On New Year’s Eve, to pass the time before Big Ben, (not Stokes for a change), did his thing; ourselves and a few other clubs were firing out Tweets about leading players and performances in the last decade; plus “Beginning of the Decade v End of the Decade” team pictures.
We contacted David Willis say that our thoughts were with him, and typical of the man he took time out to pen this reply.
It was very kind of you to write. Altough Bob didn’t play as many games at Stoke as I did it was certainly at the Stoke Rec that he honed his skills. We moved to the village from Manchester in 1954 and Bob and I were regulars at the ground on match days, carrying the players’ bags, putting the numbers up on the scoreboard and generally getting in the way.
Everyone connected with the Club is shocked by today’s news. Our hearts go out to David W and his family.
Former Chairman Chris Gudgeon, now living in Canada, has taken time to pen the below:
The news today is very sad.
Bob leaves so many memories as a friend, neighbour and hero to me as a child.
On his return from Australia as a replacement to Alan Ward on his first tour I went round to his house on Bray Road where he gave me an autographed list of all the players.
I still have that treasured item.
He loved Stoke D’Abernon CC, visited us many times and was always humble as to where his amazing career began.
Rest In Peace, Bob
This got our stats guys interested and we took a look at all the opening bats dismissed by Stoke bowlers in League cricket, (including Trust League and Women & Girls cricket), back to 1972 when we joined the South West London League. Since then we have also played in the Wey Valley League, the Fuller’s Brewery Surrey County League and, since 2009, the Surrey Championship.
The person with the most number of opening bat dismissals is still adding to his count. Adrian Mills reached 151 during the 2019 season; Mike Cooper, Ralph Coleman and Gary Harkett also have more than a century of opening batsmen in their pocket; the next highest is RUN OUTS with 94.
Run Outs leads the way in women & girls’ cricket, (22 occasions), so when looking at bowlers Nat Sciver leads the way with 18 closely followed by Rosie McEwing, (16), Charlotte Elworthy, (11), and Millie Frost…Millie’s brother Will features quite high in the overall club list having passed the half-century mark recently – not bad for a spinner.
He of pony tail also leads the way when looking at the number of times a player has dismissed both openers in the same league game, (25), although Toby Tarrant is steadily making his way up that list so it will be interesting to see if he can catch him up over time, and if so how quickly.
To the end of the 2019 season 244 different bowlers have dismissed an opening bat in league cricket, (add in run outs and another unique dismissal – see below), and we have quite an extensive list. 86 different bowlers have dismissed both openers in the same league game.
Are you on the list?
A breakdown per bowler/per competition is here – Opening Batsman Dismissed– so you can see if you have dismissed an opening bat, and how many times. There are four tabs:
* Number of openers dismissed (A-Z by bowler)
* Number of times a bowler has dismissed both openers in the same league game (A-Z by bowler)
* Most number of openers dismissed
* Most number times a bowler has dismissed both openers in the same league game
There has only been one instance of both openers being run out. This happened on the 9th August 2009 when Elizabeth Donkin and Suzie Wood effected the run outs of both Horsham’s openers. Scorecard : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/1195764
One other notable addition to the analysis occurred on the 20th July 1996 in a 2nd XI fixture where Old Guildfordians’ opening batsman was dismissed ‘Handled the Ball.’ This is the only recorded instance of a dismissal this way by a Stoke team, and will be a record that will stand for ever as ‘Handled the Ball’ will no longer go into a scorebook, for those who haven’t studied recent changes to the laws, handling the ball is now classed as one of the ways to be dismissed ‘Obstructing the Field.’ The scorecard for the game is here : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/2314207
We contacted a couple of our greatest servants to the Club who were on the field that day; coincidentally both have their umpiring badges so we can take what they say as gospel.
Mike Baker : “…this was actually straightforward, though I recall it took some effort to convince their player umpire to give it. The batsman decided to leave the ball and realising that he had made a mistake and it was going to hit he patted it away with his hand. Obviously not a quick delivery, Gary, (Harkett), bowling up the hill if I remember correctly. Keith, (Watson), was keeping and obviously appealed. I had a good view from my usual gully position. I think the uniqueness of the dismissal made it stick in the memory.”
Rick Mustill : “I have memory of someone stopping the ball rolling back on to their stumps – a bit Goochie like…but I’ll go with Mr.Baker and his concise explanation!”
Here is a link to said Graham Gooch dismissal : http://youtu.be/Ph126DUK0r8
As always, we welcome any feedback or stories from this analysis.
E-mail stokecc@hotmail.com or contact us via the @StokeDabernonCC Twitter page.
The 1st XI’s first ever match in Division 1 will be at home to Leatherhead; the 2nd XI start life back in Division 5 with the shortest of trips to Oxshott.
The full fixtures can be viewed here:
1st XI : http://www.stokecc.co.uk/2014-1st-xi-fixtures/
2nd XI : http://www.stokecc.co.uk/2014-2nd-xi-fixtures/
The revised list is here : SDCC Centuries and Percentage of Total (To the end of the 2019 season)
Harry’s effort against Cheam was only the 10th occasion where a Stoker has scored a century and the team has been bowled out.
Ali’s century against Dorking is also a statistical anomaly. Voted the best individual performance of the season by the players, (a round up of the awards will follow soon); it was the only century scored this year where the team didn’t go on to win the match; and it is also the lowest ever percentage of a Stoke total to contain a century…although credit of course to the rest of the team for making a total of over 300!
Links to previous articles:
* http://www.stokecc.co.uk/2016/12/23/centuries-making-up-a-large-percentage-of-the-total/
* http://www.stokecc.co.uk/2017/01/05/centuries-making-up-a-large-percentage-of-the-total-2/
*
http://www.stokecc.co.uk/2018/09/22/centuries-making-up-a-large-percentage-of-the-total-revisited/
Drew has received the following letter from the Surrey Championship:
Drew adds : We’ve already re-seeded the entire outfield and I’m waiting to receive confirmation from the council that we can proceed with cutting back the overhanging branches and foliage.
For the second week running Stoke were left to rue an untidy first phase of the match and a number of missed chances and lost a game that otherwise could have been won. This negative aside, it was another very enjoyable afternoon and a triumph for persistence and a will to get a game on; the players not deterred by a heavy shower that arrived just as they did to put the fixture in doubt. After waiting around, an inspection of the pitch delivered a “passable” verdict and the players decided to give it a go; limiting things to a 30 over contest given the ghastly forecast for later on.
With a bit more ‘league’ element to their side than when they faced us two weeks ago Kingstonian chose to bat first on winning the toss; brave given the pitch was spicy, but when have they ever left the pitch in the equation when they bat!
Consequently the field was spread pretty quickly as the bowlers struggled to find any consistent length – part of this down to the footing and the wet ball – making field placement near on impossible; the only ‘dismissal’ was young Saravanan who was dealt a nasty blow from an Andy Butler bouncer and went for a sit down to keep the game moving.
One immune from any criticism was James Morgan who did everything but take a wicket in his initial spell of four overs and his comeback two later on; swings & misses missing everything and difficult chances not sticking.
The breakthrough finally came when Drew Birch, who travelled through driving rain from Poole for his annual appearance, picked up the wicket of Joshi who chipped to Stephen Finch at slip; then after trying one swing too many Kedia hit to Moumer Khara at mid-wicket shortly after completing his half-century. Khara Snr caught the same player in the match we played a few weeks back.
Thereafter the sides traded wickets for runs in the closing overs. Shukla made the most of his early life and constructed a nice 28 before skyign a return catch to Andy Butler. Footage of this dismissal is on the Stoke Twitter feed, (@StokeDabernonCC for those not following us); as were the last two wickets, run outs effected by Arman Zaheen who saved many runs on the line.
Kingstonian closed on a competitive 193 for 5; chaseable but we needed someone to go big or a couple of big partnerships.
The chase started promisingly as Justin Jones smashed the first ball for four and cashed in on anything loose; but there was less hittable stuff served up by Kingstonain’s openers than Stoke’s. Jones, (15), picked out point with the total on 35; but Moumer Khara and Rob Butler kept Stoke on track with a stand of 48, the stand going from 38 to 48 as Khara Snr crashed a four and a six to pass 2000 career runs for the Club; but after a delay searching for the lost ball, he was leg before to then next for 48 attempting a repeat.
Butler Jnr had large periods where he couldn’t get the strike but had reached 33 at a run-a-ball in good time, passing 500 runs for the, (half), season in the process; but when he fell to a stinging catch at mid-wicket by the home skipper with the total on 118 and the asking rate pushing nines; the lack of lower order firepower ultimately proved decisive.
Not that the Stoke players didn’t give it a go despite it not being a natural game for many. Deepak Malhotra, who kept well again, was unlucky to be run out when his bat stuck in a used end; Zaheen and Finch were both stumped trying to hit grenades from Jacobs into the next parish, and Butler Snr’s entertaining 27 off 20 ended with 39 needed off the last 15 balls.
As expected this was an unlikely equation; Birch ran himself out coming back for two after his reverse sweep barely made it off the circle; leaving Morgan and Sameer Khara to register red-inkers.
The difference was 25 runs. Regrets, a few, but then again too few to mention. We got a game on and had fun.
So is that the end of things for the year? Well, it’s up to you. Get your availabilities in and we will see what we can do. Pitch availability will be a challenge if we’re too late but if we have numbers we’ll have a go.
Scorecard : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/4085958
Sunday 15th September 2019
Friendly
Chipstead Coulsdon & Walcountians 231 for 4 (40 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 194 for 9 (40 overs)
Chipstead Coulsdon & Walcountians won by 37 runs
While many have called time on their season or chose to watch events at The Oval as their cricket fix, 22 guys made the most of the excellent end of season weather and played out a fun game where, for a couple of periods, Stoke looked like chasing down a good score that was based on a century by a 1s player who carried his bat.
