Long Itchington Cricket Club

Please meet at the pond 12.00am
1) Nick Brookes
2) A Jones
3) Alex Jack
4) Martyn Rawbone
5) James Clark
6) Mat Cox
7) Will Grindall
8) Steve Rawbone
9) Steve Chapman
10) Andy Wood
11) S Franks

After exam exertions the u17s at last had their first game of the season away to Rugby. LICC won the toss and decided to bat on a very variable bounce artificial pitch. Nathan Hooker (48) and Jamie Breakwell (30) got Long Itchington off to an excellent start but we were pegged back by a superb spell of bowling by John Solway (4 for 20 in 3 overs) for Rugby. Then in came Tom Pugh who hit a fine 40 not out in just 28 balls to allow LICC to reach 143 for 6 wickets in 20 overs. A good score considering the pitch conditions.
In reply Rugby struggled to gain any momentum as good opening spells by Jack Jobling and Ryan Stephen tied them down to 38 for 3 after 8 overs, then all LICC`s bowlers chipped in to reduce Rugby to 64 all out after 15.1 overs. Jamie Breakwell 2 for 7 and Ryan Stephen 2 for 14 led the way for LICC and Shoab Mohammed top-scored with 15 for Rugby. So LICC u17 start their season with a good 79 run win.

Please meet at the ground at 1.oopm

 1. G Foster

 2. Z Aulakh

 3. T Crosthwaite

 4. R Eadon

 5. G Insall

 6. P Mckenna

 7. N Sandy

 8. A Smith

 9. N Smith

10. C White

11. S Wood

On winning the toss in the last of their Warwickshire League matches the Itchington lads decided to bat. Berkswell bowled very well and Brennan Lumby and George Barber batted very correctly to go through the first four overs without loosing a wicket. Will Eadon and Harry Grant continued the good work and kept the scoreboard moving in the right direction. Jamie Haywood and George Heaven (in his first game) started the acceleration both hitting some excellent shots to put on 16 for the third pair with both hitting 8. James Rawbone and Ethan Jones finished off the innings well with James hitting a couple of 4’s and Ethan batting well and was not out. The lads finished on 231 with only 3 wickets lost, this being the best effort of the year especially against a quality bowling attack.

Jamie and Brennan opened the bowling with Brennan taking a wicket in his first over, a superb diving catch from Will. Both Georges then bowled well with George B taking 2 excellent wickets in his second over to bring the game back to parity. Will and Ethan continued to put the pressure on with Ethan’s first over only going for 1 and Will’s second over a maiden. Berkswell continued to bat properly and crept ahead but an excellent yorker from James gave a glimmer of hope. With no runs off the bat in Harry G’s over, a couple of wickets would have made it interesting. The Berkswell batsman stood firm however to win by 16 runs.

The lads continue to improve with every game and are playing good cricket, tonight if a couple of chances in the field had been taken the result could have gone the other way. With the majority of the side being new to cricket a record of three wins against five losses and a mid table finish is a fantastic effort, not to mention three wins from three in the Rugby League.

Long Itchington II visited Catherine-de Barnes (or was it Glastonbury) to find an uncovered wicket which to say the least was a bit damp so the toss was going to be crucial, this was won by Catney and LICC were asked to bat first, openers G Foster and R Eadon got off to a steady start as not only the batsmen were struggling in the mud also the bowlers were struggling to stay on their feet, Foster was first out in the 9th over and A Jones joined Roger to carefully and slowly get us to 55 off 20 overs when Roger was next out for a patient 27, however the next 10 overs saw only 20 runs being scored with the loss of another 3 wickets including the wicket of A Jones for 19. Steve Franks looked the only LICC batsmen to be coping with the conditions but when Catney bowler Turner came on and took 3 wickets in his first over and another wicket that of last man C White, Steve was left high and dry on 18 not out and the Long Itch innings finished on 104 all out. Credit must go to the Catney bowlers for bowling a good line and length and for that man Turner with figures of 3.3 overs 4 wickets for 9 runs.
With the wicket drying out only slightly after tea 105 wasn’t going to be easy so a couple of quick wickets were needed but it wasn’t going to be LICC’s day and with Catney’s captain Carl Gallimore not going to give his wicket away cheaply they slowly got to the total for only 2 wickets down one being an excellent run out by Tommy Crosthwaite, all Itchingtons bowlers bowled well with Andy Smith picking up the other wicket.
We have to put the defeat down to being one of those days and get back to winning ways next week!