2018

Thanks to our enterprising and resourceful fixture secretary this last minute fixture was clutched from the ether and proved to be a jewel that will be worth keeping at all costs. Following a very eventful journey for some (including avoiding head on crashes with yellow sports cars, dodging Hare Krishna and avoiding being sideswiped on the A1) we found ourselves in the deepest wilds of northern Hertfordshire in an ideal bucolic setting (however any idea of moving there were soon discarded after a look at local house prices on Zoopla!)

Skipper won the toss but having elected to bat, a popular decision, he thought things were going wrong very quickly with the uneven bounce and some poor shots sending back the first 3 (Dancer 0, Parnell R 2, Collins 12) in 10 overs with few coming off the bat. Luckily extras supplements the score and they came in at 35, a not inconsequent amount. However repairs were don with President and Captain first absorbing the bowling and then attacking it.When Parnell P left for 20, a low total was still a real possibility, but younger sibling Stephen was the replacement and launched his innings with a grand boundary. Woodcock (63) and Parnell S (79) put on 87 together at a rapid rate and despite the loss of both before the close their run rate meant that those following (well not Christie 0). John RSPCA Loveday struck 7 * and began to realise the importance of a “not out”!! Hausler struck a six and managed to avoid being run out by Loveday’s erratic calling.

231 –7 was a fine score, and illustrated the importance of building an innings .. those that did reaped the rewards of looser bowling later on.

Prasad and Christie opened the bowling and bowled well, with Christie particularly parsimonious, but without luck .. and just a dropped catch to show for it!

Then Loveday and Dancer, the spin twins came on and, though turning the ball little, they ended with contrasting figures. Loveday (8.0.66.2) lulled top batsmen into charges and won 2 stumpings whilst Dancer kept thing very tight with 2 maidens and a caught behind. 2 run outs contributed to the decline of the Strollers with quick thinking and accurate throws to the keeper from Hausler and Parnell P. As Strollers were up with the run rate it was important to slow things down and Woodcock came on to bowl 2 batsmen spectacularly with stumps uprooted. With Hausler and Woodcock bowling accurately the run rate soared and Strollers took risks before closing at 181 All Out, 50 short.

And after the match we repaired to a fine hostelry, The Orange Tree, in Baldock and mixed with our superb hosts. For some it was a school night and an early departure was required (oh those were the days…). As the nights draw in and October arrives, this will be a venue to remember and treasure.

Bob C

A replacement fixture arranged late in the preceding week against potentially much stronger opposition was made into an excellent traditional game of timed cricket by the opposition captain and his very good natured team. A weak Ivanhoe rose to the occasion, appreciating positive but friendly opposition.
Pinner batted first and set off as in a 20:20 game. Whilst Christie held his nerve and figures, whenever Prasad slipped form his line and length he was severely punished. Starting with only 9 fielders did not help protect the bowlers and despondency increased amongst the Ives ranks until the first drinks break brought a change of fortune and 78 off 15 overs soon became 78-3. Ives fielding was outstanding with Prasad hitting the stumps from a very difficult angle to run one of the leading batsmen out; Kenchington and StePHen (editor) Parnell ran miles and saved so many runs. One major misfortune occurred when a ball was creamed at Matt Parnell achieving a bullseye, or in this case a ballseye, and such was the blow that this was the end of the game for him. We sympathise and wish him well. (H and S note- fielders may in future choose to wear a box when fielding).
With Christie’s marathon 12 over spell finished (and the ball had to be prised from him) the other bowlers joined the party and Abrahamson, Dancer and R Parnell all had an impact on the scoring rate. Of course one more bowler deserves mention with (RSPCA John) Loveday taking his second wicket for Ives, courtesy of a slow motion stumping. This success had the effect of bringing his average down to 100.
Pinner rallied with a slower scoring rate but ensured that their innings did not finish early. Declaration took place after c45 overs, with 231 on the board.
Special fielding mentions are needed for C Parnell, rushing to the game straight from work and Benjamin Abrahamson making his Ives debut .. at 10 years old.. if only all of us were such keen fielders!
Tea, courtesy of Earle and family.
Ives reply began slowly with Pinner finding much more sideways movement than Ives. Still Dancer and Abrahamson blunted the initial surge before Abrahamson edged a lifter to slip. Dancer and R Parnell then settled in and the scoring rate increased significantly. Some excellent drives were seen by both batters. With 20 overs to go Ives were 98-1. Having put on 74, though, R Parnell (36), played around a straight one and the middle order fell away. Dancer remained obdurate and looked as though he would carry his bat, but Pinner opened the game up in search of wickets and Collins (21*) and Dancer put on 64 rapidly, until the opening bowlers returned and the scoring rate declined. With this tight bowling Dancer’s century hopes dimmed and with 4 balls to go Dancer was bowled …. probably by tiredness! A fine 89 to record the highest score of the season to date. Prasad swathe last 3 balls off successfully and Ives finished at 193-6, but with only 3 wickets in hand.
A draw but an excellent game.
MoM: Adrian Dancer (despite the jug avoidance)

R Collins

Both teams struggled to put a full side out and in the end it was agreed to have an abbreviated 30 over match between the two 10 person sides,
both containing some youngsters.

The day was extremely hot with the sun beating down on Ivanhoe who fielded first.

First incident of the day was a strained thigh muscle from Andy.C, pulled while making a feeble attempt at catching a chance off Andrew.H.

(No prizes for guessing who is writing the match report!!)

After 3 early wickets from Earl (1-42) and Andrew.H (2-18), Millet (42) and “HandleBars” Ringer (78) ran us a merry chase with plenty of 6’s and 4’s.

Finally Adrian (1-55) had Millet caught in a special way involving 2 players. The ball was hit high, Phil.K bellowed “mine” and proceeded, after the ball thankfully had
velocity reduced via deflection through his hands, to head the ball, Harry Kane style, to Chris Parnell taking his first catch for 10 years!!

John Loveday provided some leg spin entertainment, replete with running commentary, with an over of Noballs, catches off Noballs, and dropped catches.

Finally the innings was wrapped up by Phil.P (2-11) and Jess Parnell who took her first wicket for the club courtesy of a one handed catch from Andy.C who clearly
was redeeming himself for that appalling early display of dismal catching. Old Citizens finished with 193.

A lovely tea was had….possibly too many scones, and cakes.

Ivanhoe batted next and whilst occasionally were on or around the required run rate, we just didn’t have the legs to get to the total, finishing on 6 – 162.

Starring with the bat were Phil.P (49), Bob “Jug Avoidance” Collins (47no), and a cameo from Andy.C (28no).

Runner up Man of the Match was Andy.C for his efforts, suffering great pain, in field and with bat!!

Girl of the Match – Jess Parnell, who saved many runs fielding effectively, almost took a brave catch from a screamer that most of us would have ducked away from, and then took her
first wicket for the Club.

On  the hottest day of the year Ivanhoe visited Wooburn Green, where the facilities were ideal, even including a shady spot under the scorer’s tree.

Skipper Woodcock won the toss and much to the joy of Ives, he elected to bat. After the early loss of Abrahamson, a second wicket stand between Parnell R and Dancer justified the captain’s decision. Progress was made until the great Ivanhoe collapse. Dancer, suffering from heatstroke (not sufficiently acclimatised following too many days away in the cold environs of Italy), got himself out for 49 (jug avoidance again…) and was followed by the middle order disappearing. Luckily last pair Hausler (24) and Prasad ensured Ives passed beyond 200 to  finish on 2015 All Out.

Narcs began briskly and maintained 6 an over for some time, but as things began to look grim for Ives Conor took an amazing one handed catch to open the flood gates.. suddenly 6 wickets were down, but the game was far from won, and  a 7th wicket partnership continued scoring at above the required rate. After an expensive start Dancer began bowling very tightly  and Parnell R and Prasad also slowed the scoring so the run rate magnified to the unattainable. With a fine catch from Parnell S the innings ended after 40 overs at 178-9, for another Ives win.

Our young opposition played the game in absolutely the right spirit and hosted us superbly, with the tea  a genuine contender for No 1 of the season.

R Collins

Again a thoroughly nice bunch of blokes to play cricket against – Rosneri being a wandering team made up from North Londoners.

Ivanhoe batted first again and scored 216 for the loss of only 5 wickets.

After a knock of 32 from Collins, M.Parnell scored 55 – his first for the club (well done Matt!!), then innings from Max (28), and S.Parnell (35 no) and Woodcock (36no) finished us off nicely.

Max was bitterly disappointed to be on the opposite end of a runout (from Ciaran) for a change.

Rosneri then batted and put up a spirited display – Peter (2-41), Andy.C (1-38) picked up wickets but the star was Ciaran (5-56)

Rosneri ending on 179! Another Win!! Man of the Match – Ciaran.

North Weald were a replacement for Arkley who pulled out being unable to get a team together.

Ivanhoe won easily enough for a change scoring 154 after batting first – Collings (42), P.Parnell (34) and Dancer (35) leading the way.

North Weald were then bowled out for 62 – Dancer (4-12), Christie (2-10), and S Parnell (2 – 0) starring.

Man of the Match would have to be Adrian!!

Opposition was a nice bunch of guys who I’m sure we would be up for playing back at their ground next season.

What a game!!

Lovely weather, lovely ground, friendly oppo with game played in right spirit, lovely tea, and really good performance from Ivanhoe with ……. a win for us!!!!

Botany Bay batted first. Andrew (1-27) and Ciaran (3-25; fantastic spell) opened. Prasad bowled really well and unlucky to finish 0-33.  Richard chimed in with a good spell of 2-25. But the star of the bowling was Max whose 4-30 included a couple of their strong batsmen!! A shame his hat trick ball lacked the finishing touch. Great fielding and 3 catches for Ciaran!

Botany Bay finished on 146 (their highest scorer the opener with 28)

So a good pitch to Bat on and Ivanhoe started confidently before Bob fell on 4. Conner (15) and Richard (21) shared good partnerships with Earl. Max somehow contrived to be runout for 0. Earl ended up runout for 44, a great knock with plenty of fine shots. And when Stephen fell for 10 we stood at 6-142 with 6 runs to get. But we staged a mini collapse with Ciaran (16) and Prasad (0) falling in quick succession before Phil (7) brought us home with fortuitous 4 run overthrow to win the game with an over and 2 wickets to spare.

Lovely! How good an experience compared to last week.

With the toss won and opposition inserted, Christie and Prasad opened the bowling. Prasad was the revelation with swing bowling moving the ball both ways in a hot and humid atmosphere.  He claimed 2 key wickets of the best of the opposing batters. Bovingdon found it difficult to get the ball away and Ivanhoe’s 8 bowlers all taxed the batsmen, even if in Loveday’s case it was where to deposit the boundary.

There can be no disputing the champagne over though. Conor began it with a no bowl and 1^st of only 2 warnings for beamers, and from that ball a dropped catch  too ….. there followed 2 more dropped catches , one catch taken and a run out. Hectic!

With one player passing 50 and the last pair holding on for some pair Bovingdon reached 104 all out.

Ives replied with 107-1, with Kenchington (39) and Dancer(54*) playing aggressively with plenty of four balls to delight in, and with Parnell R joining in (10*) we cantered to victory at over 5 an over.. with about 20 overs to spare.

Win !!!  and a great tea from Mrs Prasad.

R Collins

Fixture secretary arranged this game in Essex late but everything went swimmingly… lovely ground, very fair hard wicket, a very sporting opposition of equivalent standard to us.. and 330 runs for 20 wickets with Ives holding their nerves for a win.
Skipper Woodcock opted to bat after winning the toss.. a rare choice and a welcome one.

After Dancer left well caught hooking, Collins anchored the innings for Ives first half century of the season (60), sharing useful partnerships with S Parnell (18) and two of 46 with R Parnell (25) and Woodcock (24). The “keystone cops” moment arrived when Woodcock hooked uppishly and kept watching the ball whilst veering into the oncoming Collins, who described the impact “as if being hit by a freight train”. With Collins spiked and bleeding, Woodcock turned his ankle which left him limping severely. Neither batsman was run out because the catch had been held!
It was the over that everything was happening as Francique then played on first ball for a golden duck and put the incoming batsman on a hat trick.

The end of the innings was frantic and fewer runs were accumulated than had seemed likely with a run out ending Ives’ innings on the final ball and a total of 171.

After another enjoyable away tea Ives continued their impressive bowling a fielding record of 2018, and had Coopersale at 45 for 4 with an economical Christie trumped by 4 wicket Hausler. The game then seemed to disappear over the horizon as the next wicket put on 102 (though the stand included 3 batters as one had to retire hurt.)
Then champagne moment number one .. a outstanding, excellent catch by Prasad to complement another fine take by S Parnell. with 2 new batsmen at the crease the run rate slowed, though it was still less than 4 an over till the final 3 overs. A hobbling Hausler returned to claim his 5th wicket (5 for 25); Doughnut Dancer held his nerve after being hit for 2 enormous sixes, to take two vital wickets, and finally a keeper mistake saw a run being nicked but the Coopersale last pair (including a third- runner) reckoned without the match winning direct throw from Prasad to not only spare the keeper’s blushes but win the game by 6 runs with 8 balls left. Celebration swiftly followed.

All in all a good performance with some excellent fielding all round and tight bowling from Woodcock on a limping short run, Francique and Christie to complement Dancer and Hausler.

A good result and excellent afternoon and a fixture to repeat in the future.

R Collins

Ivanhoe was soundly beaten.

But I think we sort of enjoyed the Pitch, the tea, the social atmosphere etc.

Apparently Ivanhoe has had bad experiences with teams whose Name includes the word “Casual”!!

Nothing casual about these Chaps other than the casual way the ball repeatedly disappeared over the boundary.

Uxbridge Casuals batted first and scored 341 for the loss of 7 wickets, calling a halt to their innings with 7 overs left!!!

4 of their players got the runs – 1 century and 3 50’s.

Pick of the bowlers were Peter (3-53) and Andrew (3-62). Nice outfield catch by Ciaran and a constant stream of wise-cracks from
newbie John who also got his first wicket for the club!!

But no bowler, I believe, was spared from the constant barrage of 6’s. The dual carriageway, Bowls club and Tennis courts were
all recipients of some truly enormous smashes!

Ivanhoe then batted and was all out for 131; Nice innings from Richard (36), Phil (24), and Steven (18) who was unlucky to be given out to
a rather high full toss.

– Andrew Hausler