit a couple of boundaries after that, and he was then dropped off of Steve’s bowling again and Zack ‘Robert’ Phillips couldn’t take the catch over his shoulder. But, as with Siddy, the batsman’s luck ran out as he played on to a delivery from Steve and they had now lost 3 wickets. Skipper and Spunky then took over the bowling attack and they needed just under 10 overs between them to finish off Chadwell Heath. Jack was the first to strike as he bowled the number 4 batsman who looked like he could have caused some damage. Spunky was next to strike as he had the batsman stumped thanks to some quick work behind the stumps by Zack. Josh then bowled three shocking deliveries which all found the boundary rope. He also sissed out of stopping a straight drive that went straight down the ground. It was almost as funny as Jenan diving over the bowl on a couple of occasions at point. With the Saturday 1st XI opener for Chadwell Heathin, the game could have easily been taken away from us, but then he didn’t expect what Jack had in store for him. The ball was not pitched too shot, but it shot up and got his glove. Jack saw the ball in the air, then realised he actually had to catch it. He didn’t have to move that far to get the ball comfortably in his hands. 2-1 to Jack, your teach Spunky. That little twat only went and took a wicket too. He bowled the uneasy looking batsman and he brought it back to 2-2. The following couple of overs did not produce wickets, but runs were not being scored at an astounding rate, so there was little to worry about, but we should not think that way, we should go for the kill. And we did just that. Jack fired in a delivery that pitched just outside off stump and it cut back into the off stump, and the batsman, who was not short of words when we was fielding, just said, “Well bowled mate” two deliveries later, Alistair took a pretty awesome catch close in on the off side, as a short and wide delivery from Jack was not punished as it should have been. But hey, shit balls take wickets. Now it was 4-2 to Jack, and with two balls to go, the prospect of a second fifer of the season was on the cards, and the record for highest wicket taker of Debden and South Loughton. Unfortunately, just like all the other times when I took 4 wickets, I wanked out (that was not a joke at Josh, but now that I think about it, let’s assume it is) and couldn’t get to the final hurdle. Now, Josh was ready to bowl, and with death threats if he takes the final wicket, he bowled a VERY full delivery, which I think should have been a no ball, but the umpire wouldn’t agree, and Josh nicked my final wicket (Still not happy with you Sir Spunky), and I was out for revenge. A fantastic bowling and fielding performance saw Chadwell Heath only reach 92 in 23.1 overs. Also to mention, Zack gave away no byes at all, top stuff mate.