Dodgers v Science Museum

Barnes Common
6pm
20 overs
No retirement rule
Weather: Light drizzle

Dodgers 119 for 4 (Qureshi 33, McBarron 26*) beat Science Museum 103 for 4 (Cousins 4-1-7-1) by 16 runs

Man of the Match: Cousins - 4, McBarron - 4, Paterson - 1

Scorecard

Innings of Dodgers
 
Taylor     c ?       b Edwards           5
Qureshi    c ?       b Crispin          33
Priest     lbw       b Robinson         15
Matthews         c & b Crispin           2
McBarron   not out                      26
Paterson   not out                      13
__________________________________________
Sub-total                               94
Extras                                  25
Total                                  119
 
DNB: Cooper J, Cousins, Orwell
 
FoW: 1-20, 2-54, 3-72, 4-72
 
Bowling of Science Museum
 
Alex
Henman
Robinson
Crispin
Stoddart
Baig
 
Innings of Science Museum
 
Humphreys  lbw       b Cooper           23
Levett               b Cousins           0
Baig       c Priest  b McBarron         16
Martis     run out (Paterson/Matthews)  21
Page       not out                      18
Stoddart   not out                      14
__________________________________________
Sub-total                               92
Extras                                  11  
Total                                  103
 
DNB: Egan, Proctor, Henman, Robinson, Elliott
 
Bowling of Dodgers
 
Orwell    4-0-27-0
Cousins   4-1-7-1
Paterson  4-0-15-0
Cooper J  4-0-24-1
McBarron  4-0-20-1

Dodgers v Science Museum

Barnes Common
20 overs
6pm

Dodgers 161 for 2 (Priest 61, Dollin 37) beat Science Museum 112 all out (Cooper R 3-0-19-3, Hilary 3-0-11-1) by 4 runs

MoM: Priest - 5, Cooper R - 3, Lee (P-RAIL) - 3

Scorecard

Innings of Dodgers
 
Priest                    b Humphreys       61
Dollin                    b Rye             37
Lee (Pete-RAIL)           not out           40 (18)
Fox                       not out            9
______________________________________________
Sub-total                                  147
Extras                                      14
Total                                      161
 
DNB: Carr, Cooper R, Paterson, Cousins, Hilary, Lowe, Cooper J
 
FoW: 1-84, 2-106
 
Bowling of Science Museum
 
Elliott   4-0-16-0
Sandiford 4-0-24-0
Baig      4-0-39-0
Rye       3-0-20-1
Humphreys 3-0-16-1
Robinson  1-0-19-0
Gouk      1-0-18-0
 
Innings of Science Museum
 
Humphreys                  b Cooper R       26
Gouk                       b Cousins         0
Baig          lbw          b Cooper R       26
Sandiford     run out                        6
Martis        c Lee (Rail) b Hilary          6
Rye                        b Lowe            7
Elliott                    b Cooper R        5
Egan          run out                        4
Robinson      run out                       24
Thompson      not out                        1
______________________________________________
Sub-total                                  104
Extras                                       8
Total                                      112
 
Bowling of Dodgers
 
Paterson 4-0-22-0
Cousins  4-0-24-1
Cooper R 3-0-19-3
Hilary   3-0-15-1
Lowe     3-0-13-1
Cooper J 3-1-13-0

Dodgers v Science Museum

South Park
6pm
20 overs

Dodgers (Priest 43*, Qureshi 26) lost to Science Museum (bowling figures missing). Details and scorecard to follow.

Science Museum v Dodgers

South Park
20/20
6pm

Match report by Mike Dollin

Dodgers won the toss and chose to bat on what was a traditional "sporting" wicket at South Park. This mix of shooters and poppers undid Tawhid (lbw 1), Priest (ct fine leg from a bouncer 4) and Westhead (ct and bowled from a mistimed pull 0). Dollin survived the odd scare to help rebuild the innings with Carr, Jc playing on manfully after a horrible beamer struck him on the forearm. At the half way point Dodgers were just hanging on at 34-3.

First change bowlers offered some relief but it was plain that Science had recruited well in the off season as the bowling remained tight* and the fielding disciplined. And they reaped their rewards as attempted acceleration saw off Carr (bowled trying to off drive 5), and Hillary (bowled from an absolute grubber 5). Dollin and Fox carried Dodgers towards 100, helped as ever by the generous spirit of Science museum's skipper who started with pace, but when one shot past the batsman's head from a length, switched to offspin. Dollin was bowled trying to work a good length ball to third man (missing the only top of off stump ball all game 35), which left the conclusion of the innings to the power hitting of Fox (16 n.o) and Lowe which carried Dodgers to 107, with Lowe unluckily run out from a direct hit off the last ball (6).

The weather turned for the reply- grey clouds closed out the sun, and the first stabs of the rain appeared, but Science got off to a solid start and were doing all they could do on that pitch- dig in for the good balls, punish the odd bad one and put the inside edges, leading edges into space and wicked variations in bounce out of their minds. After the strike bowlers of Fox and Hillary had been seen off wicketless, Science were handily placed- up with the rate and wickets in hand.

Lowe was unable to force the breakthrough off his inital two, nor Streatfield. But when Roberts came on and induced Science's skipper to edge to Cat (he walked straight away as gentlemen do- 15) Science started to lose their way. Next over Will was struck over cover for an imposing 4, but Humphries tried to repeat it next ball off a faster flatter delivery and was bowled through the gate (36). Vic "Wally" hustled to a fast paced and well timed 15, but was given out in mysterious circumstances - perhaps ct behind (though Kim hadn't held it) perhaps lbw. In any event he left shaking his head and despite offers of recall he did not return.

But while Will picked up another wicket to finish with a very useful 3, Science were still well placed going into the last 4 overs needing just under a run a ball. They kept in touching distance -17 off 3, and then 11 from 2. Brendan bowled a fantastic penultimate over conceding just 2, leaving David to bowl the last defending 9. A nerveless last over was going about honours even when, needing 5 from 2 balls-Tombling hit a skier to cover and Brendan never looked like missing it. Though somehow he did and it left Science a good chance with 2 for the tie and a 3 for the win off the last ball. With nerves finally kicking in, as Dave confessed afterwards, Mr Lowe bowled another good block hole ball, Tombling could only force to cover and he was run out- Dodgers home by 2.

A great encounter with a very decent oppo, and I'm sure they'll be looking forward to the return encounter in a few weeks to try again for the victory they should have had last night. For ourselves it was a hard fought scrape that arrests the recent run of defeats, and is perhaps all the more pleasing as for almost the entire game it looked as if we would were heading for another defeat, but clung on and managed to nick it.

If bowling stats seem a tad light in the above report, it's because SM strengths don't stretch to full scoring - as last year there will need to be some run allocation emails amongst the bowlers to arrive at figures.

* When on the wicket. SM conceded 30 extras in the innings and then were very generous with their calls of wides at the start of our defence. This was possibly the difference between the sides.

Dodgers Batting
 
Dollin           b Tomlin      35 (44 balls)
Qureshi    lbw   b Wooley       1 (7)
Priest     ct ?  b Sanderson    4 (8)
Westhead   ct ?  b Sanderson    0 (4)
Carr             b Nolan        5 (15)
Roberts          b Travis       4 (4)
Hilary           b Nolan        5 (8)
Fox        Not Out             16 (16)
Lowe       Run Out              6 (7)
_________________________________
Sub-total                      76
Extras                         31
Total                         107/8

dnb Streatfield, Matthews

Science Batting - 105/5 (Levett 36, Dodgers bowling figures not available but 3 wickets for Streatfield and 1 each for Lowe and Roberts). 2 catches for Matthews, 1 for Hilary.

Dodgers bowling*

Streatfeild 4-0-21-3
Lowe 4-0-21-1
Fox 4-0-21-0
Roberts 4-0-21-1
Hilary 4-0-21-0

* - estimated runs (total runs scored divided by 5 for each bowler)

Result - Dodgers won by 2 runs

Dodgers v Science Museum

South Park
18:00
Away
20 overs

Dodgers 140 for 6 (Peirce 43, Hilary (J) 40) beat Science Museum 78 for 9 (Paterson 4-1-9-3, Sitou 4-2-16-3) by 62 runs.

Scorecard

Innings of Dodgers
--
Qureshi              b Humphreys     7
Dollin               b Humphreys     8
Peirce      c ?      b (Mr) Dudley  43
Priest               b Humphreys     0
Sandamas             b Nolan         0
Hilary               b Humphreys    40
Sitou       not out                  8
Radcliffe   not out                  9
______________________________________
Sub-total                          115
Extras                              25
Total (for 6)                      140
--
dnb Lowe, McB, Paterson
--
Bowling of Science Museum
--
Sandyford 4-1-16-0
Humphreys 4-0-20-4
Nolan 4-0-22-1
Rye 2-0-20-0
(Mr) Dudley 4-0-26-1
Hansen 2-0-28-0
--
Innings of Science Museum
--
Levet                  b Paterson     4
Nolan                  b Paterson     5
Humphreys              b McBarron    14
Zingerman    c Dollin  b Paterson     1
Grandton               b Sitou        0
Rye                    b Sitou        2
Travis                 b Sitou        5
Hansen                 b Lowe         0
Sandyford    lbw       b Lowe        10
(Mr) Dudley  Not Out                 15
Scott        Not Out                 10
_______________________________________
Sub-total                            66
Extras                               12
Total (for 9)                        78
--
Bowling of Dodgers
--
Paterson 4-1-9-3
McBarron 4-1-13-1
Sitou 4-2-16-3
Lowe 4-0-15-2
Radcliffe 2-0-9-0
Qureshi 2-0-11-0

Dodgers v Science Museum

South Park, Parsons Green
6pm
20 overs
Weather: Wet

Science Museum won the toss and elected to field

Dodgers 128-5 (Paterson 46, Radcliffe 21, Peirce 19) beat Science Museum 122-6 (Cousins 4-2-14-1, Adey 4-0-30-2) by 6 runs in a late-night thriller

Man of the Match: Paterson - 10, Matthews - 1

Scorecard

Innings of Dodgers
 
Peirce       stumped    b Levett     19
Paterson                b Asif       46
Marr         lbw        b Levett      2
Priest (N)              b Levett     13
Radcliffe               b Humphries  21
Matthews     not out                  3
McBarron     not out                  0
_______________________________________
Sub-total                           104
Extras                               24
Total                               128
 
FoW: 1-57, 2-60, 3-78, 4-112, 5-127
 
Dnb: Cousins, Lee, Adey, Cooper
 
Bowling of Science Museum
 
Humphries 4-0-17-1
Malcolm 4-1-13-0
???  4-0-28-0
Levett 4-0-31-3
Asif 4-0-33-1
 
Innings of Science Museum
 
Nolan                   b Adey        9
Levett                  b Cousins    24
Baig       c Peirce     b Lee        13
Hump                    b Adey       21
Holcombe   not out                   24
Crampton                b McBarron    8
Hansen     run out                    1
Travs      not out                    0
_______________________________________
Sub-total                           105
Extras                               17
Total                               122
 
Bowling of Dodgers
 
Cousins 4-2-14-1
Cooper 3-0-26-0
Lee 4-0-19-1
Adey 4-0-30-2
McBarron 4-0-19-1
Paterson 1-0-5-0

Dodgers v Science Museum @ South Park

27 July 2006
South Park
6pm
Toss won by Sci Mus
Match abandoned due to rain

Innings of Dodgers
 
Priest                         not out    8
Qureshi                        not out   11
___________________________________________
Sub-total                                19
Extras                                    4
Total                                    23
 
dnb: to follow
 
Bowling
 
Holcombe 2-0-9-0
Inskip 2-0-12-0

Dodgers v Science Museum @ South Park, Parsons Green

Dodgers v Science Museum
Thursday 1 June 2006
South Park, Parsons Green
6pm
18 overs

Innings of Dodgers
 
Priest    ret'd               31
Taylor    run out              1
Jacobs    c Dave   b Inskip    2
Dollin    run out             11
McBarron  n/o                 11
Marr      lbw      b Griffith 27
Carr      run out              4
Matthews  n/o                  0
________________________________
Sub-total                     87
Extras                        18
Total                        105
 
dnb: Cousins, Cooper, Pope
 
Bowling of Science Museum
 
Tomling 4-0-22-0
Inskip 4-0-20-1
Levit 4-0-15-0
Griffith 3-0-25-1
Pickworth 4-1-12-0
Robinson 1-0-7-0
 
Innings of Science Museum
 
Pickworth  c Taylor   b Pope      34
Inskip     c Matthews b Cousins    0
Tombling   c Marr     b Cousins    1
Depledse              b Cooper     0
Levett     c Taylor   b Pope       0
Robinson   c &        b McBarron   4
Hansson               b McBarron  19
Travis     c Taylor   b Carr       1
____________________________________
Sub-total                         59
Extras                            14
Total                             73
 
dnb: Griffiths, Crampton, Thomson
 
Bowling of Dodgers
 
Cousins 4-0-14-2
Cooper 4-1-13-1
Marr 3-0-18-0
Pope 4-1-17-2
McBarron 3-0-8-2
Carr 1-0-4-1
Taylor 1-1-0-0

Dodgers won by 32 runs

Dodgers v Science Museum @ Parsons Green 14 July 2005

Match report by Simon Cousins

Dodgers won the toss (!) and elected to bat

Dodgers returned to winning ways with a comfortable 39 run win against
Science Museum at Parsons Green last night.

Dodgers batted first, and it immediately became clear that the wicket was a minefield. As early as the third over, Harrison was forced to hook a good length ball off his eyebrows. The next ball pitched on the same length and decapitated a number of daisies. Fortunately the Science Museum bowlers failed to make use of the wicket - indeed they often failed to locate the wicket, as the final tally of 42 extras suggests.

However, none of the Dodgers batsmen looked comfortable, only Harrison coming close, using his feet well until he was undone by a vicious leg-cutter. Qureshi played sensibly and timed a couple of shots beautifully off his legs, and McBarron, nurdled well, demonstrating some effective shovel-round-the-corner shots.

A rare moment of excitement came when the Science Museum Star Batsmen disappeared into one of the many outfield potholes, and emerged with a twisted ankle. As supersub Hilary jogged onto the outfield, Qureshi ruefully regaled the opposition with the tale of how supersub Hilary recently cut short one of his more promising innings with a stunning catch. There was clearly static in the air, as within an over the lightening had struck twice, Hilary holding onto a head-high, stinging Qureshi off drive.

Patterson provided some late impetus with hefty agricultural hitting before running himself out off the last ball of the penultimate over. It seemed inexplicable, but apparently he'd heard some of the senior Dodgers players talking about 1919 cricket, and thought we were playing a new form of the limited-overs game.

A target of 142 always looked likely to be too much for Science Museum, and so it proved. Within a few overs the match was effectively over as Cousins took three cheap wickets. The Science Museum middle-order rallied with some impressively powerful straight hitting. But Cooper, after an untidy first over bowled with his customary control, picking up two wickets in the process. In fading light, Dodgers fielding was ragged, though Paterson gave an impressive debut display behind the stumps, including a fine leg-side catch. Maybe soon the selectors will be faced with a difficult choice between the athleticism of the young pretender and the wiles of Matthews. As the match fizzled to its predictable conclusion, there was time for Dunning to bowl two impressive overs, and with the owls starting to hoot, Dodgers emerged victorious.

Dodgers won by 39 runs

Four-in-a-row

Dodgers completed a four-timer last night against Science Museum under leaden skies at South Park.

JC won the toss for once and we sensibly took the field. The South Park track was a classic: no metal stakes on a length this time, but plenty of humps and bumps to keep everyone interested. Dodgers began with a new opening pair: Messrs Adey and Cooper. Predictably one was accurate and grabbed a brace of wickets thanks in part to an athletic caught-and-bowled, the other bowled far too short but still managed a wicket from a catch by JC. Ah! But they were the other way round: Adey with an exceptional 4-2-6-2 and Cooper struggled with 3-0-24-1.

The opening spells actually set the tone for the match. Science swung from the hip at almost every opportunity: if it was full they looked all at sea; if it was short it sat up and begged to be hit. Benn (4-1-10-1) was accurate, but Science’s number six Pickworth took a heavy toll of Pope (2 overs for 30), Rhys Thomas (3 overs for 20) and David Patterson (2 overs for 18) on his way to 48*. Nick Harrison was called into the attack by JC – reluctantly in the conditions – and recorded 2-0-6-1 as Science ended on 112.

We’ve struggled here in the past, but it never looked like being close. Priest was getting desperately frustrated as he tried to hit the ball harder and harder and was hitting it less and less well (but still scored at a decent pace) while at the other end Harrison was in imperious form, spanking a six and a succession of sweetly-timed fours against some ragged bowling.

Nick was actually dropped from a very difficult chance in mid-innings but the boys added over 100 to their 183* stand against the Rats last week before Nick retired having reached 50. The Cat was able to please the crowd with a couple of trademark nurdles before Priest hit the winning runs in the fourteenth over.

In truth, this was a very poor game in very poor conditions, though the pitch did not misbehave anywhere near as badly as expected. Our line-up wasn’t great (missing McBarron, Hilary and Cousins among others) and our bowling was wayward at times, with Cooper and Pope well below their best, but we still won in a canter against a lacklustre Science Museum side.

We woz robbed... of the sausages

Pouring rain at 4pm lead to Science Museum cancelling our return fixture yesterday evening. A shame since it was dry - and at times even sunny - all evening! I for one didn't miss the al-fresco changing but what happened to the sausages....?

Dodgers back on winning track

Dodgers recorded another victory last night against Science Museum at Parsons Green. Pre-match drinks in the White Horse pub on the Green were followed by al-fresco changing and a debate about which pitch to use, neither looking much better than Croydon. Winning the toss, Science Museum opted to bat. Scoring was always going to be difficult in the long grass and we kept them down to 55, best bowling was Crawford with 3 for 10, well supported by Benn, Luke, Hilary, McBarron (showing some venom from recent net practice on a cruise ship) and Priest who all took wickets. Only Alex Luke was expensive going for 25 runs, but taking the strangest wicket of the night. Hitting the batsman full toss on the foot, the ball flipped up and was well held by Priest at slip. Luke gave a half hearted appeal, the batsman stood his ground on the assumption the appeal was for a catch saying the ball hit his foot, so their umpire gave him out LBW.

56 to win looked easy on paper and JC, kindly umpiring again, agreed to stay on rather than go to the pub early to watch the football as he thought the game would be over in 8 overs. How wrong - the winning runs didn't come until the 17th over! Taylor and Westhead opened, to be followed by Priest, Matthews and McBarron. Scoring was tortuously slow, against some good bowling from Science Museum. Only "Man of the Match" Matthews was successful by swinging the bat, top scoring with 18 not out.

Following further al-fresco changing, we adjourned to the Duke of Cumberland for the all usual sausages, chips and sarnies - the real reason for playing. Did anyone else think there weren't as many sausages this year? Anyway, we're back there next week for a return match - those of you who missed out should sign up to play now.

MoM: Kim Matthews 7 votes, Andrew Crawford 3 votes. Thanks to JC for umpiring and Jude for scoring.

Detailed scorecard will no doubt follow soon.

Must be the smell of them sausages...

Dodgers completed their most comfortable win of the season last night against Science Museum. Science won the toss and batted on a flat pitch, marred only by a few hundred divots and a metal post driven into the turf. [I kid you not - it was on a length as well.]

After 8 overs their innings was in tatters, with Benn (1-4) and Crawford (3-10 - one a great catch by Matt Taylor) doing the business. This was followed swiftly by Hilary (2-7) and the slightly less accurate Luke (1-24). With Priest and McB also grabbing cheap wickets, Science's total of 55 didn't really look all that competitive.

And so it proved, though we made heavy weather of it. Taylor played a couple of confident shots before playing across a grubber and Westhead soon followed. Priest survived a chance to fly slip and a close LBW shout before falling to their spinner (figures of 4-2-2-1) before the Cat took charge, smashing three boundaries in his unbeaten 18 as we crept home with 4 overs to spare.

Science Museum v Dodgers

Parsons Green

Dodgers (177-1, 20 overs) bt Science Museum (142-6, 20 overs) by 35 runs

After the excitement of the previous week’s thriller at Chiswick, the return match against Science Museum was always in danger of anti-climax. Missing some key players Science Museum never stood a chance against some brutally effective batting from Neil Priest, who narrowly missed his second 20-over century within a week.

Winning the toss, captain Carr elected to bat on a Parsons Green pitch that never looked likely to deliver the run-fest of the week before – the conclusion of the senior batsmen was that 80 would be a good score.

For the first eight overs, this looked a reasonable prediction as Science Museum made McBarron and Priest work for their runs. But, having seen the opening attack replaced by what can best be described as utter dobbers, both Dodgers batsmen cut free, accelerating from 27 runs at the end of the seventh over to 133 at the end of the seventeenth. It would be a mistake to represent this as remotely watchable or exciting. Rank deliveries hoiked towards the boundary, often helped on their way by a staggering series of crass fielding errors. That is not to criticise the Dodgers batting, which did the job required of it and more. But turkey shoots are rarely much fun if you are not one of those waving the gun.

Retiring at a fine unbeaten 53, McBarron made way for Leach, who failed to repeat recent batting heroics, falling cheaply out to an easy catch in the covers from a mistimed and rather over eager drive. But all the action was at the other end of the wicket as Priest (to significant (and inexplicable) hissing from a number of unidentifiable Dodgers) chose to bat on in an attempt to reach his second century in successive matches. He seemed on track, as Science Museum’s dreadful fielding conceded boundary after boundary. However, with three figures in sight (if he was able to score a boundary a ball of the last three deliveries) Priest was frustrated in his ambition as finally a fielder stopped a ball before it reached the rope. The innings ended with an inordinate eight wides on the trot from joke bowler Seary, Priest carrying his bat on 97 and Carr on 1 not out.

Coming in to bat missing the fire-power of new boy Ryatt, Science Museum never looked like reaching a target of 178. Openers Pickworth and Butler made a decent start, each scoring 24 before going down to Cavanagh and Gundry respectively. But lack of penetration by Dodgers bowlers (a recurring problem this year) meant that the game dragged on for the full twenty overs, finishing in semi-darkness at the abysmally late time of 9:30pm. Of the bowlers, the pick were probably Qureshi, with a tight and aggressive 3-over spell; Gundry, who takes his Dodgers figures this season to 5-2-6-4; and Westhead, who charged in, dropping dangerous lobs from out of the night sky onto unsuspecting batsmen’s heads, despite being drunker than Henry Hilary let loose in an unguarded brewery. Dodgers swiftly changed from whites to civvies and piled off down the Duke of Cumberland for the traditional Parsons Green sausage and chips supper.

Dodgers
 
McBarron                   rtd            53
Priest                     not out        97
Leach        ct Butler     b Seary         1
Carr                not out                1
Extras (3b, 1lb, 19w, 2nb)                25
Total (for 1 wkt, 20 ovrs)               177
 
dnb Kavanagh, Gundry, Qureshi, Westhead, Cooper, Matthews, Crawford
 
            o   m   r   w
Woodhouse   4   1   11  0
Pickworth   4   0   23  0
Rye         4   0   41  0
Smallwood   4   0   48  0
Butler      2   0   16  0
Seary       2   0   34  1
 
Science Museum
 
Pickworth                   b Cavanagh     24        
Butler        ct Matthews   b Gundry       24
Robinson      ct Gundry     b Cooper        5
Kerry                       b Gundry        1
Smallwood                   not out        35
Rye                         b Qureshi      13
Woodhouse     ct Matthews   b Qureshi       4          
Seary                       not out         6
Extras (no details)                        30
Total    (for 6 wkts, 20 overs)           142
 
           o   m   r   w
Crawford   4   0   26  0
Cavanagh   4   0   31  0
Gundry     2   1    4  2
Cooper     4   0   15  1
Qureshi    3   0   31  2
Westhead   2   0   21  0
Leach      1   0   13  0

DODGERS V SCIENCE MUSEUM

4 JULY 2002
CHISWICK

DODGERS WON BY 39 RUNS

Dodgers: 87-2, 20 Overs (Priest 36 no; McBarron 31) Science Museum: 48 all out, 16.2 Overs (Hilary 3-7; Benn 3-11; Whitrod 2-16)

Match Report: John Carr

Yet another loss of the toss and we were inserted (fortunate as we only had 7 players at the start of the game – later supplemented by Tony Whitrod and Barry Gigg who kindly joined us from an afternoon Superstars match on an adjacent pitch). On a difficult wicket we probably got a par – although potentially beatable – score. But after the opening spells from Neil Benn and John Hilary, the Science Museum innings was in disarray and we secured a very comfortable win.

On another low and slow Chiswick wicket, batting was never an easy proposition. And our opening partnership of Phil McBarron and Neil Priest found it difficult to score freely. Indeed, after 10 overs their partnership had only reached 33. But by the time Phil was dismissed in the 17th over (partnership 70) they had managed to increase the strike rate to more than four. A few lusty blows in the last three overs (and more wides bringing the total to 15!) saw us reach 87. Mooney (4-0-7-0) was the pick of the Science Museum’s attack.

Science Museum’s reply got off to a terrible start with Neil Benn opening up with a double wicket maiden. And, unfortunately for them, things never got much better. After 8 overs, they found themselves 19 for 6 with Neil Benn having the excellent figures of 4-1-11-3 and John Hilary the even better 4-0-7-3. The change bowling of the rusty John Adey and guest Tony Whitrod accelerated the scoring a little but wickets continued to fall and after 16 overs Science Museum had reached 48-9. The game ended when Barry Gigg had Griffiths (the only Museum batsman to reach double figures) caught by Neil Priest (who did an excellent job behind the stumps in Kim’s absence).

Man of the Match: John Hilary

DODGERS V SCIENCE MUSEUM - 4 JULY 2002, CHISWICK - DODGERS WON BY 39 RUNS

Dodgers Innings
 
McBarron                  b Tomlin     31
Priest       not out                   36
Carr                      b Fearon      5
Benn         not out                    0
Extras (w15)                           15
Total                                  87 for 2
dnb: Hilary, Adey, Whitrod, Gigg
 
 
Bowling
            O   M   R   W
Mooney      4   0   7   0
Conn        4   0  19   1
Jones       2   0  15   0
Woodhouse   3   1   8   0
Morley      2   0  14   0
Fearon      3   0  16   1
Tomlin      2   0  11   1
 
 
Science Museum Innings
 
Barker         lbw           b Benn        0
Butler                       b Hilary      5
Fearon                       c&b Benn      0
Morley                       b Benn        6
Tomlin                       b Hilary      4
Woodhouse                    b Hilary      0            
Mooney                       b Whitrod     5
Griffiths      c Priest      b Gigg       14
Conn           c McBarron    b Adey        9
Jones                        c&b Whitrod   1
Crampton D     not out                     0
Extras  (b1, lb1, w2)                      4
Total                                     48 all out 
 
 
Bowling
          O   M   R   W
Benn      4   1  11   3
Hilary    4   0   7   3
Adey      4   1  14   1
Whitrod   4   1  16   2
Gigg    0.2   0   0   1

Dodgers v Science Museum

Thursday 28 June
South Park

Dodgers won by 51 runs

Dodgers are totally spoiled by the facilities at Chiswick, but even so the track in South Park was a horror: rutted, bumpy, covered in cinder and sporting a sizeable dog turd. The outfield was also in very poor nick, with more dog turds waiting for the unwary.

It was with some trepidation, then, that Dodgers openers Priest and McBarron strolled out. Phil has been in better form this week: an unbeaten 30 on Tuesday and a fifty for Superstars on Wednesday, but today wasn't his day. First ball up, he got a delivery that lifted quite sharply and only succeeded in steering it to first slip who held a decent low catch. Reports from the sidelines suggested that Phil had complained of "variable bounce". Call me a traditionalist, but when I went to school variance was given by åi(xi-m)²/(n-1), which is, of course, invalid when n=1!

Wise heads suggested we'd get 80 but would win it, and they were partly right. Priest struggled to cope initially with the slow pace and strange bounce but ground on; Carr, dropped from a facile chance on 1, took advantage by making a rapid 19 – including a beautiful straight six – before playing down the wrong line and being bowled. John Cooper departed soon after for 5, but Andrew Crawford and an increasingly assured Priest took toll of some quick but wayward bowling as the score mounted rapidly.

Crawford fell for 23 including four boundaries to be replaced by Mike Coronno. Mike's demotion did not reflect his form or ability, rather the result of a bizarre journey that started at 4pm and ended when he reached the ground... at 7.10pm. Speaking of bizarre, Priest's excellent innings ended in unusual circumstances as he over-rotated trying to hit one of Science's lesser bowlers and trod on his stumps; two balls later Coronno's innings ended when he was stumped off a wide for 16. Neil Benn and Kim Matthews scrambled a few singles and Dodgers ended at 142-6, a fabulous effort in the circumstances.

No one doubted that Dodgers would win and so it proved. Terry Hawton looked out of sorts opening from one end, but John Adey cashed in with two early wickets (courtesy of Messrs Carr and Coronno) while conceding just 14 runs as Science quickly fell behind the required rate.

First change Benn bowled poorly, but also cashed in: his first ball was a long hop that kept ridiculously low and hit middle stump and he also picked up a wicket thanks to a smart catch by Hawton at a short gully. At the other end Matt Leach was extracting a great deal of turn, and though his length wasn't consistent enough he picked up 2 victims – both bowled – for only 20.

With the match well and truly won, Crawford took up the attack... and promptly went for two fours. He had the last laugh though. Bowling to a field with four slips he ripped one through Science's only major contributor (Hopkins) for 46, then with his seventh ball of the 19th over bowled a tail-ender to record a double-wicket maiden as the jeers from the boundary rang around west London. There was also a rare sight for Dodgers aficionados as the Cat shed his flaps and bowled a couple of overs at the death.

This was a comprehensive victory for the Dodgers. Man-of-the-Match Priest's skill and belligerence being the centrepiece for an excellent batting effort with several cameo contributions. The bowlers were never pressured, but made the most of a very poor pitch where extra pace didn't always help. Bring on the Superstars!

Dodgers v Science Museum

Dodgers v Science Museum
20 Overs
Chiswick
Thursday 10 June 1999

Dodgers 110-5 (20) beat Science Museum 99-6 (20) by 11 runs

Our inaugural match against the Science Museum ended in an excellent, and ultimately surprising, victory.

Batting first, Dodgers made an uncharacteristically bright start - taking ten from the first over and seven from the second - largely thanks to Chris Jacobs. After Chris's dismissal in the third over, Phil McBarron and Neil Priest began to put together a substantial partnership. The runs never came easily though as the combination of a slow pitch, movement in the air, a slow outfield and good field placings offset any inexperience in the SM attack. [Let's be honest though - they're not too sharp between the wickets are they?]

After only nine runs had come from five overs, the boys managed a gradual acceleration until Phil was dismissed in the 17th over for 39 including two fours - the stand having added 67 in 13.3 overs. John Carr managed four before missing a heave to leg and with one over remaining the score was 96-3. The last over provided excellent entertainment: Kevin Roper was run out for one off the first ball to bring the two Neils together and there were runs, no balls, byes and leg byes off the first four balls. Off the fifth, an exhausted Priest smashed the ball to long on and started to run. Ten seconds later he had almost been lapped by Benn and, responding to a call for a fourth run with a remark questioning Benn's parentage, was run out for 36. The run out had a happy ending though - off the final ball new batsman Andrew Crawford tonked an impressive four over mid-wicket to leave us on 110-5.

To be honest 110 looked 10 or 15 short of par, but the ball was swinging prodigiously and we felt that steady bowling might well be enough to cause the Museum problems. Steady bowling was not what we got though: both Andy and Henry Hilary looked out of sorts at the start; Matt Leach was punished severely for the odd bad ball; and Kevin struggled to control the swing as the score mounted. Henry took one wicket in his spell but the introduction of his brother John changed the game.

Bowling an excellent line, John first restricted the SM batsman, then removed one, but with four overs to go the target of 18 with eight wickets left still looked an easy one. John produced another tight over to leave it 16 off 3 and then Cap'n Carr made an excellent decision - not one other senior players would have made - to bring back Andy. His response was an impressive one, bowling with much more accuracy and good pace in the gloom he removed SM's top-scorer Millen to a very neat legside catch by stand-in wicket-keeper Benn. He had survived a chance to Henry at long on earlier but otherwise had played very well indeed for his 56. SM now looked like losing for the first time and with their lesser batsmen not remotely up to the task lost two more wickets to John and Andy as we closed out the game in fine style. The last four overs had yielded five runs and three wickets. An excellent win.

Dodgers
 
McBarron   c.         b. Cronkshaw     39
Jacobs     c.         b. Cronkshaw     10
Priest     run  out                    36
Carr*                 b. Cronkshaw      4
Roper      run  out                     1
Benn+      not  out                     4
Crawford   not  out                     4
Extras                                 12
Total (20 overs)                      110 for 5
 
Did not bat: J.Hilary, Pope, Leach, H.Hilary
 
Wickets: 19, 86, 94, 96, 106
 
Bowling
 
Cronkshaw 4-0-20-3
 
Science Museum
 
Gallagher      c. Priest     b. H.Hilary    8
Millen         c. Benn       b. Crawford   56
Burnell                      b. Roper       6
Wilson         lbw           b. J.Hilary    3
Hopkins        not  out                     9
Jenkins        lbw           b. J.Hilary    0
Parker                       b. Crawford    0
Davies         not  out                     0
Extras                                     17 
Total (20 overs)                           99 for 6 
 
Did not bat: Woodcock, Montgomery, Cronkshaw
 
Bowling
 
Crawford 4-0-19-2
H.Hilary 4-0-26-1
Roper 4-0-14-1
Leach 4-0-28-0
J.Hilary 4-0-6-2
 
Man-of-the-match: John Hilary