T20 victory at Claygate

Thursday 10th July 2014
Claygate 143 for 5 (20 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 144 for 2 (17.1 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon won by 8 wickets

A glorious sunny evening in Claygate and Stoke continued their winning run in friendly cricket.

The hosts deviated from tradition and elected to bat first on winning the toss, although this owed to not having a full compliment at the start time – indeed the match kicked off late as latecomers were given every chance to change.

When play began, Claygate did get off to a flier as Ross and home skipper Webb plundered 33 runs off the first four overs. There was also a healthy helping of extras, the leg-side wide being in operation and two runs awarded with no extra ball.

The partnership was broken when Ross was sent back having pretty much run two, Dan Gluckman firing the ball in to Will Thomson.

No.3 Thorpe is a new signing for Claygate this year and looked an accomplished player, drilling the first ball he faced back over the bowler’s head for four. He hit two more boundaries, but fell to an excellent catch in the deep by Greg Routley off Richie Parrett.

Change bowlers Ed Ashwell and Ben Holder shared the next four overs, Holder’s figures were spoilt by a combination of the small boundaries and some curious fielding by one who shall remain nameless.

No.4 Cowell hit a brisk 20 including a six and three fours, but was bounced out by Ashwell who completed a catch off his own bowling to make it 87 for 3.

Stoke then locked things down. Harry Ross started with eleven dot balls, the ninth of which accounted for former Stoke colt Henry Nicholson who burned a lot of dots in making 2. Next man Boyce also had a similar batting experience, taking a long time to make just 5. Ross returned the standout figures of 4-1-5-1.

Ashwell, (3-0-15-2), returned for the final over to collect Boyce’s wicket, a period of play that saw Webb complete an unbeaten 50, (5×4, 1×6), which could have been more but for some extra emergency fielding as a result of the aforementioned nameless fielder winging the ball at the stumps with no-one backing up and the batsmen safely home.

The innings closed on 143 for 5, a total that included by 39 extras.

In reply father and son combination Will and Rod Thomson got the chase off to a good start adding 38 in 4.1 overs; Will checking out on 22 when he jammed down on a ball drifting into his pads and it rolled back on to his off stump dislodging the bail.

After giving himself a ball to play himself in, Greg Routley hit the next one for four, and went on a hitting spree that had people running for cover. He was particularly hard on Oscar Nicholson, and the total raced past the 100-mark half-way through the twelfth over.

Rod T ensured family bragging rights were his when he reached 25 before skying one to the keeper, (104 for 2); but Routley continued to smash the ball to all parts, completing his half-century off just 25 balls. He hit a sixth six before retiring to give others a chance.

Dan Gluckman, (16 not out), got some useful time in the middle ahead of his weekend League matches, and Holder made the winning hit in the eighteenth over to complete the win.

Our thanks to Claygate for their usual hospitality, to Paddy Nicholson for keeping score, and to Nick Lo for captaining the side and making sure everyone was involved and had fun.

The next T20 cricket Stoke will play will be league format as we start our Under 19 T20 Blast campaign at Camberley next Thursday.

Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/view_results_details?id=11940125