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New Year greetings to one and all.
Just a reminder that the long haul to achieving peak cricketing prowess in good time for the forthcoming season starts when nets commence this Thursday (Jan 5th).
As ever, 8-9pm in the usual two lanes at Herts. Sports Village in Hatfield.
Hope to see many of you there.
Organiser. Motivator. Adviser. Friend.
Phil patrolled the boundary and the bar with equal enthusiasm; he batted far better than he would ever admit to; he fielded friends’ requests for help far better than he fielded the ball; he kept wicket but he wasn’t one to keep his counsel and was always happy to offer opinion or advice. His views and thoughts were always welcomed. Some will remember him for his unique brand of wicket-keeping, others for his brilliant banter, but all will remember him for his humour, warmth and friendliness. People liked Phil and people like Phil don’t come along often; he was unique.
Congratulations to John Lesley Montague Herbert and Krista Nina McDonaldWell done MONTY!
at Redbourne indoor on Mon, 09:00 PM BSTSJFCC 72 for 9 (all out) off 12 overs LOST by 113 runs against Kimpton (home) 185 for 7 off 20 overs (scorecard here) Wed July 13th, 2011 – Match Reporter: Dave Boxer
In the words of Elton John, let’s not beat around the bush. Fishers took a good old-fashioned pasting this evening by a very accomplished Kimpton side. The signs were ominous from the start – only eight Fishers players were present and, arguably, correct, at the start, with Bungle and Dawko held up. Despite the lack of numbers, Fishers began promisingly, with Boxer removing the opener leg before for a duck with the fourth ball of the innings. Virji continued the momentum, cunningly bowling a rank full toss that was in no way a no-ball, which the other opener skied to Boxer at fine leg, who did his best to drop it before clinging on. Eight for two, easy. Then things took a turn for the worse. Lincoln and Reynolds had evidently eaten their Weetabix, and began slapping the ball harder than Mike Tyson on a quiet night in with Robin Givens. Like Fishers players’ ringpieces after a Watson barbeque, the runs were flowing, and even with Dawko and Bungle back in the fold, protecting the alarmingly short boundaries was proving difficult. A glimmer of light appeared when Reevo comprehensively cleaned up Lincoln for 34, and with Cooke chopping on from King and Virji calmly snaffling a swirling catch off Bungle to dismiss Sharpe, Fishers looked to be back on track. Unfortunately, Reynolds had other ideas. Taking the bowling to the cleaners more times than a Bill Clinton suit after a meeting with Monica Lewinsky, he racked up an unbeaten 65, which, with the help of a quickfire 24 from Castle, set Fishers a demanding total of 187 to win. The best that can be said of the run chase is that it started well, when Dawko hoiked a four off the first ball. Three balls later, he was unlucky to be caught off a well-struck shot to cover, and the demise had begun. Summers belted some classy fours, in amongst some rather camp-looking reverse sweep efforts, before being bowled by a low long-hop for 15. In anger, he smashed the stumps with his bat, which everyone concurred was absolutely unforgivable. He should have used his feet. But worse was to come. After Egre and Watson fell for 8 and 10 respectively (Watson threatening to go home and ‘beat the missus‘), a batting collapse of seismic proportions ensued. Wickets tumbled faster than a whippet being kicked down an escalator. From 52 for 4, Fishers found themselves skittled for a meagre 73, thanks to a combination of accurate bowling, flying catches, poor shot selection and comical run outs. Dejected and deflated, Fishers traipsed off to the pub to drown their sorrows and reflect on what could have been…had we had 11 players… all of whom were better than the opposition’s. Man of the match: Si – for having the good sense not to turn up. SJFCC 172 for 3 off 34.2 overs WON by 7 wks against Washington 171 for 7 off 35 overs (scorecard here) Sunday July 10th, 2011 – Match Reporter: L.B. Williams
Fishers took the field bleary eyed and dehydrated, well some of the members who had crawled in that same morning from Andrew Watsons Braai – possibly not feeling all that great, great prep indeed for playing one of the toughest teams of the season. Outrageously Bungle won the toss and elected to bowl , banking on the previous good showings form the fishers Bowling Unit and ignoring the fact that one of the opp (who had been playing his natural game) had scored 190 the previous week The pitch (The weather was perfect, the pitch is in average good condition, the players are up for it, we should be in for a treat today) had been played on the previous day and had a good soaking so frankly it looked a good toss to win, looking for positives in the bowling performance, Bungle (bunger) opened up With Streaky from the mental institute end. Dave as mentioned in previous match reports has toiled well this year for little reward (using the facilities) and although placing the (heavy ball) cherry in the right areas (bowling wicket to wicket), the pace was just not there, enabling Dawko to actually catch some of the balls that the batsmen left alone, relief and shock all round – Dave finished fruitless (7-1-22-0) Bungle acknowledging every game is important, playing with full intensity (no dead rubbers here) swung into action up the hill in humid, overcast, swingtastic conditions (looking for some reverse swing). So it goes without saying it didn’t do anything at all. The prodigious movement on a week ago was replaced by well nothing until the by Ross first wicket, adjudged lbw, infact given, as it was a long hop (cafeteria bowling) that didnt bounce and found the batsman plumb (on the back foot), hitting about 2 inches high as he in vain tried to hook the perceived bouncer (He hardly gave any width. He tied the batsman and made them do something different. And got his reward for his discipline). SI then replaced Dave at the Mad wicketless end and promply did not hit the right area in anyway at all (Anils beer keg had no doubt contributed to a lack of focus (literally)) and fed his 3rd ball a-la-stuart-nurse-stock-wicket-taking-delivery, full toss to the batsman who smacked it straight to Oli, who to be honest had to catch it as he couldnt get out of the way as it was hit so hard – not for the first time this season Streaky could appreciate what a fine fair game cricket is. Luckily at the other end Ross continued to bowl well (really hitting his straps) and pressure was applied as Si also managed to pitch one or two (the corridor of uncertainty) (Ross: 7-43-2 and Si: 7-2-15-2). Matt, Oli, Waton Snr all had a trundle (fling), whilst Bungle finished off (bowling that is) with a couple or wickets, including a skier that Dawko took with aplomb, to keep the ‘Wash’ at a manageable 171 for such a strong batting line up. Tea was then consumed along with vast quantities of cake to absorb last nights indulgences. Keith (it does not matter how the runs come) and dawko (form is temporary class is permanent) then began the Fishers reply, a collection of dot ball utopian cricket awaiting the spectators (and 12th heckling man Robin) and the spectators were not to be disappointed. But steadily the score built, Keith (farming the strike), Dawko (milking the bowling), took the opening dairy farm score from 50, then to over 100 before keith (throwing the kitchen sink) – out for 52 (72 balls), dawko, nuggety (dropping anchor) in his accumulation of runs continued with Si (Taking the aerial route ) came in and attained two Natsbury Maximums (thats now 33 for all the fisherman so far this season) before getting run out. In next the engine of the fishers middle order (back in the hutch) and in prime form, Andrew Watson, came in and was prompty back out, a golden duck (gone without troubling the scorer). Luckily Fishers visiting illigal immigrant helped dawko (sticking to the basics) edge (again literally) home. No team deserved to lose but cricket won. Anyway both teams dodged the final rain and retired to the green dragon to look for 2 jugs and some beer. Later Herbert, 33, felt the focus on the BBQ tended to overshadow the fact there are plenty of other tough opponents out there for Fishers. “To beat Washington in our own back yard takes something special. I know we did it a few years ago but I felt at the time they were going through a bit of a rebuilding phase whereas they are now a very strong and setttled side. I don’t think we underestimate the size of the challenge ahead of us, but we can win out there. If we could then it’ll be a huge confidence booster ahead of a lot important cricket coming up.” Man of the match: Dr Dawkins (105 balls for his 74) ps. with thanks to Washington CC for the following images:  Caught Dawko - Bounced Bungle  Naveed Mir top edging Bungle, gratefully caught by Dawko
 Si bowls Aff Naseem SJFCC 71 for 4 off 16overs WON by 6 wks against Verulam dads 70 for all out off 16.2 overs (scorecard here) Wed July 6th, 2011 – Match Reporter: Mr Nurse Sir Isaac Newton hypothesized that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. He’d have no doubt felt his theory proven had he been at the lower pitch, Verulamium Park to observe that as the Cheshire cat grin on Kingy’s face got wider and more joyous, so the scowl upon the Boxer visage got fiercer and more miserable. The author has often noted in these pages that Dave Boxer has bowled admirably, nay; often un-playably without reward, and as he fizzed through his overs here to open the bowling and finish with figures of 3-0-10-0, which included several edges through the slips and an implausibly unusual dropped catch from Watson Snr, he could be forgiven for feeling that the world was against him;’ I sometimes wonder why I play this game’ he said to me in abject misery as Kingy’s 1st ball (an outrageous long hop )was slapped from a yard outside off, up in the air to present Reevo with a simple, and more importantly accepted, catch at Mid-on. But perhaps it was more than just the world against him? Careful analysis of the events by the author will show that a systemic conspiracy was underway, carefully manipulated by Master villain and Comedy King Kingy, to ensure that in a shade under 2 hours, he would decimate the bowling averages pecking order and advance to Fisher bowling domination. Consider the facts:
Conspiracies aside, two good wickets for an accurate Virji, and one each for Nurse and Egre meant that the much vaunted Verulam Dads batting line up succumbed for 70 off 16 of their venue-change-shortened 18 overs, though it has to be said that they contributed to their own downfall with 8 batsmen playing cross-batted swipes outside off-stump that all went straight up in the air. Except when Boxer was bowling. The number 1 featured heavily in Malc’s game tonight. Bowling figures of 1-0-1-1 were matched by his batting statistics of 0 of 1 ball. His first Golden duck apparently, though we’re all sure it wont be his last. Any hope of Verulam capitalising on this early wicket was dashed by the familiar Veldt swagger of Watson Snr who had scored 26* almost before he got to the middle. Reevo then showed his attending son that anything Verulam Dads could do, he could do better, by playing a cross batted swipe from outside off even higher into the sky than they had, and Robert Vale took 22 balls to score the slowest 4 in the history of the Club (though Dawko and Keith will probably give him a run for his money on Sunday). Captain Virji finally got a decent bat and brought the game home with 13*.
Man of the Match: Matt King was last seen in the Six Bells with a long- haired white cat on his knee, handing out brown envelopes to the opposition Batsmen. Dave Boxer has been admitted to the Priory and is currently under sedation.
Some short video footage:
Fishers went into the match against Sad Dads with a certain amount of trepidation. An unavoidable trip to Germany had robbed them of leading wicket taker Stuart Nurse – yes you read that correctly. That sentence did include the words leading, wicket, taker and Nurse. And no, before you check the previous scorecards, Fishers had not been playing primary school kids for the last month. Stuart really was our leading 20/20 wicket taker at the start of this game. Thankfully for Fishers, Sad Dads were also without their leading players. Alcohol, injury, work, other commitments, incarceration (delete as appropriate) meant that Noden and Button were absent. Having won the toss Cook decided to have a bat. Despite Boxer’s parsimonious opening spell matters started well for the Sad Dads and it wasn’t long before both Church (14) and Winford (27no) had reached double figures. With Sad Dads going along at a comfortable rate of 6 an over Anil decided to bring Bob (3 overs 0 for 9) and Bungle (3 for 14) on. At this point one member of the opposition remembered that not only had they forgotten to exchange club pennants, but they had also forgotten to bring theirs with them. Luckily, he realised that he did have some handbags with him and tried to exchange the female fashion accessories with Bob, who politely declined the offer of a new Hermes Birkin for Mrs. Little on the basis that he had nowhere to put it and wrapping it over his left shoulder would only hamper his arm ball. A similar offer was made to Anil, this time a nice black sequined clutch, but he too chose not to accept. The next ball which dismissed Franklin was just as good and meant that the first ball of his final over would be a hat-trick ball. Having bowled 2 in-swingers to take the last two wickets Bungle chose to bowl the perfect leg-cutter, which Campbell chipped to Ramsey (Bambi) at cover. Being a pre-adolescent cartoon deer he failed to get his hooves round the ball and dropped it. With the match finely poised Ramsey and the Man with the Golden Arm, Vale, took up the Fishers’ mantle. Despite bowling a decent line Chris finished wicketless. However, fine catches from Boxer and Dawkins (behind the stumps) ensured that Robert picked up another two wickets. With overs running out Cook pushed on to his 25 but a couple of sharp runouts by Anil and Dave meant that Sad Dads finished with only 105. Any ideas Fishers had of knocking the runs off in double quick time were dealt a massive blow with five wickets falling for under 50 runs! Marriot was trapped lbw for a golden duck – the first duck of his illustrious Fishers’ career! Dawkins fell the very next ball hooking Franklin to square leg. When Watson was bowled by Franklin for 8 the game looked well and truly over. Sad Dads were flying. By the 10th over Fishers were 29 for 4. Boxer strolled imperiously to the middle and smashed two fours before Holmes sent him packing with a fine away swinger. 13 overs gone, 6 wickets down! In came Bungle and curiously, given he had bowled one over for two runs and a wicket, off went Holmes. With Malcolm (12no) offering excellent support Bungle took Fishers to 93, a mere 12 runs short and with two overs to get them in. Having had his bowling put to the sword Ross was in the mood for revenge and within 7 balls he had seen Fishers over the line for the most improbable of victories!
Man of the match: Bungle.
SJFCC 72 for 3 off 13.1 overs WON by 7 wks against Road Runners 71 for all out off 30 overs (scorecard here) Napsbury Park: July 3rd 2011 – Match Report: Mr Nurse Although you could be forgiven for thinking that the title of this match report refers to the state of Andrew Watson’s Jock strap after his usual assault on the opposition bowling, or indeed the state of the opposition bowlers generally after the same routine annihilation, the fact that Watson Snr didn’t actually get a bat means it can only refer to the weather which had the ball swinging like a middle aged Radlett housewife. Another strong Fishers XI (well X to begin with as nobody checked whether Walmsley had said he was coming) took the to field after Bungle lost the toss and the Road Runners skipper took the surprising decision to bat in conditions that were more Nagpur than Napsbury. The lack of an 11th man meant that Bungles Stepson Ryan was once again press-ganged into service but because he had no appropriate clothing (and couldn’t get any ‘cos his mum got locked out of the house…but that’s another story) we fielded 10 men in white and one Death Metal Emo boy who intimidated the oldies in the oppo not only with his Iron Maiden T- shirt but more specifically with his throwing from the deep which repeatedly sailed over Dawkos head (although that’s not difficult), belied his years and had us wondering if there was anything but spinach growing on the Herbert Allotment. Bungle and Boxer opened with 5 over spells that were all but unplayable, and Bungle again had the better return with an astonishing 5-3-2-2. Both wickets clean bowled by balls that moved more than the width of the bats that flailed hopelessly around them. Brilliant, Brilliant Bowling. Dave ‘Streaky’ Boxer was again all pace and aggression but his additional bounce and probing line outside off stump meant that the Batsmen struggled to even lay a bat on him and rode their luck from that end. His 6-2-15-0 are decent figures from a perspective of economy but do not reflect quite how difficult he was to play. With the Road Runners having scored less than 20 off the first 11 overs, they needed to take some risks against the first change bowlers and duly came completely unstuck. Nursey bowling from his preferred M25 end got a considerable amount of movement when he bothered to pitch it, and even got a wicket when he didn’t thanks to a tumbling, juggling, 5 times parried effort at fine leg from Boxer that would have had Simon Cowell booking him for the final of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ in the circus skills section. Nursey, incidentally, got in First and booked him for the variety slot in the Potters Bar panto 2011. Another two were clean bowled including one that came in off a good length from 6 inches outside leg to take out the leg stump around the bemused batsman’s legs gave him figures from an unbroken spell of 8-0-16-3. Meanwhile at the Mental Hospital end, Si played with minds of the opposition, lulling the batsmen waiting in the pavilion into a false sense of security with his flighted but slow turners, and then ‘pinging’ their first ball in so fast they didn’t see it, putting them into such a spin that had the building behind the bowlers arm still been in business, they’d have seen a rush of custom. His 8-0-24-4 and Afnan’s bamboozling final over to pick up the last wicket confirmed that it was a bowlers day and the Road Runners were effectively out of the match unless they could produce a performance similar to their Home game against us, when they’d bowled us out for 75. There was nothing wrong with this wicket however, and Fishers, opening with Summers and Dawko, set about making short work of the 72 needed off 40 overs. Dave in particular was in no mood to hang about and thrashed a couple of 4s in his breezy 14, Dawko chuntered and chastised away to himself and the Umpire about his shot selection and how crap it was in the making of his 29 ball 22 (the umpire agreed) but was nevertheless prospering until making the odd decision to remove his protective headgear and ask the umpire if he wouldn’t mind holding his Helmet. Having got over the suggestive shock of this outrageous request, umpire and spectators alike then watched incredulously as the fresher air clearly went to his head and he flailed several times outside the off stump before the catch that had been offered three times in the over was finally taken. Olly Bayley made the most of his opportunity at No3 to see us home with 26 not out and Robin opened his innings at No 4 with a ferocious pull to leg off one knee. Unfortunately the only connection was between the ball to his back knee in front of middle stump and Robin has now commissioned Julian to build him a garden pond in which to keep his collection of Ducks. Fishers got home with 7 wickets and 27 overs to spare, which was useful as the splendid tea manufactured by Mrs Watson and Mrs Bungle (despite catastrophes of electrical supply and exploding tea urns) had turned most of the batting team into walking Jacket potatoes. Even Watson (who’s been referred to as a walking Jacket Potato more than once) couldn’t be bothered to bat. Many Thanks to the Road Runners, who put up a spirited and good humoured show, for the game and congratulations to Simon Marriot who wins man of the match award for his experienced and deadly accurate bowling, despite the author’s desperation to vote for himself and irritation at not taking a C&B that might have allowed him too.
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