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September 27th 2026
The last game of the year already. Where was the fifty? The five-for?
Buying a jug for... anything? Perhaps those days have receded along
with my hair. (More like gone - Ed.)83
catches in the season
Match report Jim Simon
But we have one last game to report; Brighton and Hove Crescent Cricket Club, or just Crescent as they shall be known as we progress (if we progress) arrived promptly and we were ready to go only a few minutes after 12:00 which is always a bonus in late September when the nights draw in and rain threatens. John Morris, Crescent’s captain, won the toss and chose to bowl first in a 76 over (36-40) win, lose or draw game. The weather was bright enough, but rain was forecast later on. Jim, guest skipper again, chose to keep the powerhouse batters in their customary places, and so Ed it was who was Paul’s No.2, and the two of them set the home side on its way. The bowling was sharp enough from Alex (Lahood?) and Noah and TWCC’s openers saw off much of this early bowling eagerness in fine style, Paul in particular capitalising on anything loose and cracking fours through the covers at assorted distances off the ground. Ed, caught behind off Alex, was first to go, with 20 on the board, and then Tony’s innings was also somewhat short-lived just nine runs later, when he slapped a wide ball from Noah too uppishly to extra cover. TWCC 29 for 2 with 7 overs gone. Now we come to one of the finest partnerships of the season as Henry, fresh from his 67 in the previous game, joined Paul, and the two passed their fifties with, yes, some big shots, but also lots of pulse-raising increasingly suicidal singles which on this day just happened not to end in some sort of disappointment. But survive they did until, after having been in the middle for 28 overs, Paul was caught at cover point off Sree, out for 60 runs - an innings that had irreversibly moved WinViz into TWCC’s favour, and which, happily, had ended in something other than a run out. That’s all I’m saying. Anyone requiring further elaboration should ask Rob for his thoughts. Rob had looked a little pasty before the game, but the quality of the running seemed to have acted as some sort of tonic. Notwithstanding Rob’s fever Paul had ended the season with a true return to the sort of form TWCC has enjoyed being part of over the years, which bodes well for 2027. Henry, of course, was still there. Not just still there, but having been in a partnership of 156, yes, 156, with Paul, he was on 91. Yes, 91. What a lot of runs from these two. Henry’s straight and on-side clips, punches, drives, and pulls all seemed to have the hedge in mind when they left his bat. Rohit joined Henry, batting at 5, and he helped to steer Henry back into a calm simple place, from where he hit three singles to take him to 94. Three calm singles from Henry whilst Rohit’s first scoring shot was a 6, which he followed with a 4, then a further... well, we’ll come back to Rohit for here was Henry, on strike again, focussed. On 94. A slightly short ball; Henry fodder. A simple-looking pull up into the tree department for a six to take him to 100! What an innings, so full of good defensive strokes, so full of knocks for ones and twos, and so full of patient strong shots over the infield to, and over, the boundary. Well done Henry, and Rohit was there to see him over the line which was great to see. Henry decided he would retire on 100, and he was rightly applauded off the ground. Meanwhile the innings continued, Rohit had somehow already scored 35 in no time, the total was 230, and we were still only in the 34th over as Rob walked in and stroked a few comprehensive well-timed boundaries for fun. Rohit joined in and all in all it wasn’t long before skipper Jim felt comfortable declaring, giving TWCC 39 overs to have a crack at Crescent after tea. Maybe this was an over later than needed, but looking at the Crescent team... well, anything’s possible and it only takes a couple of big hitters to stay in. We’ve seen it before. Tony and (Jan) provided a lovely tea, thank you both, and soon we were all out there again, the conditions still broadly dry and there was George with a new Readers County Match A in hand. George. We don’t see him often, but he does seem to have this thing with his bowling. It doesn’t look much, but it drops onto a good length, just sort of hangs about dangerously, and then pops up, or goes past, or between or under and there he is, with an LBW in his second over. Kanishka was less successful, but still into some good bowling, but George seemed to have the magic as Nayar pushed too hard at a bouncing ball outside his off stump which he hit to James’ left. James has little recollection of this catch, but Crescent’s scorer wrote “Unreal catch!” in their book and indeed it was. James dived to his left, with two upturned hands out beyond him, and when he was safely lying on the ground in the recovery position there was the ball in his hands. Unreal indeed. And George wasn’t done. This was a wicket maiden, his next two overs were both maidens, and then Jim took a simple catch at mid-on to give George figures of 7 overs, 3 maidens, 3 for13. Impressive! And much-needed if ten wickets were to be taken. Jim replaced Kanishka and with the ball still nice and new he got some good late swing. It actually says “unplayable” and “truly great bowling” and “remarkably good deliveries” here in the notes handed to me by Sharon, but, well, oh, alright...go on... oh, surely not... oh - thanks Sharon... ok, let’s say Jim bowled ok, keeping Sree and J. (sorry, don’t know his/your Christian name) Gatford quiet... until Gatford hit him for three fours in a row in what, unsurprisingly, was suddenly the last over of Jim’s spell. Along the way, however, there had been a bit of proper cricket as the late swing caught the outside edge of opener Liddiard’s bat and the ball nipped past Paul’s right glove and settled in Tony’s shoulder-high upturned hands at first slip. PC. By this point Crescent were 4 for 51 with 23 overs left to either survive or to score 209 runs at 9 an over, which puts TWCC’s potent batting into perspective. But this last wicket had brought Gatford in, and we know what he does, and since he was doing it it was time to bring on Rohit with his pacy swinging bowling, and a bit of Ed from the other end. Ed, regular readers will know, is generally our opening bowler, often taking several wickets quickly at the start of proceedings, but this role had been given to his brother George by skipper Jim, with the intention of having Ed’s penetration to hand when the power of a quality middle order needs to be catered for. Thus it was that Ed had seven overs during this critical phase, and there was another piece of PC as he had Sree caught at slip by Tony – a sharp chance given Ed’s pace, and Crescent were five down, Sree out for just 6 and having never really got going. A dangerous batter out of the way for TWCC, and from this point on it was clear that Crescent were not going to be able to chase the target down, so the challenge for TWCC was now simply to take ten wickets to avoid being held to a draw. Ed’s overs done, the rain beginning to fall more heavily, it was time for a bit of Rob. When I say a bit, I mean a bit, for as Rob’s characteristically accurate and fast good balls were kept out by Gatford and No.6 Nayer, it seemed as if something unexpected might just winkle a false stroke rather than Rob’s inability to bowl a bad ball allowing the batter to focus on nothing but defence. And there’s nothing more unexpected than Charlie, so after just one perfectly good over, Jim took Rob off (probably never happened to him ever before) and there was Charlie. Gatford faced up to Charlie’s... natural variation, and as he had been lofting everything over mid-wicket three fielders on the roadside boundary were in position. A two to Rohit at long-on. A six over Jim and Ed’s head onto the road. Feed the beast, Charlie... a four. Another four... then another big high... not quite a six! Ed was under the ball, just inside the boundary, and the winkling happened as he held on to very good hard high catch! Gatford out, Charlie had done the biz. By now it was getting a bit dark, and so it seemed as if it wasn’t right to wind Rob up any more, and so Charlie had another over, James bowled some very economical overs from the pavilion end, but as Nayard and newly in No.8 Frank Newman were finding no trouble in keeping such a, by now, wet and unprepossessing ball out, the writing was on the wall and the draw loomed. Nayard and Newman did all that was required and stayed there. Even a couple of Tony overs couldn’t provoke any misdeeds and the game drizzled to a draw with Crescent on 165 for 6 after 39 interesting overs. Captain’s thoughts include the need to ask Rob for forgiveness for not immediately giving him the ball back again after Charlie’s wicket-taking over, and though there were mitigating circumstances – the drizzle, the failing light, the wet ball – it is possible that Rob might well have made inroads into Crescent’s tail. However, with decisions made at the time Charlie had more of a game, Tony got a bowl having left the batting early, and , well, one can’t wind back the clock and have another go. A draw to end the season, and there was still much to celebrate with TWCC's 259 for 3 batting, and in there was a glowing century from Henry. Centuries are special, hard to achieve, and the partnership of 156 between Paul and Henry that led to this season-capping golden moment happened right there in front of our eyes and will be there to warm our cockles over the long, cold, inteminably uncrickety months to come. Scorecard Crescent won the toss and chose to bowl first in a 77 over (36-40 win/lose/draw) TWCC Batting: P Hunter† ct (cover point) bld Sree 60; E Howes ct Gatford (wk) bld A Lahood 5; T Pearcect Gatford (wk) bld N Nayar 4; H Short not out 100 (ret'd); R Pruthi not out 44; R Rydon not out 20. DNB C Howes, J Taylor, J Simon*, K Bhattacharya, G Howes. Extras 15 (B1, LB3, W11) Total 259 for 3 declared (37 overs). Fall: 1-20, 2-29, 3-185, 4-230 though this was Henry's retirement. Crescent Bowling: Alex 7-0-42-1; Noah 7-1-41-1; Neeraj 6-0-26-0; Frank 5-0-50-0; John 5-0-61-0; Sree 7-0-33-1. Crescent Batting: O Liddiard ct T Pearce bld J Simon 28; J Birch LBW G Howes 5; S Nayar ct J Taylor bld G Howes 3; R Eastwood ct J Simon bld G Howes 0; S Lakkakula ct T Pearce bld E Howes 6; J Gatford† ct E Howes bld C Howes 52; N Nayar not out 24; F Newman not out 14. DNB A Lahood, J Morris*, N Newman. Extras 13 (B4, LB2, W6, NB1) Total 165 for 6 (39 overs). Fall: 1-11, 2-28, 3-44, 4-51, 5-74, 6-139. TWCC Bowling: G Howes 7-3-13-3, K Bhattacharya 4-0-29-0; J Simon 6-1-30-1; E Howes 7-1-31-1; R Pruthi 6-0-20-0; R Rydon 1-0-3-0; C Howes 3-1-21-1; J Taylor 3-2-5-0; T Pearce 2-0-13-0. Match drawn. Top of page |
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