St Andrews v Dodgers

Addington Park

Dodgers (226-1, 40 overs) bt St Andrews (179 all out, 36.1 overs) by 47 runs

An easy victory for Dodgers against outclassed opponents, played at a new venue (for Dodgers) on the rural fringe of Croydon. Marred only by an inability to finish the game quickly once it was clear it was won.

Winning the toss, Dodgers opted to bat and, thanks to solid innings from McBarron and Hilary , who retired unbeaten on 69 and 68 respectively, and Benn (28) quickly established a solid platform for the Dodgers innings, helped by dismal St Andrews fielding which contributed some 18 byes to the Dodgers total. Following the retirements, which coincided with a short break in play for rain, Kavanagh slogged a quick 36, ably supported by Matthews at the non-strikers end, taking Dodgers to a total of 226-1 - a good score for a team missing the batting of Carr, Priest and Roper.

Following the usual fine St Andrews tea of ham sandwiches and Mr Kiplings cakes, washed down with orange squash, the home side never looked likely to approach the Dodgers’ target. Crawford (0-16) and Qureshi (1-23), opening the bowling, were economical but lacked penetration, sharing just one wicket between them. However a change of bowling quickly paid off as Kavanagh (2-9) took two wickets and quality Dodgers fielding (a rarity this season) delivered two run outs. Having secured the first seven wickets for only 84 runs, Dodgers made heavy weather of finishing off the innings. However, eventually the tail was wrapped up by Cooper (1-39) grabbing a fine caught and bowled, three wickets from Leach (3-42) and one from Pope (1-41), who captured the valuable wicket of Clark, the only St Andrews player who looked capable of bringing the Croydon team back into the match.

Dodgers innings
 
McBarron (c)   retd                         68
Benn           ct Hockborn     b Seagal     28
Hilary         retd                         68
Matthews (w)                   not out       1
Cavanagh                       not out      36
Extras (18b, 1lb, 1w, 4nb)                  24
Total (40 overs)                           226
 
(did not bat:  Crawford, Cooper, Qureshi, Leach)
 
Bowling
             o   m   r   w
Ashish       8   0  29   0
Mummery      8   1  41   0
Seagal       8   0  45   1
Hockborn     8   2  30   0
Clark J      5   0  38   0
Whitton      3   0  29   0
  
St Andrews innings
  
Salesh                         run out (Hilary)      10
Pawarod                        b Cavanagh            10
Hockborn                       b Cavanagh            22
Pay            ct Benn         b Qureshi              2
Clark M        ct Matthews     b Pope                61
Munnery        ct Matthews     b Leach                7
Whittam                      c&b Cooper               0
Clarke S                       run out (Matthews)     0
Burbridge      ct Benn         b Leach               17
Clark J                        not out               13
Seagal         ct Matthews     b Leach               23
Extras (5b, 4lb, 4w, 1nb)                            14
Total (all out, 36.1 overs)                         179
 
Bowling
            o   m   r   w
Crawford    6   1  16   0 
Qureshi     7   0  23   1
Leach      7.1  0  42   3
Kavanagh    5   1   9   2
Cooper      5   0  39   1
Pope        6   0  41   1

Man of the Match: Cavanagh

Dodgers v St Andrews

Sunday 9 June

Dodgers won by 19 runs

This was a game played in some of the worst conditions Dodgers have encountered. It rained for almost the entire match, some of it heavy, causing the ball to go out of shape and batsmen, bowlers (especially) and fielders all had tremendous difficulty keeping their footing. The grass was long and clinging, reducing the value of so many shots. Nonetheless, Dodgers adapted well and won in more comfort than the score might suggest.

Phil McBarron called tails and opened the innings with Neil Benn. Neither played fluently on a sloping, spongy pitch where the occasional ball kept very low, but both hung on well and ran confidently. With only eight players and on such a pitch, circumspection was the order of the day and their ability to play straight was well rewarded. Benn was eventually out for 43 out of 84 mistiming an off drive, having hit three fours from his 84 balls.

John Hilary was run about by a 30 yard direct hit having made just 1 and Richard Caethoven (Neil's "brother-in-law") was smartly stumped for just 2. There was no crisis though, as Phil soon reached yet another half-century, hitting three fours in 61 not out from 98 balls as he and Andrew Crawford saw us to a highly-competitive 126-3 from the 35 overs.

On the resumption, St. Andrews got off to a shaky start, with Burbridge needlessly run out for 8 after some good work by Caethoven and Elston taken by Hilary at mid-wicket for a single after a fearsome pull shot. The other opener, Clark, was caught and bowled by Benn during a tidy if unspectacular spell and Dodgers were well on top.

This brought another Clark and Betts together and they began to add runs at a fair rate against Hilary and Leach. With the score on 59 however, Betts mistimed a cut off Leach and Caethoven took an excellent tumbling catch at backward point. Matt ended with 1 for 14 from 6 - easily his most tidy spell.

St. Andrews were always struggling then, with Clark having to shepherd a long tail. Crawford returned to bowl him with a fast shooter to end any meaningful resistance, which just left David Pope to produce another of Those Spells picking up three wickets in three bursts totalling 5.3 overs.

Phil was named Man-of-the-Match for his excellent knock and astute captaincy.

Dodgers v St Andrews

DODGERS v St ANDREWS
20 May 2001

Dodgers won the toss and elected to bowl

St Andrews: 93/9 off 40.0 overs (Bratton 21*, Elston 20, Crawford 2-6, Cousins 2-10) Dodgers: 94/3 off 29.0 overs (Bultitude 36, Coronno 15, Carr J 2-24)

DODGERS WON BY 7 WICKETS

Dodgers Man of the Match: Darren Bultitude

Ah, the English summer! Dodgers finally managed to beat the rain and get a game in. We also managed to beat St Andrews out of sight.

Having heard from Neil Benn how weak St Andrews were, and having fallen for that old trick before, Dodgers took no chances and put St Andrews in to bat. However, Neil was true to his word and an excellent opening spell by Paterson and Crawford had the game won almost from the start – St Andrews 11/3 off 10. As usual in Dodgers games Paterson bowled some beauties that the opposition openers were just not good enough to get a touch on – although Neil Benn will no doubt claim them as "good leaves"! The opening attack was well supported by the change bowlers, especially Simon Cousins who had a brilliant debut turning in figures of 8-3-10-2. Releasing the grip on the jugular slightly we managed to feed St Andrews a few runs and get them up to 93/9 off their full allocation of 40 overs.

The now familiar opening pair of McBarron and Bultitude were both strangely subdued at the start of Dodgers' reply. Phil's early season form remains not so much in a trough as in the Grand Canyon and despite having the same initials and passport as the late Don, Darren looked more Estelle than Bradman. Only 6 runs were accumulated off the first 9 accurate overs from Benn (!) and Elston. The introduction of Clark into the attack saw the required acceleration until Phil hit a four ball straight into square leg's hands – sod's law proving once again that when you're out of form nothing goes right. Equally, class will out and Darren was soon striking the ball as cleanly as ever and looking like the opposition would never get him out.......

Mike Coronno gave us a taste of things to come later in the season smashing a quick 15 before dancing down the track once too often and finding himself stranded and giving Sian one of her easier stumping decisions. It was then left to your humble reporter to do what St Andrews could not and run Darren out for 36. This is not something I would recommend as I still have the bruises from the after match post mortem of the incident. Despite this hiccup we never looked like losing by this time and a quick cameo from Paterson at the end saw us home easily.

Despite the ease of the victory this was an enjoyable game and hopefully we can repeat the fixture next season. Highways and DCMS should prove tougher this week but if we play as well as this we will be very hard to beat.

Thanks to everyone who dragged themselves to Croydon for the game, including the supporters, and especially David Pope who played for the opposition.

Neil Priest

Quote of the week, or the benefits of a decent education:
Jude: "Rod, so if I said to you Ragazzi! Come state? How would you respond?"
Andrew: "I didn't know you were learning Spanish Rod....."

ST. ANDREWS v DODGERS
20 May 2001
John Ruskin Ground, Croydon
Toss: Dodgers

ST ANDREWS
  
Burridge                    b Crawford      1
Benn                        b Hilary        3
Clark M                     b Crawford      2
Elston                      c&b Cousins    20
Betts                       b Hilary        6    
Nutman                      b Cousins       1
Clark J       c. Coronno    b Leach         2
Simons                      c&b Cooper      8
Pope          c.  Priest    b Leach         0
Bratton       Not Out                      25
Segal         Not Out                      11
Extras (b2, lb0, w12, nb1)                 15
Total (40.0  overs)                        93 for 9 wkts
 
FoW:
1-2 (Burridge)
2-9 (Benn)
3-10 (Clark M)
4-17 (Betts)
5-22 (Nutman)
6-39 (Elston)
7-42 (Clark J)
8-42 (Pope)
9 - 63 (Simons)      
 
Bowling
            O  M  R   W
Paterson    4  1  3   0
Crawford    6  1  6   2 (2 wides, 1 no ball)
Hilary      6  1  27  2
Cousins     8  3  10  2 (1 wide)
Leach       8  1  25  2 (3 wides)
Cooper      8  1  20  1 (6 wides)
      
DODGERS
 
McBarron     c. Simons      b. Carter J       8
Bultitude    Run Out                         36    
Coronno      st. Clark M    b. Clark J       15
Priest       Not Out                         17
Paterson     Not Out                          8
Extras (b3, lb0, w6, nb1)                    10
Total (29.0  overs)                          94 for 3 wkts
 
Did not bat:  Cooper, Hilary, Matthews, Leach, Cousins, Crawford
 
FoW:
1-26 (McBarron)
2-42 (Coronno)
3-75 (Bultitude)
             
Bowling
          O  M  R   W
Benn      6  1   8  0
Elston    4  3   2  0
Clark J   6  1  24  2  (1 wide)
Betts     4  1  16  0
Segal     4  0  20  0  (3 wides)
Nutman    4  0  16  0  (2 wides, 1 no ball)
Pope      1  0   4  0

Man of the Match: Darren Bultitude

Dodgers won by 7 wickets