Strongroom stodge out on Highgate Pudding
Highgate Wood, 5/28/2011
Hampstead CC won by 3 wickets
Strongroom: 92
Hampstead CC: 95-7
View the Scorecard
An overcast but dry day greeted the inaugural fixture for Strongroom versus Hampstead CC, but this belied a classic Highgate pudding pitch following heavy rain on Friday. The pitch was a bitch. And by the end of the day, so were Strongroom. James Schneider and Rishab opened the batting for Strongroom with a watchful and steady approach accumulating sensibly before Rishab was caught behind for 18. A sad loss for a fantastic looking batsman finding his feet on the stodgy Highgate wicket. 40 – 0 quickly became 43-3 (correctly forecast by this author). Rich Brown came and went for 0. Schneider played over a Yorker length ball and was clean bowled. Mellor entered the stage and was given lbw for a low score of 4. Proctor entered the frame, scored very few and watched as: Ujjal scored a quick 9 before also departing off the bowling of Oman. Rahman made a Golden. Sumer came in with characteristic abandon and a flurry of fours before being dismissed by a howler of a ball that was lobbed innocuously behind for an easy catch by the keeper. Vinayak and DP tried to stead the ship but DP went for just 5. Clean bowled. The tail followed in short order and Hampstead were generously rewarded for their decent bowling and Strongroom’s woeful batting. 8 of SR’s batsman were clean bowled and need to take a good look at shot selection prior to the next game. Strongroom were all out for 92 in just 28.2 overs and knew that a win was going to be tough, but also recognised that with a strong bowling attack and classic stodgy Highgate wicket there was always a chance. The highlight of the day was a commendable tea orchestrated by Messrs Roy and Rahman. For me this was certainly the season’s best, easily top scoring with 8.75/10. The mainstay was a fine selection of homemade, but horrifically squashed sandwiches - incurring a half point deduction for ‘poor presentation’. A triumphant triumvirate of chocolates were on offer including the cricketing essential – the mighty ‘Tunnock’, old faithful ‘Club’ and ubiquitous Kitkat (can I squeeze my cock in there too luv?) All accompanied by a decent selection of fruit – apples, squashed bananas (0.25 deduction) and tangerines. A bit of tin-foiled quiche – well know bird’s food (0.25 deduction). And an old favourite mini Scotch eggs (always a winner). A further 0.25 was deducted from a fine tea score because Rahman insisted on ‘over selling’ his tea to anyone stupid enough to listen. Something of a lowlight for me, and a bit of a sorry sight to see a genuine cricketing talent reducing himself to this kind of culinary prostitution. A great cook doesn’t need to congratulate himself on his fare. Let the food do talking. Hampstead’s innings started cautiously and Strongroom approached the tough ask with 2 strong bowlers in Zorain and Koran, who both bowled well and with some pace to dismiss the openers in the first 8 overs. Hampstead’s first dismissal was a slightly dubious LBW but Koran overall deserved his 3 off 6 overs. Rizvan scored reasonably freely and with some power before throwing his wicket away for 24 and the Hampstead skipper was out to a snorter after 3 balls. Hampstead’s diminutive keeper, Takumi entered the fray and steadied the ship with very watchful batting (although he should’ve been stumped by DP in Rahman’s first over.). At 20 overs the game was well balanced with Hampstead needing 46 runs with 4/5 wickets remaining. But the Hampstead tail batted soundly, shepherded by the ever watchful Takumi, who only opened up in the last few overs to settle the game. Hampstead were well deserved winners, fielding and batting much better than SR and showing good mettle to eke out the win with plenty of overs to spare on a testy Highgate wicket. Takumi took man of the match award for me for both his solid keeping and excellent innings of 23 n.o. All in all a good day of cricket played with a good bunch of guys in the spirit of the game. We look forward to the return match next year.
Written By: D.Proctor
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