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

Our season began in what seemed to be the height of summer. Sun blazed in the sky and temperature soared throughout the morning. However, this is England and welcome cloud and refreshing but slight drizzle arrived in the second innings. After the rain and cold of recent weeks, South Loughton had worked miracles to get the ground ready for play with no loose grass on the outfield. 10 days before even the clubhouse was under water! Unsurprisingly this meant that there was little pace in the pitch and the ball travelled slowly across the outfield. Tea was first class and the range of beers catered for all tastes. We were made very welcome and the game was played in excellent spirit.

Oh and the cricket? Well Ivanhoe may have lost by 57 runs but there were some positives. On winning the toss and fielding Ivanhoe bowled tightly and accurately allowing the skipper to pack the offside effectively. New signing Peter Oakley bowled very well in two spells and was particularly unlucky not to claim a first wicket for Ivanhoe. At the other end the more experienced Andrew Hausler bowled through and used the track intelligently to claim 4 for 19 off his 8 overs. Skipper Ciaran Woodcock was welcomed with a first ball boundary, but thereafter bowled consistently and quicker than last year.
Matt Parnell bowled a useful spell at the death and there was a welcome return to medium pace from senior club official Phil Parnell… which with his skiddy pace, generated from his stature, brought two wickets in two spells… but will he recover for next weekend??? Good to see Saqib back bowling with his enthusiasm and confidence. Fielding was of a high standard with the rather rare sight of 3 Ivanhoe players chasing for the same ball… and not just once. Stephen Parnell, Matt, Phil K and Prasad turned back the years to rival young Peter in their athleticism. Saqib juggled a catch to dismiss a  key batsman .. and proved everyone, who had money on the ball, wrong. Phil K made a tough steepling catch look easy… like Pat Jennings (for younger readers he was an Irish goalkeeper, who had very large hands… and just taking of hands here), whilst keeper Bob Collins did his best to make an easy catch difficult… but it stuck in an outstretched glove… and took another more impressive catch down leg side off Woodcock’s bowling. At 122-8 South Loughton were in some trouble but an unbeaten 9th wicket stand of 35 proved crucial and brought a decent total of 157 -8 on a sticky but safe track.

Ivanhoe’s reply started slowly and then continued slowly.  South Loughton’s veteran opening bowler removed Hausler for a duck and completed 7 overs for just 4 runs. A second wicket stand of 43 gave useful time at the crease for Collins (26) and Woodcock (13), but despite positive intentions the ball rarely beat the inner field and overs raced away. The hoped for lesser bowlers never came on and all eight bowlers bowled good length and line.
All successive batsman struggled with pitch and rising run rate, though there were promising shots from S. Parnell, Oakley and Saqib. But who was not out at the end? Chris Parnell 1* to complement the most ground covered by any of the Ivanhoe fielders.

Final score was 100 all out with a couple of overs to go. Talk afterwards was largely positive with encouraging talk of Devon/ Cornwall in August for the annual tour.

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!

Another scorching day and Captain Ciaran luckily won the toss and opted to bat. Rich P and Adrian D opened and rapidly put on the runs on a flat wicket with a short, fast outfield.  There were some good performances with the bat with Rich P reaching 42 and Max F just shy of his half century, falling on 48. However the batting performance of the match has to go to Adrian D who edged closer to his first ever century just to be denied at the close by Old Father Time, finishing on 99 not out. Ives closed their innings on 227 for 4.

Ives turn to field and it was spin that seemed to be the order of the day as Andy H and Adrian D took six wickets between them (including two stumpings from rusty keeper Philip K).  The regular fall of wickets,combined with some excellent bowling contributions from Prasad (21 off 5), Andy C (19 off 5) and Max F (11 off 3 for 1) helped keep Mayfield’s run rate down and at one point Ivanhoe looked to be in with a good chance of a win. However a couple of dropped catches denied Ivanhoe their second consecutive victory of the season and the game finished in a draw with Mayfield on 181 for 8.

Man of the match – Adrian D