2017

Saturday 27th May saw a 10 man Ivanhoe CC play Bamville CC. Hot day, skipper wins the toss and chooses to bowl.

A bad opening spell of bowling, still resulted in our guests being 3 down, mainly in part to some good catches. Dancer took over the bowling and bowled a tight line and length, although the odd batsman fancied a wild swing still! Dancer picking up 5 wickets to help restrain the run rate a little! Bamville posted 239 all out, with 5 minutes remaining in the time game.

A good tea followed before Collins and Dancer opened the batting. Dancer fresh from his 1 run the week before went out with the wise words of “it can only get better from here” ringing in his ear. Unfortunately it can also stay the same, as shown by Dancer departing for 1, followed shortly after by Collins (4).

This brought Max out, who with his usual bravado, went out promising a 50. Unlike usual Max did deliver with a quick fire 64. Assisted by Woodcock, who took a bit longer than Max to make a 50 as well! The fall of Max’s wicket followed by Parnell P and Parnell S shortly after saw Ivanhoe restricted, and soon were left with no realistic chance of winning. Still the benefit of a time game is a draw can be played for, so Woodcock and Abrahamson batted through to ensure a respectable draw against a strong Bamville side.

It’s approaching the time of the season when Ivanhoe should be looking for some big scores from the batting line up who all need to start to deliver!

14-5-2017

A new team picked up at short notice – a mixture of Sunday friendly players with a few first teamers thrown in.

Ground was nice (but noisy near the A10)

Pitch was a good batting wicket. And the field was HUGE (pity those fielding on the boundary)

Ciaran won the toss and put the opposition into bat.

Their first 3 bats scored 59,34,45 and at one stage a large total was in the reckoning.

But some tight bowling from Andrew, Alasdair (newbie from the Vets college) and Prasad plus some
excellent Leg spin from Luke (another new face) restricted their innings to 178 for 6.

Pink cap went to Bob (Justice really after last weeks two Murders by runout)

After a great tea we set about chasing the runs down.

At this point reality departs and we find ourselves in a parallel Universe as normally totals of 178 are a challenge for Ivanhoe.

An opening partnership of 107 from Luke and Phil.K (23 including 1 magnificent 6) put the result beyond doubt. After Phil and Steve departed it was left
to Alasdair (13*) and Luke to win the match with 12 overs to spare.

Luke ended not out on 127 (22 Fours + 1 Eight!!) – a truly excellent knock.

We celebrated in good style at the oppo’s clubhouse.

Verdict – Lets play these guys again!!!

This was a replacement fixture for Bentley Heath who pulled out. The highlight obviously was Andrew’s Tea (Because I’m writing this).

Ives batted first and started slowly as we are prone to doing.Bob (30) and Richard (19) moved the score along nicely after some classic stonewalling from Chris (6).

Later on there was a 35 run partnership between Phil.K (35*) and Andrew (11*) which got the score to 189 which for Ives felt like 250!

It’s possible Extras was the Highest scorer – there was a serial Noballer, funny little tubby guy, who gifted us quite a few runs.

Perhaps the total could have been even larger if there had not been some silly runouts – Max & Richard (surely Bob earned the Pink cap)

We did have the Opposition on the ropes for a while when they came out to bat with Wickets from Andrew(2), Richard(1), Ciaran(1).

Also towards the end Saqib picked up 2 wickets before being most unfairly substituted by that cruel captain of ours. Some dropping of catches started creeping in.

But unfortunately a couple of lads from the opposition played themselves in, and in 20-20 style proceeded to hit an impressive (unless you were on the end it)
array of Sixes motivated I’m sure by getting back early to watch to the Boxing (or was it the Manchester derby). In the end winning with 8 overs to spare.

A mention is merited of Phil.K’s bravery in attempting to stop 200mph missiles heading his way to the boundary.

The Ivanhoe Pink Plonker cap was passed around several times between Prasad/Phil/and Steven.

Think we may vote to offer a fixture again (despite them being a bit stronger than us?)

Opposition batted first and got 182. At one stage they looked to be getting away but our bowling tightened up towards the end.

Ciaran was the pick of the bowlers – 1 wicket for 13 off 8 overs.

Some nice swing bowling from Matt earned himself 2 wickets. Andrew (2), Prasad(1), Richard(1) also chipped in.

We batted solidly but could not score at a fast enough rate ending up with 7 for 108 at the end.

Bob (18), Ciaran(14) and Phil.K (17) all occupied the crease for some valuable runs.

Opposition was a nice bunch and we would vote to return I’m sure