Hornsey Cricket Club 1st Team v Harrow Town CC on Sat 14 Jun 2008 at 13.00
Hornsey Cricket Club Lost
Hornsey Is v Harrow Town Is
Harrow Town 160 all out (44.3 overs; Marty Tucker 7-55)
Hornsey 140 all out (50.3 overs; Andy Tyler 38, Duncan O'Connor 30*)
Harrow Town won by 20 runs.
Despite a reshaped side, Hornsey suffered a groundhog day on Saturday. Again we won the toss, again we stuck the opposition in and bowled them out for a manageable total and once again we failed in our run chase despite having plenty of overs available. The highlight was Marty Tucker's impeccable 7-55 on his league debut for the firsts, a golden display of wicket to wicket bowling offering nothing for free over 16 and a half overs. He single-handedly pulled us back into the game after their openers had begun with an ominous 60 partnership in the first dozen overs.
Needing a change, acting captain Chet brought on Marty and his fourth ball evinced a thick edge to second slip where Zarig Cooper snapped up a scintillating one handed catch. That moment of brilliance sparked us into life and we proceeded to put a dangerous Harrow Town top order under constant pressure. Tight bowling reaped several LBWs as well as an excellent stumping from Alex Scrini, who stood up to Marty all afternoon. It was soon apparent that their tail began at six, which made it a shame that their free-hitting number 5 managed to hang around long enough to reach a fifty but we still dismissed them for 160 in under 45 overs.
Our response was brisk for the first five overs, but they had early success through their first change bowler, who nipped out both Sceens and Matt Williams. I don't want to make a habit of noting bad LBW decisions against us - these should hopefully even out over the course of the season – but both our openers had reason to feel aggrieved. The fulcrum of their bowling attack was a left arm spinner who had a lot of turn and some good variation and control, allowing their captain to rotate his other six bowlers around in short spells at the other end. He was a very good bowler at our level, but we made him look like Johnny Wardle for his first 8 overs, by which point he had taken 3-8, and we were splintering away at 59-6.
At this stage Andy Tyler and Duncan O'Connor's seventh wicket partnership brought us back into the match. Tyles hadn't played a shot in anger for a month but he brought all his authoritative qualities to the wicket, flaying several crisp boundaries in between resolute defence, with Duncan dropping anchor at the other end. Just as they had brought us up to 108, the partnership was severed after 49 runs when their change bowler crept through Tyles' defences. Duncan immediately took on the role of the aggressive batsman and drilled a series of boundaries to keep the scorecard rattling along whilst Marty played himself in. Sadly, no sooner had Marty signalled his intent with a massive six then he was sawn off for 10; the innings subsided shortly afterwards for 140, with Duncan standing on the burning deck with an unbeaten 30.
Harrow Town are now top of the table and 30 points ahead of us as we lie second from bottom. They had some good top order stroke players and arguably the best spinner we've come up against in the league so far but little else other than that – they were carrying almost half the side. That we lost to them and find ourselves lagging so far behind in the table is unquestionably disheartening. We should instead remember that we pushed them very close and that there was little between the two sides. Those words may sound empty at the current moment but we must remind ourselves of what we're capable of before losing becomes too great a habit.
Author Johnny Marr
Harrow Town CC Batting
160 for 10
| Jadunath |
30 |
Caught |
| Herath |
30 |
Lbw |
| Theophile |
8 |
Stumped |
| Jadunath |
6 |
Bowled |
| Javed |
59 |
Lbw |
| Parshotam |
0 |
Caught |
| Patel |
0 |
Caught |
| Sejpal |
7 |
Caught |
| Sardar |
0 |
Caught |
| Malik |
1 |
Not Out |
| Desai |
1 |
Lbw |
Hornsey Cricket Club 1st Team Bowling
Hornsey Cricket Club 1st Team Batting
140 for 10
Harrow Town CC Bowling
| Sejpal |
5.0 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
0.00 |
2.80 |
| Theophile |
5.0 |
2 |
18 |
0 |
0.00 |
3.60 |
| Sardar |
12.0 |
2 |
33 |
3 |
11.00 |
2.75 |
| Desai |
17.0 |
8 |
28 |
5 |
5.60 |
1.65 |
| Malik |
5.0 |
1 |
16 |
1 |
16.00 |
3.20 |
| Herath |
2.0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0.00 |
2.50 |
| Javed |
4.3 |
1 |
10 |
1 |
10.00 |
2.22 |