Scorecard

Woburn Narkovians v Northwood Cricket Club Friendly XI on Sun 27 Aug 2017 at 1:30
Northwood Cricket Club Lost

Match report NORTHWOOD FRIENDLY XI vs. WOOBURN NAVRAKONIANS
27th AUGUST 2017

A bright sunny glorious day, that most at NCC would spend their winters dreaming about, gave us all a reason to be cheerful and optimistic as we took the field at Wooburn. It was the first time in all the time Rumpers had been playing at NCC that he could remember a Sunday away game but a party booking at the club was helping to raise much needed funds for the club. Hence it was worth a nice little jaunt into the Chilterns or so we thought……...
Rumpers had accepted a lift off Ram which turned out to be a big mistake. Satnavs can be very helpful; on the other hand, they can make you take twice as long as you need to. However it wasn’t just the Satnav that held us up. Ram had it in his head for some reason that Wooburn was somewhere near Hemel Hempstead. What Rumpers hadn’t counted on was that Ram had completely the wrong location in mind and the reason the Satnav wanted to take us towards the M40 was because Wooburn was closer to High Wycombe. Once Ram had realised where we were meant to be going, instead of taking us on the M40, the Satnav was determined to take us the scenic route, through every back lane, ending up in a cul de sac which with 10 minutes to the start time meant Ram had to resort to calling Watty. In his usual egocentric way of his, Watty took great pride in telling us that he had arrived at precisely 1.03 for a 1.30 start and that Rumpers better be sharpish else he would drop down the order. It soon became apparent that as Ram and Rumpers came closer to the pavilion, the location of which was marked by the glow off Watty’s baldy, that neither he nor the rest of the team had changed. To add insult to injury, it then turned out that Watty had won the toss and decided to insert the oppo….. apparently because his opener had been delayed! Watty all is forgiven……..
And so we took to the field. Nick Kenny started proceedings with some accurate, testing bowling on a very flat wicket which lacked any zip or movement. The Wooburn openers ran well between the wickets, running singles at will, and settled in, making it hard work in the humidity. Ram failed to call for a catch which left Rumpers perplexed at mid-wicket but it was not long before Ryan Pearce who bowled extremely well with some testing spin, eventually dislodged their opener, by going fishing, just after he had raised his bat. Tyler Pearce was not going to let his brother have all the glory so it was not long before he clean bowled their no. 3. Nick Kenny was amongst the action as he got two wickets, with Ram taking a superb catch near the boundary. It wasn’t long before Nick was back in the action with an under arm strike from mid-off running out their no. 4 who had been previously sucking a lemon as square leg umpire. The oppo then brought out their big guns who started to hit out in style, leaving Ram crest fallen and with the worst bowling figures of the game. Not even bowling in his sun hat from the other end improved matters as a six and fours a plenty came in quick succession. And so NCC were set a target of 194 from 40 overs.
Tea was delicious complete with scones and cream and well worth the trip in itself. It would be well worth having this fixture away next year! As he munched on a tasty coronation chicken sandwich, Watty announced the order, and it was not long before Nilesh and Rumpers were taking guard. It didn’t take Nilesh long to start getting the measure of the bowling attack and start using his eagle eye to pull, cut and loft the ball to the boundary. Rumpers was content to get his eye in and act as the anchor man, keeping Nilesh company despite the latters impatience which was to cost him dear. Ram had soon lost his bet that Rumpers would be out for less than 5 as a ball at head height was swatted to the boundary. It was not long before Nilesh had tried to hit the leather off a ball outside his off stump only to chop it on. There was then a succession of batsmen that came and went as Rumpers remained steadfast!! Kabir mastered the ‘leave’ outside his off stump but could not help mistiming a leg glance which popped up nicely for silly mid-on. This brought Watty to the crease who was soon making noises about his ‘hammy’, but being the man he is, he played on through the pain…well he would have done had he not smashed a ball from whence it had come only to be caught and bowled. Ranjit was the only other contributor of note who was soon complaining about his niggles,…. his back, his side, his big toe etc…. but it was raising his head to the heavens and taking his eyes off the ball which proved to be his downfall. Nick Kenny provided a late flourish together with some straight bat action from Tyler and Arun which shows they are great prospects for the future! And so NCC fell short, on 142 all out with Rumpers top score of 31.
The post mortem after the game included Nilesh and Watty discussing which of them had come out on top,…… straight bat versus across the line, crowd pleaser versus steadfast innings builder… I’ll let you decide. Everyone loves a scapegoat and so it was that Rumpers had to take the brunt of the likes of Watty, Nilesh and Ranjit who were quick to thrown stones in glass houses. If they stuck about and kept Rumpers company then the result could have been very different!! This is the lovely thing about cricket… you’re always learning!!
On the ride home, Ram appeared to be having some sort of mid-life crisis. Would Rumpers work if he won the lottery. Yes came back the answer. Would Ram? No came back the answer. However this did not seem to satisfy Ram’s enquiring mind who said there were plenty of other ways of leading a challenging life and that Rumpers was in danger of burn out. Rumpers tried to explain that Mrs Rumpers kept him grounded and in good shape so there was no need for concern. Perhaps Ram’s bowling figures were playing on his mind, or that he bowled out trying to slog…. Who knows….!!
It was a game which had the best of banter on a glorious Sunday afternoon in a picture postcard setting! What more could you ask…. well someone to keep Rumpers company out in the middle would have been nice… but you can’t have everything….

Rumpers

Woburn Narkovians Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 3w 4b 1lb 
for 7 wickets
11
194 (40.0 overs)		     
Will ct  K Mehotra b A Herai 50
Kenn run out  (K Watson) 42
A Pilgrim b  T Pearce 0
R Barber run out  (N Kenny) 0
T Wright ct  R Nandiraju b N Kenny 38
B Barkey b  R Nandiraju 26
D Braghton ct  K Mehotra b N Kenny 15
JH Kelly Not Out  6
A Regan Not Out  4
   
   

Northwood Cricket Club Friendly XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nick Kenny8.0031215.503.87
Ryan Pearce8.003300.004.13
Ram Nandiraju8.0145145.005.63
Tyler Pearce8.0043143.005.37
Arun Herai8.0038138.004.75

Northwood Cricket Club Friendly XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
13w 5b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
20
142		        
Nilesh Patel b  O Reaen 29 4
John Clifford ct  unsure b Barber 31 90 2 34.44
Kabir Mehrotra-Bhatia ct  J Kelly b O Labine 3 2
Keith Watson ct  & b JH Kelly 9 1 1
Trishul Patel lbw  JH Kelly 0
Ranjit Latchman b  Barker 23 3
Arun Herai ct  Keeper b Barber 5
Ram Nandiraju b  Bolan 9 1
Tyler Pearce ct  unsure b Dolan 0
Nick Kenny Not Out  13 1 1
Ryan Pearce b  O Brian 6

Woburn Narkovians Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Labine A5.002500.005.00
Labine C8.0130215.003.75
Beawin5.001600.003.20
Dreean5.021125.502.20
Barber5.011300.002.60
JH Kelly5.0127213.505.40
Barber3.01331.001.00
Pigma2.00700.003.50
KD2.00414.002.00