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Penkridge CC Blog 2nd June in Association with MA Lawyers
Penkridge CC Blog 2nd June in Association with MA Lawyers
I’d missed playing on the weekend of the 25th & 26th May – the Saturday saw me playing football in a customer event from work at Molineux, which was something not to be missed for a lifelong Wolves fan.
Even if I was reminded why I retired from playing football a number of years ago! On the Sunday, I was invited to play in a charity game at my old club Rugeley, which raised over £1500 for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, a fantastic cause very close to the hearts of some close friends of mine.
On a Penkridge note, the Bank Holiday Sunday saw our annual six a side competition, and the grand opening of the Don Briggs Memorial Wall. Don was a club member and our treasurer for over 50 years, and it’s very fitting that he should be remembered in this way. The larger area in front of the pavilion for players to sit, along with a new patio, wall and steps look fantastic and provide a permanent reminder of a great club servant.
Performances of note from the Saturday games that weekend included Abdullah Awan (64) and Rana Hassan (50) in the first team; Ian Brown (53) and Sabawoon Zazai (82) who shared a stand of 132 in the second team; whilst with the ball Sam Smith took 3-37 in the first team, with Jon Price (3-23) and Richard James (6-48) performing well with the ball in the seconds.
On Saturday 1st June, the first team travelled to Wombourne and continued their strong start to the season with a comprehensive 94 run victory. Batting first, our total of 198 all out owed much to the efforts of Attiq Chishti (40) and Ishaq Mohammed (70). In return, Kashif Hussain (2-10), Laeq Chishti (3-19) and Attiq Chishti (3-12) ensured that Wombourne were bowled out for 104.
The second team recorded an excellent victory in a high scoring game against near neighbours Fordhouses, who made 262-8 when batting first. Jack Pope (3-59) and Myles Davis (3-37) were the pick of the bowlers before Sam Horobin (36), Paul Szewczyk (59) and captain Pope (77) ensured the victory target was reached with five balls to spare and two wickets remaining.
The third team travelled to Whitmore Reans, and watched the hosts rack up an impressive 350-7 on an artificial wicket with small boundaries that proved to be very unforgiving for the bowlers. Matt Jenkinson (2-81), Tom Porter (2-77) and Ollie Deakin (2-68) stuck to their task well, and despite the high run rate our fielding remained excellent throughout. Whilst the victory target was never really threatened, we recorded a creditable 214 all out, with Ollie Deakin (56) and Kev Baker (67) the top scorers.
On Sunday, the first team travelled to Wall and won a low scoring but entertaining game. Unfortunately, the scorecards were not available at the time of writing.
The second team entertained Burton and were eventually beaten by four wickets. We totalled 207-9 from our 40 overs largely thanks to Ollie Deakin (38) and Tom Porter with a maiden half century, as he finished on 80 not out from just 56 balls. Burton reached their victory target for the loss of six wickets as Jon Price (2-39) was well supported by son and daughter George and Libby who took a wicket apiece, as did both Deakin and Porter.
My game for the weekend involved captaining the third team at Whitmore Reans in what proved to be quite a challenging afternoon. Losing the toss and being asked to field first on an artificial wicket that offered no help to the bowlers against a powerful, aggressive batting line up was always going to be tough. With three of the boundaries being quite short, thick edges were flying for four and six (as well as some very good shots). With a pretty young side, it would have been easy to fold but the likes of Will Birch, George Price, Libby Price and particularly Benji Lawrence all fielded superbly, before a creditable effort with the bat saw us bowled out for 214.
Having dosed myself up on ibuprofen and applied various strappings before the I kept wicket reasonably, although it feels that my mobility is being hampered by a hip problem (and probably old age!) at the moment. I felt in very good touch with the bat, reaching 67 in the 22nd over but was then furious with myself and very disappointed to get out to a rather soft dismissal when very well set. With 28 overs left in the innings, a really big score was there for the taking – and whilst I’m in good form with the bat, I need to kick on in these innings and cash in whilst the going is good.
The first team have started the season well and sit in third place, the second team sit in mid table, and the third team are currently sitting third from bottom – although a win on Saturday would have left us in third place in the division. Plenty to play for with the season being about a third of the way through.
