Scorecard

Abridge v Ongar Cricket Club Sunday XI on Sun 14 Jun 2009 at 2.00pm
Ongar Cricket Club Won by 91 runs

Match report It was a carnival atmosphere in Abridge……literally. As I sat in my car watching the Abridge carnival heading towards the village hall, I saw majorettes, jugglers, a marching band, a mark one Escort with Status Quo on the side – no, not the band, just the words Status Quo – and six, yes six, Bernie Clifton’s complete with Ostrich costume. As the village ‘bobby’, whose duties were extended to traffic duty, waived me on my way, I thought “hang on a minute, where were the clowns”? As I entered the gates of John Lockwood Park, my concerns were eradicated as I was greeted by the biggest clown of them all in the shape of Coles and his band of merry Abridge men.

In all honesty, I’m not sure that a toss took place and there may have been a pre arranged agreement that would see the visitors batting first, but indeed, Ongar did bat first and openers Tom Stock and Rakesh Bagga got the innings off to a careful but slow start, both I guess wary of the fact that they didn’t want to get out to the Abridge opening attack of Powelly and Mario. Sadly both were to fall to the Ongar bowlers masquerading as Abridge bowlers for the day with Rakesh (8) the first to go, caught by Gregg Cross off of the bowling of Powelly then with the total at 32, Tom (6) fell to Mario thanks to a catch by Kieran Horgan.

Sam Sweeting’s innings was all to brief as he was bowled for 7 by young George Padfield and despite a couple of lusty blows by skipper Matt Adcock, he to found himself back in the dressing room having been caught by Nick ‘the beard’ Elliott for 14. During the procession of wickets, Tom Hartington played a very good innings and was looking comfortable batting with Blake when he missed what appeared to be a fairly straight ball and was bowled by Greg Cross for 34. At 24 overs with the total now on 91 and five Ongar boys with their feet up, I have it on good authority that ‘Coles’ felt that the minimum 200 required was a mile off and he was confident that if he could get one more wicket, his boys would be chasing no more than 150. Fool.

Nobbler joined Blake in the middle and the plan appeared to be that he pushed the ball into the gaps, thus rotating the strike allowing Blake to hit the ball to the all corners of the ground. This plan worked well and with good running, the one’s became two’s and some of the two’s became three’s, much to the surprise of Blakey who was equally surprised at the amount of energy exerted by Nobbler and in 10 overs, the pair had put on 91. It was during this partnership that Coles provided the first comedy moment of the afternoon whilst giving chase to a ball in the direction of the clubhouse. As the ball reached the boundary, so did Coles, the only difference being that the ball stopped whilst Coles continued, sidestepping spectators and ending up on his backside in the clubhouse, bypassing the pool table and falling just in front of the bar. His eventual return to the field was met by laughter, cheers and applause and Richard Padfield reminding him that spikes are to be removed when entering the clubhouse! Blake was finally out for 77 (where was the applause for the 50 boys?) going for another big hit only to be caught by Powelly off of the bowling of Nick the beard.

This brought Josh Mocock to the wicket and shortly after, Mocock returned to the pavilion having been comprehensively ‘cleaned up’ by Horgan. His replacement, Paul Gill came in and hit a quick fire 20 including two big sixes and with one over left, Nobbler took 16 off of Powelly leaving him on 49 not out and the Ongar total on a healthy looking 232.

The Abridge reply got off to the worst possible start with Richard Padfield, the flat track bully, somehow managing to drag a very wide Tom Hartington delivery onto his off stump. You could hear the groans from the sidelines as the Abridge boys saw their star batsmen heading for an early shower. Dave ‘fun’ Phair was soon to follow as he too was bowled by young Tom leaving the home side on 20 for two from eight overs. The opening attack of Blake and Tom was replaced by skipper Madcock and surprisingly Nobbler, who was having a day off from behind the stumps. 20 for two became 40 for four as Nobbler’s off spin saw the downfall of Kieran who was bowled and Nick the beard, caught at slip by Nelly who looked suitably shocked and surprised that he had clung on to the ball.

The introduction of Nelly’s leg spin saw off Sam Cross (1), caught by Madcock and Powelly (1) was undone by a delivery from Nobbler that kept low and hit his off stump about three inches from the ground although Powelly will admit his foot movement was non-existent. How’s your luck!

At 45 for seven, it really was time to send in the clown – yes, Coles came to the wicket looking to impose some damage limitation and to restore some pride and with Greg Cross, they batted sensibly pushing ball into the gaps and hitting the bad ball. They were helped by Nobbler who somehow put down a straightforward catch at midwicket giving both Greg Cross and Abridge a reprieve (I guess if he had pouched it, the game would have been over a lot sooner so in his defence it was good for the game!!). The pair put on 71 runs but when Greg was finally out for 46, it really was game over. How was Greg out I bet you are wondering? Well, he was comfortably caught by Richard Watson off of the bowling of……. Mocock….yes, that’s Mocock. As you can gather, by this time, everybody bar the keeper was turning their arm over, so much so that there wasn’t enough room in the book to account for this and improvisation was required..

In between all of this, the comedy moment of the day came from Mocock who whilst attempting to field the ball, fell over. After regaining his footing and giving chase, he promptly fell over again much to the amusement of everybody within the ground.

Rakesh finally got the much sought after wicket of Coles who ‘skied’ one and was caught by his lodger, Blake for 37. It really was now just a matter of time and another moment of madness saw Mocock add a catch to his earlier wicket when he caught George Padfield off of the bowling of Tom Stock – his one handed effort saw him fall into a state of shock. Tom struck again shortly after leaving him with remarkable figures of two overs, two maidens and two wickets when good old Barry Cook was caught by Rakesh leaving Mario unbeaten on nought thus confirming a 91 run victory for the boys from Love Lane.

Skipper Madcock was quoted as saying “I’m well pleased we stuffed that lot” whilst Coles was more eloquent saying that 232 was always going to be difficult to chase down.

Better luck in the return game in August Coles you clown.


Six Bernie Clifton’s, there’s only six Bernie Clifton’s


Ongar Cricket Club Sunday XI Batting
232 for 7
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Tom Stock Caught  6
Rakesh Bagga Caught  8 1
Tom Hartington Bowled  34
Sam Sweeting Bowled  7
Matthew Adcock Caught  14 1
Blake Hall Caught  77 1
Neal Clark Not Out  49
Josh Mocock Bowled  0 1
Paul Gill Not Out  20
Richard Watson   1
Neil Hartington   1

Abridge Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
D. Powell9.0133133.003.67
M. Picceri8.0028128.003.50
G. Padfield6.0118118.003.00
G. Cross8.0061161.007.62
S. Cross4.004100.0010.25
K. Horgan3.0016116.005.33
N. Elliot2.0015115.007.50
D. Coles1.00700.007.00

Abridge Batting
141 for 10
Player name Runs
R. Padfield Bowled  T. Hartingdon 6
D. Phair Bowled  T. Hartingdon 4
H. Horgan Bowled  N. Clark 9
N. Elliott Caught  N. Clark 12
S. Cross Caught  N. Hartingdon 1
D. Coles Caught  R. Bagga 37
D. Powell Bowled  N. Clark 1
G. Cross Caught  J. Mocock 46
G. Padfield Caught  T. Stock 12
M. Picceri Not Out  0
B. Cook Caught  T. Stock 0

Ongar Cricket Club Sunday XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Blake Hall4.02900.002.25
Tom Hartington4.02824.002.00
Matthew Adcock3.00700.002.33
Neal Clark6.001836.003.00
Neil Hartington3.0113113.004.33
Richard Watson2.002100.0010.50
Rakesh Bagga3.0029129.009.67
Josh Mocock2.0010110.005.00
Paul Gill4.0021121.005.25
Tom Stock1.51020.000.00
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