Long Itchington Cricket Club

It is with great regret that I announce the recent death of one of the clubs former players Gerald Twaite. He played for the club in the late 1970’s shortly after it was reformed in 1976 until he left the area in the early 1980’s.

He was formerly a rower and was a renowned coach in that sport. He died suddenly whilst on holiday, a cruise, in Gibraltar.

His funeral is being held on Thursday 13 August at 2.50pm at Stourbridge, West Midlands crematorium. Our thoughts go out to his wife Pippa, daughter Alison, son Nick (also a former player) and grandchildren.

Cotswold Hills League Division 5
Played 8th August 2009

Long Itchington 2nd XI fielded a strong team in all departments for their first encounter of the season with close neighbours Kineton 2nd XI, the first fixture being a washout.

Kineton lost the toss and Itchington skipper Smith asked the visitors to bat. Buchholz and Hudson opened the bowling and Kineton’s first wicket fell with the score on 8 when Hawkins was bowled by Hudson. The next wicket fell at 63 only after an excellent spell by Buchholz his ten overs going for only 18 runs.

Kineton throughout their innings found that runs had to be earnt as the Itchington bowlers stuck to their task, unfortunately missed fielding and dismissal opportunities by the home team would prove the difference to the outcome of the game.

Good sensible batting by Johnson (36 n.o.) and some lusty blows by Wullatt (33) boosted the Kineton score to a respectable 165 for the loss of 6 wickets.

At tea Itchington were confident of reaching the required total but Kineton soon had the home team on 16 for 3 before a good stand between Jones and Rogers (37) of 105 tilted the game towards Itchington but good captaincy by Brown who used his bowlers skilfully to make the task of reaching the required total extremely difficult.

Jones with an excellent 77 did his utmost but when he was out with the score on 150 the other batters could not maintain the charge and Kineton won the match by 6 runs.

Kineton 2nd XI 165-6, Long Itchington 2nd XI 159-7.
Kineton 2nd XI won by 6 runs.

Long Itchington 2nd XI 6 points, Kineton 2nd XI 18 points

With three games to go Long Itchington are still very much in control of their destiny to win division 5, they need to win the remaining 3 games to finish as champions. What they do need to do as individuals is to look at their own performance on the field should they have chased the ball harder, should they have concentrated more at the wicket, did they play that big shot to early, should they have run that first run quicker, should they have bowled a tighter line, to be an ultimate winner they all need to up these things by at least 10% and the Division 5 title is theirs.

M Rawbone (capt)

J Clarke (wkt)

N Brooks

R Cressey

W Grindal

A Jack

T Perks

A Wood

M Clark

S Chapman

T Cooper

S Chapman

R Cressey
J Clarke
A Jack
S Franks
S Mitchell
S Parsons
C Elkerton
P McKenna
M Woodyer
M Greaves

Long Itchington 2^nd XI were eagerly awaiting the return match with Bidford on Avon 2^nd XI as the first match had been such an exciting battle ebbing to and fro to both sides with Long Itchington eventually triumphant.  Surely the match couldn’t be similar?  How wrong we were!

The LI Captain again lost the toss and the Bidford skipper asked LI to take first knock on a pitch that had been uncovered overnight and was damp to the touch – obviously a bowling dream.

Foster and Smith batted cautiously on a pitch that was exploding and taking lumps out of the surface to the Bidford quick’s.   The first wicket fell at 26 in the 15^th over, and then Smith on 19 was bowled with a ball the kept low – 30 for 2.  Wickets kept tumbling and at 68 for 6, the previous week’s batting at Catney was being repeated, then up steps the ever reliable Crump who joined the confident Jones to build a stand of 43 before Crump was unluckily out for a good 20.  Jones found another ally in White who carved a season’s top score of 14 n.o. and the last over was hit for 17 to reach over 150 and gain another valuable batting point.  Jones finished with an excellent 54 n.o. which included 2 sixes.

Tea was taken with LI on 153 for 8, the win looked on for Bidford on a much improved drying batting wicket and at 72 for the loss of only 1 wicket the Long Itchington task looked ominous.  Smith’s captaincy was being tested but he found a saviour in Cooper who bowled quickly to take 1 wicket for 18 in his 10 overs which put pressure onto the Bidford batsmen who had to start taking risks. 72 for 1 quickly changed to 76 for 4, including a quirk of brilliance by that man Jones. The dangerous Whiting had arrived at the crease and an appeal for lbw was turned down.  Jones’s sharpness in noticing Whiting was out of his ground ran him out.  This was the turning point of the match, bowlers stuck to task and Bidford needed 18 to win off the last over, game to LI and a hard earned 17 points to the good. 

All 5 bowlers bowled extremely well.  Buchholz 1 for 30, White 3 for 37, Cooper 1 for 18, Hudson 2 for 34 and Crosthwaite, who had to bowl the key overs at the end of the innings, 0 for 14 off his 5 overs.

Special cameo mention of the day must go to Foster, not this time for his batting but for his 2 excellent catches at cover point which helped towards Long Itchington’s win and keep them at the top of the league.