Stubborn batting from Chipperfield Clarendon in vain as Crocker blasts another ton

Sunshine greeted us at Hervines Park, Amersham. The pitch was a bit of a park pitch, but we’ve played on a lot worse in the Middlesex Leagues. Late arrivals were Naz, who arrived just before the start, and Sanket, who had stopped to give First Aid to an injured cyclist on the A41 – I suppose you have to if you’ve just ran them over. Skipper Flavell won the toss and inserted the opposition after seeing their previous weeks stonewalling of Flitwick (91-5 from 48 overs).

Jon Bird and Dan Penny opened the bowling, with Jon bowling his usual excellent accurate lines and Dan bowling a combination of full tosses and long hops which were punished by the aggressive openers Warren Gregory and Nick Wood. There were several drops in the field and Dan saw a slash through gully just in time to stop it removing his square Germanic head, before Gregory was bowled by Wingnut for 42 (67-1 from 14 overs). Dan made amends for his wayward bowling with an excellent catch which again he picked up late, turning a routine catch into a great one handed diving take. Naz joined in with the catch dropping fun, dropping the dolliest dolly at cover then nearly taking catch of the season, an ankle high diving one handed catch at gully which only popped out on landing. Wingnut, bowling at medium pace for the first time this season, bowled some lovely lines, and the runs dried up almost completely with maiden after maiden. The 6th wicket fell in the 37th over with the score on 107, 40 runs having come from the last 23 overs!!! The Chipperfield captain and vice captain played themselves in, then hit out in the last few overs in a partnership of 54 to take the score on to 161 for 6.

Pinch hitter Crocker set about the loose opening bowling with relish whilst Piers played the more conventional one-handed opener role. The score raced to 51 in the 9th over when Piers padded up to a ball which he should have played and ‘Trigger’ Penny had no option but to give him out LBW for 11, with Crocker not out on 34. Zaf Basit came in and played the straight man to Crockers onslaught which continued, although he was dropped twice. As the Village raced towards the winning total the only question was ‘Will Crocker get another ton?’ It was looking a bit iffy as Zaf had a fair bit of the strike and was scoring freely but Crocker scraped past the line.

Conclusions
Too many catches dropped gave the oppo a much higher score than they should have got but it gave us a decent total to chase and cost Crocker another jug.

Mill Hill Village IIs 30 points, Chipperfield Clarendon IIIs 9 points.