Actonians Cricket Club

Scorecard

Actonians Cricket Club Club XI v Treasury & Cabinet Office on Mon 19 Aug 2024 at 11.30am
Match was Drawn

Match report For the tenth time, HMTCOCC travelled to the hallowed turf of Gunnersbury Drive for their most popular game of the season (popularity mostly boosted by the promise of an excellent lunch, but we won't quibble over why we're the best social club in the west). After the customary Pimms reception, the Actonians took to the field as the Treasury sent in their opening batters.

Roheet Gupta rolled back the years (well, year, to be precise) to open the bowling alongside Actonians' only other seamer, Khush Sheth. The pair bowled a pretty opening spell together, keeping the run rate low but unable to claim a wicket. Enter Aarnav who opened his account before the end of his first over, tempting the Treasury skipper into a misjudged shot and the edge was snaffled by the cultured gloves of Geoff Barker. He then took another in his second over (the number 3 dancing past one as Barker took the stumping). It was a fine spell of 2-22 from his 9 overs.

Treasury insider, Richard Parker, also snaffled a wicket in his spell in one of three maidens he bowled. After many oohs and ahhs from the slip cordon as he repeatedly beat the bat with immense bounce and guile, the number 4 stuffed one up in the air and Joe Chugg (taking a brief venture out from behind the stumps) took an impressive grab in the deep.

Captain Alistair Slaughter also stole a wicket, and one of historic significance, too, if the batter was to be believed, as he reminded Ali that two years ago he had hit him for 20 in an over before losing his wicket to him. Fortunately, he fell from Ali's 5th ball with Mike Caufield taking a stunner at mid-off to complete the dismissal.

After a hearty picky-lunch supplemented by Duncan Slaughter funded wine and beer and a delightful selection of cheesecakes, Actonians took to the field to try to finish the innings off. However, the sugar and alcohol seemed to have bolstered the endeavour of the Treasury batters who started tee-ing off from both ends.

That was until Roheet returned to the attack in a form fans have become more accustomed to - bowling frustratingly unhittable but infinitely tempting off-spin. He took a wicket with his fourth ball of the spell, and it took him only three more overs to take two more, giving him outstanding figures of 3-15 from 10 overs, the visitors' eventual declaration at 196-9 from 52 overs denying him any further victims.

After a quick turnaround, Joe Chugg and Sam Rodriguez took to the field to start the chase which looked an imposing rate if the visitors took their time in the field. (Despite the inclusion of an exclusively cake and biscuit tea, they did get round quickly and sent down 48 overs in return).

Joe and Sam took a while to get started. In spite of a valiant effort to get through the gears (Sam putting the charge on the openers every other ball), the pitch had grown even more lively between the innings. Joe and Sam managed to scramble some good singles and almost got the first boundary of the game in the 5th over; however, Sam's cut shot stopped inches short of the boundary. The Treasury hadn't realised, though, that the fielder chasing it wasn't the fastest on the pitch and to joyous shouts from the balcony, the pair took four runs from it the hard way instead.

Sam fell just after getting going against the opener and only two balls before tea. This was somewhat to the delight of Hitesh Patel, however, who knew he had to leave at 5:30 and had been anxiously expecting to remove his pads and put them back in his bag without having taken the field. Chipping the ball up to mid-off off an inoffensive medium pacer is therefore a typical example of Sam's selfless approach to the game.

After the aforementioned abundance of confectionary, Hitesh and Joe started batting like people who had somewhere important to be. In fact, they did, as Joe also informed the team that he had to leave at about 5:30, too. Their partnership of 59 runs came at a run a ball in under half and hour and ended when Hitesh (21 runs) jogged off the pitch at the end of the 25th over. Joe would stay on to see out his 50 before he trotted off amid congratulations and apologies. Their efforts had brought the score to 117-3 with 20 overs to chase the remaining 80 runs.

Rory Chapman added 7, including one boundary, batting alongside club stalwart Mike Caufield who went on to 10 of his own; however, Aarnav was the star of the middle order, bashing the ball to all corners (well, 3 at least) before he fell for 14.

Ali and Richard couldn't get going and both fell cheaply, leaving Geoff and Khush with the job of rebuilding the innings. The Treasury bowlers were intent on not letting the game go, however, bowling tight lines and making the most of the unplayable areas of the pitch. After an attempt at chasing, Geoff accepted the inevitable and he and Khush blocked out a draw, 32 runs short of the visitors' total. Khush saw out 23 balls for his 11th not out of the season.

The Actonians' team could only imagine the glory that could have followed had they not lost their highest scorers to lives outside of cricket (how dare they!), but the result was friendly enough to make sure there's a bit of fire in next year's game. We can assume that it will take that long for Richard to stop hearing about his dismissal by his colleague and I hope they're both up for next year's rematch.

Treasury & Cabinet Office Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 13b 3lb 
for 9 wickets
17
196 (52.0 overs)		     
Sam Betley ct  G Barker b A Bagga 24 38 45 3 53.33
Robert Johnson ct  A Bagga b K Sheth 91 138 127 15 71.65
Mark Anderson st  G Barker b A Bagga 0 8 3 0
Ali Yousaf ct  J Chugg b R Parker 14 24 24 2 58.33
Fayyaz Muneer ct  M Caulfield b A Slaughter 5 29 31 16.13
Bill Thorpe run out  (A Bagga) 21 39 27 2 77.78
Angus Moore lbw  R Gupta 2 11 7 28.57
George Smith ct  K Sheth b R Gupta 3 15 9 33.33
Iain Martin Not Out  7 24 21 33.33
Tom Mottershead st  G Barker b R Gupta 10 11 14 1 71.43
David Owen Not Out  2 6 5 40.0

Actonians Cricket Club Club XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Roheet Gupta10.041535.001.50
Khush Sheth14.0168168.004.86
Aarnav Bagga9.0222211.002.44
Richard Parker12.0342142.003.50
Alistair Slaughter7.0033133.004.71

Actonians Cricket Club Club XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 6w 13b 3lb 
for 8 wickets
23
164		        
Samuel Rodriguez ct  S Betley b B Thorpe 19 51 52 2 36.54
Joseph Chugg Retired Not Out  50 92 79 7 63.29 1
Hitesh Patel Retired Not Out  21 28 32 3 65.62
Rory Chapman ct  F Muneer b A Yousaf 7 13 14 1 50.0
Mike Caufield ct  A Moore b G Smith 10 28 27 37.04 1
Aarnav Bagga b  G Smith 14 17 14 3 100 1 1
Alistair Slaughter b  G Smith 3 23 7 42.86
Richard Parker st  A Moore b I Martin 1 5 6 16.67
Geoffrey Barker Not Out  16 33 35 1 45.71 1 2
Khush Sheth Not Out  0 23 23 0 1
Roheet Gupta  

Treasury & Cabinet Office Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
George Smith13.0336312.002.77
Tom Mottershead7.04400.000.57
Bill Thorpe5.0028128.005.60
Ali Yousaf13.0524124.001.85
Fayyaz Muneer5.004900.009.80
Iain Martin5.02717.001.40