Long Itchington Cricket Club

Played Saturday, June 9th 2007

Itchington battled well in the face of adversity on Saturday but ultimately came up short.

Arriving for their first ever game at the well appointed Twyning ground with a depleted bowling attack they lost a player immediately prior to the start of the game and after losing the toss appeared to be in for an afternoon of leather chasing.

An eventful first over saw chances to dismiss both openers not taken. The top six batsmen all got to double figures as they liked to put bat to ball but the visitors came back into the match after 49-0 had been posted in 8th over.

Martin Clark 2-34 and Will Grindal 1-23 bowled well despite 35 from S Goodwin, and 25 apiece from McVicker and skipper M Goodwin. At 153-6 off 39 overs, with Martyn Rawbone taking 2-29, the home side escaped via a quickfire 22 from Coates although Richard Cressey proceeded to take 3-1 see a rapid decline to 187 all out in the 44th over.

In reply Itchington got off to a solid start before losing their first wicket at 41 in the 15th over. However some tight bowling by M Goodwin (1-17 off 10) aided by some poor shot selection enabled Walker to take 5-46 as Itchington slumped to 90-6, George Insall 35, by the 29th over.

James Clarke was joined by Martyn Rawbone as 37 was added in controlled fashion before the returning Coates took 3-9 (all lbw) including Clarke for an excellent 48 and Rawbone 18. The last pair took the total to 167 before the game was brought to its conclusion with 4 overs still remaining.

Played Saturday, June 2nd 2007

It was a case of deja vu for Itchington’s first XI as a good bowling display paved the way for victory.

The visitors arrived to find a wet and under prepared strip and chose to field upon winning the toss. After a wicket in the 2nd over the home side advanced the total slowly to 22 before a flurry of wickets saw the score slip to 35-6 (Jenkins 10).

Williams from no 7 batted doggedly and he and Harrison added 22 before another collapse to 56-9. Williams succumbed finally in the 44th over for a top score 20 with only 73 on the board and all 5 LI bowlers taking wickets. Brian Phillips (10-6-9-3) and Martin Clark (10-4-11-2) being particularly frugal.

With the pitch playing better Graham Foster (15) and George Insall (22) put on 39 before change bowler Bannister (10-4-22-3) began causing problems. Despite 18 from Aaron Jones there was a middle order wobble before victory eventually came by 5 wickets in the 36 over of a very low scoring encounter.

Played Saturday, June 2nd 2007

Itchington II’s suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Broadway II’s as they collapsed to 57 all out chasing 200.

The afternoon had started pretty well for Itchington with Broadway being restricted to 69-4 off the first 20 overs with Steve Crosthwaite bowling straight through for 2-38 and Tom Perks picking up (unbelievably) his first wicket of the campaign. Burford and Phillips first consolidated and then begain to take charge with some powerful hitting putting on 111 for the 5th wicket. Phillips in particular being very severe on anything loose hitting 4 sixes and 6 fours in his sixty.

Luke Fogarty’s introduction into the attack accounted for Phillips in a spell of (10-1-36-2) and the returning Perks(10-1-26-3) got Burford but Broadway reached 200 off the final ball of the innings to gain maximum batting points.

In reply Itchington folded like a pack of cards and with only Perks (10 not out) and Sandy (12) reaching double figures as Burford (2-0-3-3), Garenza (10-3-14-2), and Horsburgh (5-1-7-2) ran through the batting order like a dose of salts.