Windsor Cricket Club

DOGGED WINDSOR CHASE THE HARE

Windsor 3rd XI 297-7dec (R.E Noble 82, C George 60)
Harefield 3rd XI 204-7 (M Petley 61no, D Bean 5-47)

Windsor 3rd XI closed the gap on league leaders Harefield to just 4 points after this bore draw at Home Park on Saturday.

As the week before at Chesham, Windsor won the toss and Noble decided to bat first and go for maximum points in the searing heat. Rob Noble and Kev Condon got Windsor off to a free scoring start but a few quick wickets in the middle order saw Windsor slip to 80-4 at the 20 over mark. However, from the moment Chris George strode to the crease in the 21st over Windsor’s innings took a sudden upturn with George hitting a plethora of boundaries. Captain Noble was quite content to play the anchor role at the other end. George eventually fell for a rapid 60 in the 36th over with the partnership just shy of the 100 mark. Alex Haynes joined Noble at the crease and was happy to knock the singles as Noble came out of his shell and soon passed the 50 mark. It was then that he exploded with some fine boundaries including one big 6 over long on. Haynes then joined in with the hitting as Windsor sped along as Noble ignored the temptation to declare, preferring to ensure that victory was beyond the means of Harefield which would mean at least Windsor would gain points over their rivals. Noble eventually fell for a fine 82 attempting one hit too many and after Andrew Doree had hit his first two balls for four Noble finally declared in the 51st over when Alex Haynes was out for an impressive 44 with Windsor finishing on 297-7.

Windsor came out looking for quick wickets and despite the first few overs passing without a chance, the Dean machine got the Windsor train moving soon enough as the opening batsmen picked out George Gould at cover. He then picked up another wicket quickly after that and Windsor were motoring. Kevin Condon was introduced to the attack as first change bowler at the pavilion end and was getting a lot of turn, unfortunately too much for the batsmen and for wicketkeeper George as the ‘byes’ column hit double figures but Condon did manage to snare a wicket when he turned one between the gate of the batsmen.

Dean Bean continued to chip away at the wickets from the Datchet end and when he picked up his 5th and Windsor’s 6th of the innings with the score yet to hit 100 Windsor set their eyes on victory. However a combination of an old worn ball offering little assistance to the bowlers and a superb innings of 61 not out from the Harefield left hander M. Petley combined the patience of Boycott with the odd boundary to dry up the wickets and to take his side past the 200 mark. Windsor managed to get one more wicket as Noble turned to the spin of Alex Haynes but yet again Windsor could not prise the last few wickets from the opposition and had to settle for 13 points. That is three weeks without victory for Windsor 3rd XI as they slip to 3rd place in the table, only four points off the top of the table however. Windsor tackle Farnham Royal away on Saturday looking to get back to winning ways and hope to get back to the top of the table as we enter the business end of the season.

posted by Windsor Cricket Club at 8:53 PM | 0 comments

YOUNG CHESHAM THWART WOBBLING WINDSOR

Windsor 3rd XI 222 (RW Noble 50, C George 39)
Chesham 3rd XI 156-8 (T Helm 71, R Gregory 4-49)

Windsor’s promotion campaign continues to stutter after one of the strongest Windsor 3rd XI line-ups the club has known failed to finish off a young Chesham side at Chartridge CC.

The team was 50/50 as to whether we should bat or bowl first so it was left to skipper Noble to make the decision if the coin came down in his favour. It was the archetypal “good toss to lose” scenario so there was no doubt we would win it, which duly happened and Noble took the impulse decision to gamble and go for the maximum points by batting first on a damp wicket.

That decision looked even less inspired as Kev Condon fell in the second over without a run on the board and George Gould (2) also fell quickly in the face of some very good and tight Chesham bowling which gave nothing away and after 10 overs Windsor were struggling at 16-2.

Skipper Noble joined opener Brian Davis (34) at the crease and together they began to repair the innings and put together a good, solid partnership until Noble was unluckily run out when a hard straight drive from Davis was deflected onto the stumps by the bowler. The Windsor batsmen continued to get themselves out after promising starts as Murray and Davis both skied catches and Chris George played a nice cameo innings full of impressive drives before falling for a 39 which really moved the total along. Charters fell quickly and Richard Gregory, batting at No.9 chipped in with some lusty blows including two big sixes to push the total over 200 and Rob Hodgson carried this on by hitting a massive six into the adjoining field before being last man out in the final over.

However, the glue which held the Windsor innings together was provided by veteran Robert Noble. Content to let the other batsmen take the limelight, he moved effortlessly into the forties with good solid batting by nudging and nurdling the ones and twos and keeping the scoreboard ticking before hitting a very impressive slog-sweep six over the longest boundary on the pitch before being run out after completing his 50th run in the penultimate over of the innings.

The sun had dried out the pitch by the time the Chesham innings got underway yet Windsor started the innings in the best possible way by taking three quick wickets to leave Chesham at 12-3 as young batsmen Helm came to the crease. Brian Davis took a wicket in his first over but the fifth wicket was proving a problem for Windsor as the two Chesham youngsters took the attack to Windsor and the game was back in the balance at 100-4 before an excellent piece of fielding between Gregory and young Steve Day contributed to a run out to break the partnership and Davis picked up his second wicket in the next over and Windsor were once again smelling victory. Yet again though, two Chesham youngsters came together to form a solid barrier to any progress Windsor were trying to make. Skipper Noble threw everything at the pair, rotating the bowlers and asking Charters and Condon to bowl some spin to try and tempt the Chesham youngsters into hitting out but they did not succumb and in a final throw of the dice brought opener Gregory back into the attack and he finally managed to get Helm out LBW and followed that up with another quick wicket, his 4th, and Windsor now required two wickets from the last three overs but they did not come as the Chesham colts held out for the draw.

Windsor have now been overtaken at the top of the league by Harefield who are the visitors to Home Park next Saturday in what promises to be a very tight and keenly contested match.

posted by Windsor Cricket Club at 9:44 PM | 0 comments

DATCHET PUT THE HATCHET INTO WINDSORS UNBEATEN SEASON

Windsor 3rd XI 224 (Gould 59)
Datchet 3rd XI 226-7 (Agawal 64, White 54)

Winsdor 3rd XI’s unbeaten run came to an end on Saturday after a poor performance in variable conditions at Home Park.

Batting first after skipper Noble had won the toss, Windsor got off to a flying start as Sam Jordan and Kev Clifford set about the Datchet openers in a positive manner and even after the loss of a couple of quick wickets George Gould carried on his form of last week with some excellent boundaries as Windsor scored at over 7 an over for the first 15 overs. However, due to a mixture of good bowling, a largely dead pitch and poor shot selection Windsor continued to lose wickets at regular intervals throughout the innings even though the runs were being scored at a good rate, helped largely to some big hitting from Kemp who made 31 and 28 from Alex Haynes in the middle order but after both these went in quick succession wickets continued to fall. Only Wigley made any real indent in the scorebook with a few boundaries in his 20no. as Windsor were eventually bowled out for 224 in the 42nd over, a scorecard containing no less than 5 LBW decisions (given by the Windsor players incidentally!) leaving Datchet with 58 overs to get to their target of 225 at a rate of under 4 an over. There was clearly going to be a winner in this match.

As the Windsor innings finished early it was decided to have 10 overs of the Datchet innings before Tea and Kemp got Windsor off to a perfect start by bowling the Datchet opener in his first over without a run on the board. The pace of Kemp was causing problems but Datchet continued to be positive and really went after the Windsor bowling, hitting many boundaries to pass the 50 mark inside 9 overs. Unfortunately for Windsor, in the last over before the Tea break Windsor put down a regulation catch to get rid of Datchet’s dangerous batsman Agawal which proved to be costly as after the tea break he continued where he left off (with a large slice of luck on more than one occasion) and in partnership with White, they hammered the Windsor bowling to all parts. Needing a wicket, Noble turned to the spin of Haynes and he brought an instant impact by getting rid of the free-scoring Agawal and in the next over Hodgson got rid of the new batsman and the two wickets in as many overs were exactly what was needed as Windsor tried to claw their way back into the game. Noble turned to Kemp in an attempt to get the next breakthrough but the Datchet batsmen White and Shepherd looked set to guide Datchet home as they passed the 200 mark with only 4 wickets down until the inspired change of bringing Haynes back into the attack did the trick with two wickets in an over getting rid of both White, with a high full toss which the batsman lost in the sun, and a wide turner which the batsman edged behind. Jordan also claimed a wicket as Windsor now sniffed a chance of victory and that nearly became closer in the next Haynes over but unfortunately another regulation chance was spilled at point and that was Windsor’s last chance as Datchet sealed a three wicket win with 13 overs to spare. Noble will be looking for a better all round performance next week to get the promotion bandwagon back on track as Windsor travel to Chesham.

posted by Windsor Cricket Club at 1:05 PM | 0 comments