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28th September 2025
Match report J
Simon
Oh dear... another season draws to a close. But in spite of the wet
outfield, the rain, the long grass and a 70 over shortened match; what a good
game it was to end with!Crescent won the toss and chose to field first, and Jim and James opened up, keeping out the good balls of which there were an enormous amount, and, as always with long grass, good shots of which there were an enormous amount went for ones and noughts of which there were an enormous amount. James cracked a lovely timed square cut for four, following it up with a pulled six but was out too soon playing on as a ball from Powell kept a little low. Tony joined Jim, and, though the bowling didn’t falter through the first change, he was able to pick off three fours and an on-driven six before he, too, was out bowled by the tricky N Newman, but the scoring had, as always with Tony, advanced somewhat owing to his swift 36.
Jay, in at 4 and new to the club, settled in, and when Jim who was opening out a little was out in the 22nd over, gloving a rising ball from the pacy Sree through to the keeper, in came Henry who sorted it all out and was soon off and running. These two accelerated nicely, especially Henry who timed the ball sufficiently well to hit five fours which took some doing on this long, wet grass and who also clipped a low six into the copse. Jay, too, stroked a loping six over the mid-wicket boundary, and a looming low total (no names mentioned thank you very much) morphed into something quite respectable as the innings neared its end. Henry, backing up how reliable a scorer he is, was out just 3 short of another 50, caught by Morris, and Jay, advancing down the wicket was stumped off an unrecorded someone. Kanishka only had an over or two to execute all his batting instructions, but this he did with some energetic running and hyper intent, ending on 13 not out, with Michael looking every inch the cricketer he is at the other end.
37 overs taken, and 163 on the board which, in the circumstances, was a tremendous effort, with no one failing with the bat in the face of, especially earlier and then from Sree (5 overs 3 maidens, 1 for 9), some excellent bowling from the visitors. In Sunday ways the bowling did ease up a little through the middle overs, and Henry especially capitalised on this. He does time the ball well and off it goes, plus he’s awareness of runs and the ability to run them added up to a fine 47 that was, together with Tony’s 36, the heart of the TWCC innings.
The state of the game was evenly poised at tea (thank you Kanishka), as, thanks to the upsweep of TWCC’s scoring curve, Crescent’s target of 164 to win in 33 overs looked like being a fairly stiff challenge. However, on the other side of the equation, TWCC taking ten wickets in just 33 overs would also be difficult to say the least.
But lest we forget, TWCC had Henry.
Henry’s first wicket was, as is often the case, bowled. As was his second. And his third, come to that, which came immediately after his second, raising the spectre of an all-bowled hat... didn’t happen. But his figures of three for 4 in his first three overs certainly took the game to at least DEFCON 4.
Rananjay, who opened with Henry, proved quite hard to get away, but was wicketless on this occasion, was replaced by James who did his best with the slippery ball and his length and line were perfect even if gripping the ball was impossible, and, indeed, in his first over he had Morris trapped LBW.
But all this early success brought the excellent Sree to the middle, and he was soon scampering to such good effect that ones were made into twos, and ones were made into threes. He’d clatter the ball straight to a fielder and sprint off up the wicket shouting “Three! Three! Three!” where there was only a single, until, after the dust had settled we realised he had, indeed, somehow added three to the total. Great scoring, and he was able, with his aggressive running, to keep the strike perhaps more than he should have been able to, but this is where ten men in the field are something of a handicap. J Gatford, who we know bats well, came in at 6, and these two began to seriously threaten the target, until Kanishka rushed him a little and he top-edged a hard pull up to deepish mid-on where Jim somehow held on to the skied ball. Crescent were now 84 for 5 with 16 overs to go – this could end up a tight game because Sree was still in, still wearing out his partners with double-speed running, but TWCC only now needed 5 wickets for a win, and it began to look as if it really could go either way.
James was still doing well with the soaking wet ball, and he took a second wicket as Wood followed a wider ball, tried a cut that found a thin top edge that Tony, keeping and standing right up, held in quick time as his arms lifted up to take the catch shoulder high to his right. PC Moment of the Day, and now, with Crescent 89 for 6, only 4 wickets were needed for a home win.
Henry came back for the last of his 7 overs, but Sree was on fire taking 16 off these two overs, and it was up to Brocky and Jim to slow the march towards the target, and this they did, and, what’s more, a run out from Henry and a couple of wickets as Jim hit the stumps upped the game to full DEFCON 5 as, with three overs to go twelve runs were required from Crescent for a win, but just one wicket for TWCC would see the spoils going to the home side.
Sree was, for once, kept to a single off the first ball of Brocky’s penultimate over, and as only an extra was added during the rest of it, this left Crescent requiring 10 off the two final overs. And Sree was on strike as Jim ran in - but some curiously reasonable balls went down. A scrambled single, and then another, but Sree was then kept quiet and was unable to take the strike for the last over of the game.
Eight runs were now needed for a Crescent win, and Cook, surrounded by close fielders, had one job to do; get Sree on strike.
And, in spite of best efforts all round, this he did on Brocky’s first ball, but then three dots in a row did their work as singles were no good to Sree who needed to be on strike. Well done Skip.
Great fun.
Two balls left.
Seven runs needed by Crescent.
One wicket needed for a TWCC win.
Brocky ran in, Sree facing, and Sree cracked a boundary four! Oh!
Three to win, one ball left, and Sree’s wicket would cost Crescent the game.
Sree struck the final delivery into the outfield, no boundary... Sree runs like the wind... but even he couldn’t manufacture more than a single and a draw it was.
But there are draws and draws. With just one ball to go all four results were possible, and both sides had done well to get to this point. Almost incidentally it had been raining for much of the game, and both sides had bowled with a wet ball, with the same ball being used throughout the whole game, but in the context of the way the game evolved it was a secondary issue.
TWCC had batted well to get 164 on the board, and Crescent had done the same to all but equal it. Runs were hard to come by right through the game, and whilst it’s right to draw attention to those on both teams who scored in spite of the conditions, and, for Crescent, Sree not out on 65 must get a speical mention, Skipper Brock and his fielding side did well to almost take all ten wickets inside 33 overs, with Henry leading the way and James, Kanishka and Jim chipping in along the way in a game that was an exciting tribute to the joys of well-captained Sunday cricket.
With thanks to Jay and Ranunjay for their commitment to our cause, and to Michael for once again stepping into the firing line, without either of whom it might not have been possible to play at all, it was a happy way to end yet another season, and something to dwell on as the sap sinks. But that essence of cricket will be stored down there in the clothes drawers and festering kit bags, ready to surge up again as the Earth makes steady progress around the solar system at 67,000 miles an hour heading, inexorably, towards all the joys of that first game in 2026.
TWCC HQ the day after the last game, looking as if it's truly ready for the end of the 2025 season
Scorecard
Toss won by Crescent who chose to field first in a 70 over (37/33 over options game, draw possible)
TWCC Innings: J Simon ct wk bld Sree 18; J Taylor bld Powell 19; T Pearce+ bld M Newman 36; Jay st bld unrecorded 23; H Short ct Morris bld B Cook 47; K Bhattacharya not out 13; M Short not out 0. DNB R Shekhawat, R Brock*. Extras 7 (B1, LB1, W2, NB3) Total 163 for 5 (37 overs).
Fall: 1-19, 2-74, onwards unrecorded.
Crescent Bowling: T Powell 7-0-23-1; F Newman 7-0-20-0; B Cook 7-0-32-0; N Newman 7-0-26-1; Sree 5-3-9-0; J Morris 4-0-371.
Crescent Innings: J Morris LBW Taylor 4; Chi bld H Short 4; J Hughes bls H Short 4; A Lambert bld H Short 0; S Laricakhua(?) not out 65 (aprox - it's impossible to read such a low res photo); J Gatford ct J Simon bld K Bhattacharya 14; M Wood ct T Pearce (wk) bld J Taylor 5; F Newman bld J Simon 12; N Newman run out (H Short) 4; T Powell bld J Simon 2; B Cook not out 2. Extras 16 (B5, LB1, NB7) Total 162 for 9 (33 overs).
Fall: 1-5, 2-12, 3-12, 4-39, 5-84, 6-89, 7-136, 8-150, 9-152.
TWCC Bowling: H Short 7-0-32-3; R Shekhawat 4-0-17-0; J Taylor 7-0-27-2; K Bhattacharya 6-0-39-1; R Brock 6-0-29-0; J Simon 4-0-11-2.
Match drawn.
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