Archive 16-20

16 A Tactical Match at Newfield

 

Edinburgh Academicals v Fauldhouse Victoria – August 2009

Edinburgh Academicals won by 17 runs.

Fauldhouse gained 5 points (3 batting, 2 bowling)

 

The final week of the league season often provides an unusual situation. Promotion or relegation can be at stake, so tactics come into play more than usual. Since the East of Scotland fixture list had paired Edinburgh Academicals and Fauldhouse for the very last fixture, for several weeks it looked likely that the championship would be decided on that day.

However Accies had lost valuable ground the previous week when both teams had lost, but Accies were bowled out for 53 against Glenrothes while Fauldhouse were beaten by Heriots, the bottom club, in a high-scoring game, leaving Fauldhouse top and needing only 5 points for the championship.

Accies did their homework. and worked out their tactics. To appreciate this, you have to know the points system; six batting and bowling points were available, batting at 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175 & 200, bowling at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10. If Accies won the toss, it was pretty simple – bowl Fauldhouse out for a low score and not lose many wickets in chasing the target. Unfortunately for Accies they didn’t win the toss which made it much harder. Accies were asked to bat and if they lost 9 wickets, Fauldhouse had won the championship by a single point or 0.23%.

If Accies lost 7 or 8 wickets (4 points for Fauldhouse), it really would not matter if they scored more than 75 runs since Fauldhouse would need only 75 runs to get the batting point they needed. If Accies lost 5 or 6 wickets, 100 would be the target, and if they lost only 3 or 4 wickets, 125 would be the target.

The previous season in Div 4 Holy Cross 2nd XI had tried similar tactics trying to avoid relegation but they had to restrict Edinburgh University Staff to 2 points which made it even harder. In a 45 over game where bonus points are awarded at 50, 70, 90 etc, Holy Cross batted for their full 45 over allocation and amassed the huge total of 70-4. Their young opener Ozzie Malik was given the license to stay there all day and he did just that, scoring 24* in 45 overs; “Shifty” Robertson batted with restraint – a 30 ball duck. Scoring more than 70 would have been pointless. In the event there was no fairy tale ending as EUS batted sensibly and won by 8 wickets.

However there was an important difference to the tactics – namely the possibility of a declaration. Derek Allan (Fauldhouse) had checked with the league to see if declarations were permitted – and they were. Musselburgh had declared taking pity on a very weak St Modans side, and on the very same day as the Accies v Fauldhouse match, Clackmannan County declared against Townhill in an effort to beat the rain; Townhill were not very happy since they were deprived of the opportunity of gaining further bowling bonus points.

Derek Allan, Fauldhouse’s astute captain, admired Accies tactics: “Accies got their tactics absolutely spot on. No freebie wickets up the order with all of their better batsmen batting and Mitch Brown being very cagey not playing any real expansive shots to the point that Big Dan Law bowled 10 overs 1 for 9!!” Though the wicket of Mitch Brown eluded them, Fauldhouse did get 3 wickets for about 30, two of them lbw to Ricky McDonald, given by neutral umpire Mark Palmer, who had been appointed for the game. It was a long haul for Accies; if they lost two more wickets, Fauldhouse’s target would be 100. Andrew Cosh gave excellent support to Mitch as they put on over 100, and at 125-3 they could have declared but a surreal sort of game continued with Mitch trying to get 100 though the runs made no difference to the game. However with 13 balls remaining Cosh was out (142-4), and Accies promptly declared to make sure they did not lose a 5th wicket and reduce the target to 100 again; 125 was the target – for the 5 points needed (3 batting / 2 bowling).

Accies have a good attack – Mitch Brown is quick and the youngsters on the Fauldhouse team said they couldn’t see the balls which he bowled when they were umpiring at square leg, maybe not as quick as Largo’s Nick Thornycroft who had frightened them a few weeks previously, but together with Mark Jordan who had returned from University in June, they were a formidable pair.

It didn’t start too badly for Fauldhouse, the Allan brothers putting on 17 for the first wicket. But the wheels came off as they lost 6 wickets for 10 runs. At 27-6 they needed another 98 runs with only 4 wickets left. However it wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds – realising that Accies were using their trump cards first by bowling Mitch Brown and Mark Jordan, Fauldhouse put young Scott Cochrane in at No 4 to take up some time even though he had scored only 18 in 8 innings, followed by Daniel Law at No 5. Both were part of the collapse.

Everything depended on David Allan having someone to hang around with him. First

Ricky McDonald helped put on 25 for the 7th wicket, and then it was the turn of the two youngsters Jamie McIlduff and James Mildren with partnerships of 20 and 14. At 86-9 Alan McDonald (18 runs in 7 innings) joined David Allan with 39 to get the extra points needed. In a nailbiting finale David Allan was dropped four times, and Alan once as he stayed there and scored a mere 1* while David went on to 69*.

When Fauldhouse reached 125, Fauldhouse were ecstatic and Nick Murden, Accies captain, walked off to congratulate Derek Allan to the bemusement of the umpire who hadn’t been told of the game within a game. He knew there were still 18 to win with nearly four overs to go, but nobody wanted to continue and Fauldhouse declared at 125-9 as East League Champions, or as Derek Allan put it, David retired emotionally knackered!!!

The game led to many messages on the forum debating whether it should be allowed.

“Can’t believe that Accies were allowed to declare with only 4 wickets down and thus denying Fauldhouse the chance to take more bowling points !!!!”

Though the majority seemed to favour a ban on declarations, thedonslovechild was in favour of allowing them: “sounds like the declaration added a bit of extra excitement on the weekend and shows a bit of creative thinking,” pointing out that any team which declared early put themselves at a greater risk of losing.

———————————————————

“Funnily enough the thought that Accies might declare only came to me on Friday night and I clarified the ruling with an early morning email to Paul Bailey so I was kind of expecting it.

Needing 5 points it was dead straight forward, win the toss bowl first and then get them all out which to be fair if we could get Mitch Brown early was very possible.

“It was obvious what was happening and when we had them about 70 odds for 3 you knew they weren’t going to let us get 5 and after they passed 125 for 3 the game became surreal as Mitch Brown was batting for his 100. We took the 4th wicket at 142 and as expected we all trooped off knowing that we needed 125. As we all know if Accies didn’t declare and we took another wicket the target would have dropped to 100.”

“Great tension and Accies dropped David 4 times and Alan McDonald once in the nail biting finale.”

“I have to agree with Tom here, having played in the game I have no problems with Accies declaring at all and wouldn’t have had either way because chasing 125 to win the league, if you don’t get them then you don’t deserve it and it brought tactics into the game instead forcing us to think about things.”

 

Edinburgh Academical CC

 

Nick Murden b Law 16

Mitch Brown not out 88

Andrew Moffat lbw R McDonald 7

Phil Taylor lbw R McDonald 0

Andrew Cosh c A McDonald b J Mildrew 24

Extras 9 (lb, 3w) 7

Total (47.5 overs) 142-7

 

Marcus Stewart, Niall Sellar, Harry Paton, Marc Jordan, Alistair Carmichael & Kean Woodmansey dnb

 

S Cochrane 10 1 33 0

D Law 10 4 9 1

R McDonald 10 2 29 2

A McDonald 10 2 24 0

Derek Allan 4 1 16 0

J McIllinduff 2 0 11 0

J Mildrew 1.5 0 16 1

 

Fauldhouse

 

Z Ali b Brown 10

S Ali c Taylor b Jordan 5

Derek Allan c Murden b Brown 4

S Cochrane run out 1

D Law b Jordan 0

D Mulligan b Brown 2

David Allan not out 71

R McDonald b Taylor 3

J McIllduff lbw Taylor 7

J Mildrew run out 1

A McDonald not out 1

Extras (8b, 5lb, 4w, 3 nb) 20

Total (9 wkts declared) 125

 

M Jordan 10 3 21 2

M Brown 10 4 15 3

K Woodmansey 3 0 11 0

P Taylor 10 2 30 2

A Carmichael 7 0 23 0

H Patton 3.1 0 8 0

A Moffat 3 0 4 0

 

17 A Pointless Game of Records

 

Surrey v Lancashire May 1990

Match drawn

 

Records galore were broken at the Oval, but it was not a match to be proud of. Neil Fairbrother’s innings of 366 out of a total of 863 was the highest made at the Oval. Lancashire’s total was only 24 runs short of the highest county-championship score, 887 by Yorkshire against Warwickshire in 1896. The 1,650 runs made in this match was the highest aggregate in championship cricket. Curiously only one wide was bowled in the whole match – 423 overs.

The main problem seemed to be that Ian Greig was unwilling to declare till the second afternoon. David Hughes, their captain, decided that two could play at that game and set out to bat out the match. Doubtless he reckoned the match had been killed by Surrey and besides, he wanted his bowlers to be fresh for their cup match the following day.

The pitch remained perfect throughout the match, and when Lancashire were 745-3, it really did look as if they would make a four-figure score and that Fairbrother would beat Archie MacLaren’s 424, the record score in England.

Fairbrother didn’t make it but he did pass Sir Leonard Hutton’s 364. Fairbrother, though, would be first to admit that a comparison would be odious. “I am pleased at the achievement but I am sad to have done it in a match such as this turned out to be,” he said. When Fairbrother was out, he had faced 407 balls in 500 minutes and hit 47 fours and five sixes.

 

County Championship Scores Over 800

 

1896 Yorkshire v Warwickshire 887

1990 Lancashire v Surrey 863

2007 Somerset v Middlesex 850-7 dec

1899 Surrey v Somerset 811

1994 Warwickshire v Durham 810-4 dec

1934 Kent v Essex 803-4d

2007 Derbyshire v Somerset 801-8 dec

1895 Lancashire v Somerset 801

 

At least Surrey declared but not before skipper Greig had enjoyed himself, scoring 291. In 1896 Yorkshire batted for two whole days in scoring 887. Warwickshire used ten bowlers and bowled 274.3 five ball overs! No doubt Lord Hawke, Yorkshire’s skipper batting at No 9, was also enjoying himself in scoring 166, surpassing his previous highest score of 157. Yorkshire bowled out Warwickshire for 203 in 126.1 overs, 59 of which were maidens, and there was time left for just 14 overs of Warwickshire 2nd innings, and they scored 41-1. Was it even more pointless than the Surrey v Lancashire match?

 

Surrey v Lancashire at the Oval May 3-7 1990

Surrey (4pts) drew with Lancashire (6)

 

Surrey 1st innings

 

R Alikhan st Hegg b Fitton 55

G Clinton c Patterson b DeFreitas 8

A Stewart c Fowler b Patterson 70

M Lynch c&b Watkinson 95

G Thorpe c Atherton b Fitton 27

D Ward c Hughes b Fitton 36

I Grieg c Jesty b Hughes 291

K Meddlecott c Fairbrother b Patterson 33

M Bicknall c Hegg b Hughes 42

N Kendrick not out 18

A Murphy did not bat

Extras (6 b, 16 lb, 10 nb) 32

Total (9 wkts dec 165.1 overs) 707

 

Patterson 27 4 108 2

Defreitas 26 4 99 1

Watkinson 23 2 113 1

Fitton 45 6 185 3

Atherton 22 5 75 0

Hughes 22.1 0 105 2

 

1-10 2-118 3-187 4-261 5-275,6-316 7-401 8-606 9-707

 

Lancashire 1st innings

 

G Mendis run out 102

G Fowler run out 20

M Atherton c Greig b Kendrick 191

N Fairbrother c Kendrick b Greig 366

T Jesty retired hurt 18

M Watkinson b Greig 46

W Hegg c Ward b Bicknall 45

P DeFreitas b Murphy 31

D Hughes not out 8

J Fitton c Stewart b Murphy 3

B Patterson c Greig b Meddlycott 0

Extras (8b, 15lb, 9nb, 1 w) 33

Total (all out 224.5 overs) 863

 

 

Murphy 44 6 160 2

Bicknell 43 2 175 1

Kendrick 56 10 192 1

Meddlycott 50.5 4 177 1

Lynch 5 2 17 0

Greig 19 3 73 2

Thorpe 7 1 46 0

 

1-45 2-184 3-548 4-745 5-774,6-884 7-848 8-962 9-863

 

Surrey 2nd innings

 

A Stewart not out 54

G Clinton c Watkinson b Atherton 15

M Lynch not out 6

Extras (2 b, 1 lb, 2 nb) 5

Total (1 wkt, 33 overs) 80

 

DeFreitas 4 0 10 0

Fitton 16 4 42 0

Atherton 13 5 25 1

 

1-57

 

Close of play day 1 Surrey 396-6

Close of play day 2 Lancashire 179-1

Close of play day 3 Lancashire 665-3 (Fairbrother 311*)

 

 

18 – 8 LBWs: Oxford University v Warwickshire

 

Oxford University v Warwickshire May 1980

Local cricketers often complain about being given out lbw., but I doubt if their team has ever had 8 lbws against them

In a test match against Zimbabwe in 2005 at Chester-le-Street England took a record 7 lbws, five of them by Richard Johnson. The record for a test match is 17, in the first Test between West Indies and Pakistan at Port-of-Spain in 1992-93. For the record, the umpires were Dickie Bird and Steve Bucknor.

In a first class match the record for one innings is eight in this University match.

 

The University Parks, Oxford – 30th April, 1st, 2nd May 1980

Warwickshire beat Oxford University by 85 runs

 

Umpires J van Geloven, PB Wight

 

Warwickshire 1st innings 195.

Oxford University 1st innings 130.

Warwickshire 2nd innings 193-7 dec

Oxford University 2nd innings (target 259)

 

JP Durack lbw b Willis 14

RAB Ezekowitz lbw b Hopkins 53

JL Rawlinson lbw b Perryman 14

R Marsden b Doshi 14

JJ Rogers lbw b Oliver 2

RS Cowan not out 55

MCL Macpherson lbw b Hopkins 3

NVH Mallett lbw b Doshi 1

CJ Ross lbw b Doshi 1

SP Sutcliffe b Willis 2

IJ Curtis lbw b Willis 0

Extras 14

Total (all out 73.2 overs) 173

 

Rouse 4 0 18 0

Willis 8.2 3 16 3

Perryman 11 6 12 1

Doshi 23 8 35 3

Oliver 12 2 42 1

Hopkins 15 4 36 2

 

1-18, 2-48, 3-79, 4-92, 5-124, 6-134, 7-135, 8-166, 9-173

 

 

 

19 Stenhousemuir Resort to Gamesmanship

 

Holy Cross v Stenhousemuir May 1979

Masterton 25 over tie

 

A masterful century by Javed Khan in 1979 almost secured an upset for Holy Cross in this Masterton 25 over tie against Stenhousemuir. Tim Selwood, Stenhousemuir’s professional said he had never seen batting like it since he had come to Scotland. After a normal start to his innings, Javed took 21 overs and 2 balls to reach 50 and had faced 55 balls. Then in the next 15 balls he scored another 52 runs in the following sequence: 46124166641.146

After conceding 19 in his first 3 overs, McNicol came on to bowl his last 2 overs in the 23rd over bowling from the Stewarts Melville end (the pitch used to face that way). Javed hit his first 3 balls for 6 and forced Morrison Zuill to have 8 men on the boundary including 2 long-ons and 2 long-offs. The 4th ball went for 4, and on the 5th he got a single to bring him to 90* and he secured his century in McNicol’s next over with another 6.

The scores at the end of each over make interesting reading:

18. 50-5
19. 62-5
20. 72-5
21. 87-5
22. 94-5
23. 117-5
24. 129-5
25. 137-5

 

At the other end Andy McLeod had done well to score 14* and put on 89 runs in 7 overs.

Little did Holy Cross know that what was to follow was even more dramatic, as Alan Smith, Stenhousemuir’s wicketkeeper, deliberately cheated their way out of defeat.

First Holy Cross had to get their professional Tim Selwood out, and after stroking Geoff Barratt for 6 over long on, he took one risk too many and was caught by Isa Daudpota off Andy Birt. Tommy Dickson, another threat, went soon after and Morrison Zuill was not one to take risks and put lots of pressure on his colleagues which allowed Javed to chip in with 3 wickets. Eventually Zuill was out caught where he nurdles lots of runs at backward short leg, but he had taken 23.4 overs to score 39 and with 14 balls to go Stenhousemuir needed 32 runs with 3 wickets left. Holy Cross had no weakness in the bowling department and they now sensed victory with Isa Daudpota bowling the 23rd and 25th over.

The weather was now getting worse and it started to rain. The two batsmen were John Smith and John Goodall. At the end of the 24th over with 19 needed, Smith signalled to a bemused Goodall to leave the field without consulting the umpires, and Paul Bailey immediately asked one of the umpires what was happening, to be told “They’ve conceded – you’ve won.” Paul told the umpire that we would not leave the pitch unless he was absolutely sure that Holy Cross had won as the rain was not bad enough to warrant going off with only one over to go. The umpire confirmed that Holy Cross had won.

Off the pitch Zuill and Smith told the umpires that they had come off for rain and had not conceded the match. Amazingly the umpire now told Holy Cross that Stenhousemuir had not conceded; Holy Cross knew they had been cheated but eventually accepted the umpires’ offer to go out again after a long delay for the final over at 9.40 pm (in mid May!). Holy Cross were confident that they would allow the match to be finished but Smith was still determined to deprive Holy Cross of their rightful victory. After one ball he complained that the light was too bad; after 2 balls the umpires conferred and astonishingly came off for bad light. They knew the light was bad when the game restarted – and Holy Cross expected them to allow them the formality of completing the victory.

Paul Bailey and Geoff Barratt were so upset at the blatant cheating that they refused to take part in any replay which might take place. The East League checked the facts with Stenhousemuir but did not ask Holy Cross for their side of the story; they concluded that it was not in the spirit of a limited over competition for Stenhousemuir to appeal “at that stage”. But Stenhousemuir had not appealed to the umpires at all. Smith had simply walked off and cheated. ESCA, thinking they had simply appealed against the light/rain when they knew they couldn’t win, wrote to Stenhousemuir and requested that they forfeit their tie with Holy Cross; Morrison Zuill stood his ground, admitting that to appeal against the light would have been contrary to the spirit of the Masterton, but “he felt the batsmen concerned had given sufficient indication to the umpires that it was the rain which had forced them to take their leave.” (Evening News 18 May 1979)

The replay took place on the night of the European Cup Final, but rain intervened. For the second replay on a deliberately unprepared pitch Holy Cross collapsed. Only a pull for six by Javed reflected his previous innings; McNicol bowled four consecutive maidens in contrast to his previous disaster – all out 52.

Nevertheless Holy Cross did not lose hope completely especially as Morrison Zuill again batted as if in an all-day game; it became more important to keep him in rather than get him out. Eventually he was out caught in an identical way at backward short leg after 22 overs for 20 runs. Javed was really motivated to win this game and both he and Isa bowled splendidly restricting Zuill and Selwood to 24-1 after 14 overs. Geoff Barratt followed up with 2-6 in five overs and it was a real achievement to take the game to the last over in defending 52, especially as Morrison Zuill was chosen to play for Scotland the following week and scored 50, and Tim Selwood scored two centuries in the next two weeks scoring 1142 runs in 1979 and 1892 runs in 1980. Holy Cross had tamed both of them.

That was not the end of the story. Stenhousemuir played West Lothian in the next round and beat them, but that was the last match they played in the competition as the remaining teams Heriots, Watsonians & Accies all boycotted them as they learned the truth about the gamesmanship and refused to play them. Stenhousemuir were still awarded the Masterton trophy while the clubs who were left in the competition played on unofficially among themselves. The teams agreed that the ‘final’ should be played at Arboretum Road in honour of Holy Cross where Watsonians and Edinburgh Accies competed. One of Stenhousemuir’s senior committee members told High Kilpatrick that if he had been told the true facts at the time, he would have instructed his club to concede the match; it did provide one amusing moment at Stenhousemuir’s Dinner in 1980 where the speaker, Ronnie Melville, bemoaned the fact that Stenhousemuir failed to retain the Masterton Trophy as the opposition had the temerity to turn up!

 

Holy Cross v Stenhousemuir

Masterton Trophy 25 over tie on 17th May 1979

Match abandoned after 24.2 overs of Stenhousemuir’s innings

 

Holy Cross

 

P V Bailey b Goodall 0

P Lyle lbw b McNicol 10

J Khan not out 102

D Cartwright c Smith b Rycroft 2

I Daudpota c Dicksonb Rycroft 3

A Qureshi c ? b Rycroft 2

A McLeod not out 14

Extras 4

Total (5 wkts) 137

 

HJ Kilpatrick, G Barratt, A Reid, A Birt dnb

 

J Khan 50 in 55 balls; 100 in 70 balls

 

J Goodall 7 2 17 1

H McNicol 7 1 50 1

A Rycroft 7 1 34 3

N Clark 4 0 32 0

 

1-0, 2-31, 3-35, 4-45, 5-48

 

Stenhousemuir

 

T Selwood c Daudpota b Birt 16

A Zuill c Bailey b Daudpota 39

T Dickson b Birt 5

N Clark c Reid b Khan 21

A Rycroft b Khan 4

K Gardner c Barratt b Khan 2

JA Smith not out 20

T McNicol run out 0

J Goodall not out 5

Extras 7

Total after 24.2 overs (7 wkts) 119

 

2 other players dnb

 

A Birt 7 0 33 2

G Barratt 5 0 26 0

J Khan 7 0 37 3

I Daudpota 5.2 0 16 1

 

1-27, 2-36, 3-74, 4-84, 5-88 6-106 7-109

 

 

20 – 103 wides in an innings.

 

Germany v Cyprus – September 2007

There have been many different opinions about how strict we should be with wides in ESCA leagues; one experienced player suggested to me that even in the lowest division with lots of youngsters, we should have strict legside wides. ”They have to learn” he said. Having seen a scorecard from the Scottish Premier League where Penicuik bowled about 60 wides (10 extra overs), I was convinced that strict wides in the lower divisions would demoralise youngsters.

So I looked at the score cards of some junior International matches where strict wides do apply. In an under 15 tournament in 2007, Cyprus played 5 games and conceded 353 wides, over 70 per game. In this game the difference of 23 in wides (80 / 103) more or less accounted for the loss for Cyprus by 19 runs. The series was dominated by extras as Cyprus scored 102-9 in another game, 72 of which were extras, though only 55 were wides.

In another game Spain beat Gibraltar by 26 runs scoring 120 (54 extras), while Gibraltar scored 94, 74 of which were extras, and 69 of those were wides. Did the powers-that-be really think this is the way forward for inexperienced youngsters?

 

La Manga – European Under 15 2nd Division

Germany beat Cyprus by 19 runs.

 

Germany

M Mubarik b Callaway 24

T Zielinsky b Barrett 1

J Singh b Mills 29

I Aw an b Bailey 5

M Mathur c Carr b Keeling 12

K Fuchs b Bailey 0

R Marwaha c Barrett b Callaway 2

H Bagge run out 0

M Hayat not out 9

L Gerhards run out 3

D Thawalama-Gamage not out 1

Extras (b 4, lb 3, nb 9, w 103) 119

Total (9 wkts, 35.0 ovs) 205

 

G Papaonisiforou 7 2 22 0

D Barrett 6 0 33 1

D Bailey 6 1 40 2

H Callaway 5 0 34 2

A McCarrick 3 0 12 0

T Mills 4 0 30 1

J Keeling 4 0 27 1

 

1-6, 2-65, 3-97, 4-129, 5-129, 6-137, 7-144, 8-171, 9-204

 

Cyprus

A McCarrick c Bagge b Marwaha 4

G Papaonisiforou c Bagge b Mubarik 12

H Callaway c & b Marwaha 3

D Bailey c Mathur b Hayat 20

M Hill c Marwaha b Singh 20

E Lupson b Mathur 3

D Barrett c Singh b Mathur 4

W Carr not out 22

T Mills c Awan b Mubarik 9

J Keeling c Fuchs b Awan 0

W Ehrhartsmann not out 4

Extras (b 0, lb 1, nb 4, w 80) 85

Total (9 wkts, 35.0 overs) 186

 

M Mubarik 7 1 28 2

J Singh 7 1 33 1

I Awan 4 0 27 1

M Mathur 5 0 33 2

R Marwaha 5 0 30 2

M Hayat 6 0 30 1

L Gerhards 1 0 4 0

 

1-24, 2-48, 3-51, 4-86, 5-97, 6-118, 7-131, 8-143, 9-148