Saturday 24th April Match Reports

After a Long and Miserable Winter…

Cricket is Finally BACK!

The start of the competitive cricket season is upon us. With pre-season friendlies in full flow and the 1s kicking off their League Cup campaign, time has come to dust down the cricket bag from the garage, iron the whites and head on over to Chelmer Park.

Thankfully we can put past us what feels like an extremely long winter this year: having no winter net sessions, no team gatherings or club get togethers (thanks COVID). So now we can look forward to many evenings of sipping a few (probably more than a few) cold ones with everyone at the club on a sunny Saturday evening after all Chelmsford teams bring home the victory.

A plethora of things have changed at Chelmsford CC since last summer, with several renovations being completed and finished off at the club and especially the clubhouse. Plastering the brickwork and brand-new male and female toilets in the clubhouse, new sightscreens and potentially the introduction of a live streaming service for the main pitch. Furthermore, not forgetting to mention our two new sponsors, Carl Page Home Improvements and Chelmsford Brewery- both on a 3-year deal. Members will be able to receive 10% off at Chelmsford Brewery by using their sponsorship card (coming soon).

Special mentions also to Cubitt Theobald Ltd and Baddow Plastering for the clubhouse refurbishments!

So, the bar has been stocked up to the brim (don’t ask Ben Clifford how much he spent) with the help of Oakley and with clubhouse renovations nearly finished and COVID restrictions loosening, we can’t wait to welcome players, family and friends of Chelmsford Cricket Club back down to Chelmer Park to what hopefully will be a fantastic summer of cricket!

Now without further-a-do let’s get into the match reports…

1st XI vs Colchester (Home) – League Cup.

Chelmsford 300-2 off 45 overs.

Colchester 191 all out.

Chelmsford win by 109 runs.

Jack Sterland proved anything can happen in the last 12 months as he WON the toss and elected to bat on a strangely warm and dry April at Chelmer Park. Some economical and threatening swing bowling from Ben Stephens made scoring difficult for openers Sterland and Gruijters.

However, the pair began to score freely with Sterland especially beginning to dispatch the ball to all corners of the ground with some fine stroke play. Gruijters fell caught to mid-off after a battling display which allowed Nick Prowting to enter the fray for his first competitive game in two years. Prowting looked like he had never left as he quickly got into his work with a succession of trademark boundaries and great strike rotation. Sterland brought up his magnificent century with a six over long-on and Prowting followed quickly after reaching his hundred off just 87 balls. The 141-run partnership was brought to a close which allowed James Clifford to carry on his fine form with 41 off 28 including five boundaries as the CCC finished on 300-2 off of their 45 overs.

Andy Styan and Liam Keaney took the new ball for Chelmsford and restricted the Colchester openers MacGregor and Ahmed with threatening lines and lengths. The steady partnership was broken when Ahmed was caught by James Clifford off the bowling of Keaney. The CCC used the runs on the board to their advantage and always kept Colchester under control with their very economic bowling from Devenish, J. Clifford, Waring and J. Cook. Macgregor provided some resistance to the quality bowling with a well-made 73 only to succumb to a very sharp caught and bowled from Ben Waring who went on to take 4 for 26 off of his 9 overs. James Clifford also picked up 3 wickets including one dismissal thanks to a fine catch from his brother Ben. Keaney finished the innings with his 2nd wicket of the match and Chelmsford won comfortably by 109 runs.

Man of the Match: Jack Sterland - 115.

Although this match between Chelmsford and Colchester had a decently sized crowd at Chelmer Park, a humorous and comical incident occurred during the game which meant it was viewed by hundreds of thousands of cricketing fans across the nation.

Colchester brought their livestreaming service with them, which brilliantly allowed people to watch the game on YouTube. However, Vikas Agarwal, a Colchester bowler, may have wished his club left the camera back at their club. After he comes charging into bowl, Vikas flings the ball out of his hand, not towards the batsman on strike but directly up in the air. What follows next is what’s funny. After a few seconds of confusion as to where the ball has gone, with Sterland at the non-striker’s end turning around in circles, the ball drops back into the shot of the camera only to land perfectly on the umpire’s left shoulder.

This clip circulated the cricketing social media and accumulated a staggering total of nearly 300,000 views! The Cricketer, Wisden Cricket, That’s So Village and Essex Cricket themselves all tweeting about it.

See the video here - https://twitter.com/EssexCricket/status/1386959886047662082?s=20

Chelmsford 1s now move onto the next round in the Essex League Cup, where they will face Billericay away this Saturday at 12:30pm.

2nd XI vs Colchester (Away) – Pre-Season Friendly.

Chelmsford 342-4 off 40 overs.

Colchester 124 all out from 33 overs.

Chelmsford won by 218 runs.

Team: R Catchpole*(wk), O Arnold, L Cranmer, R Upadhyay, N Fergus, H Page, J Liddiard, M Drain, S Everard, T Halsey, A Baig.

Midday Saturday at a bright and sunny Castle Park saw Chelmsford 2’s congregate for a pre-season friendly against Colchester 2’s. But where were our hosts; who were conspicuous by their absence? Apparently, out pressganging the local citizenry in an attempt to assemble a team, an endeavour which proved to not be a total success. Skipper Rob Catchpole had no hesitation in batting first and opened with new recruit Oli Arnold making his debut. It became quickly apparent that the bowling was not very threatening, and the pitch was pretty flat. Chelmsford imposed from the off with Oli matching Catchy run for run and unfurling some confident shots in an opening stand of 81 in 12 overs before departing leg before. His 37 included 8 boundaries. Not bad for someone who had informed us that he had not a bat in his hands for something like 8 years. Looks like he could be useful! Lee Cranmer, on a rare appearance at this altitude, being usually the late middle order general, completely misunderstood the purpose of having ‘a net in the middle’ and soon nicked behind just after trying to run himself out. Rishabh Upadhyay joined Catchy, who having reached his 50, unfurled his 9 iron to move to a century in just 16 more balls, before retiring not out on 120 off 70 balls. With the teenaged Rishi, now the batting senior partner, in partnership with the actual senior partner of the team, Neil Fergus, the scoring rate levelled off a little. Ferg’s comparative pedestrianism combined with Rishi’s increasing dynamism. Both departed with the score on 233 to Lonkar (2-40). The new pair were colt Harry Page and 2020’s hero James Liddiard, who became a Chelmsford legend when he hit the last 3 balls of the last match of last season for 4,4,4, to secure the league title. Together they added 109 in 12 overs, with Lids picking up where he left off last season, contributing 75 off just 43 balls, and Harry an increasingly confident 25. Final score 342-4 off 40. Colchester, in their reply, lost wickets regularly, finishing on 124 all out with 7 overs to spare. Tom Halsey took 3-15, and Rishi 2-14, with the rest of the wickets shared around. Useful time in the middle for most of the batters, some more than others and most of the bowlers turned their arms over. Thanks to Colchester for the game, such as it was, when it would have been easy to cry off.

Man of the Match: R. Catchpole - 120* (retired) Next week we are at home to Billericay 2’s in the final pre-season game.

3rd XI vs Old Chelmsfordians (Home)

Old Chelmsfordians 201 all out from 40 overs.

Chelmsford 204/3 from 36.2 overs.

Chelmsford win by 7 wickets.

Chelmsford bounce back to record their first victory of the 2021 campaign.

Old Chelmsfordians’ skipper Ross Cant winning the toss in this encounter and he elected to bat first. The conditions seemed to favour the batsman more so than the week before with a harder surface under foot.

The father and son duo of Matt Bowerman (Sr and Jr) got off to a positive start building a strong partnership in the opening exchanges. However, Shona Keaney provided the breakthrough for the hosts’ dismissing Bowerman Sr. for 16.

Bowerman Jr. and Roy steadied the ship taking the score past 120 before the next wicket fell. Jonathan Tween the man to strike dismissing the dangerous Bowerman Jr. for 73. Tween enjoying another good afternoon at this level picking up figures of 3-27.

Tween and Matt Cook combined well in the middle overs to restrict the total to 135-3 from 30 overs with ten left to play.

The last ten overs were certainly eventful with seven wickets falling in that period. The majority of the damage inflicted by Hugo Skepelhorn picking up figures of 4-35 after seven years away from the game. Old Chelmsfordians posting a competitive score for the 3rd XI to chase.

In back-to-back weeks early wickets fell putting Chelmsford under pressure. This time Rory Skepelhorn and Matt Cook departing early leaving the score at 25-2.

However, a very mature and strong partnership between Ed Cole and Ben Turner would ultimately turn the tide in this fixture. The latter Turner being dismissed for 50 after the third wicket partnership guided the side to within 40 runs of victory.

Pranay Gogia (28*) played a lovely cameo to support Cole in getting Chelmsford over the line. However, Ed Cole reaching 95* was the highlight performance of the day as the 3’s claimed their first victory of the season. They will travel to Harold Wood for their last game of pre-season before the competitive action starts on May 8.

Man of Match: Ed Cole – 95*

4th XI vs Theydon Bois (Home) – Pre-Season Friendly.

Chelmsford 301/6 from 40 overs.

Theydon Bois 250/5 from 40 overs.

Chelmsford win by 51 runs.

The 4th XI opened their campaign at home to Theyden Bois. The visitors won the toss and put Chelmsford into bat. Runs were flowing but two early wickets fell, leaving Chelmsford 41/2 inside 7 overs. A massive 199* partnership between J Campion (100 retired) and J Burns (101 retired) put Chelmsford in a commanding position. However, once the set batsmen were gone wickets fell at regular intervals with only L Wilson (24) making double digits. Chelmsford finished their 40 overs on 301/6. Theydon Bois’ openers came out swinging but 2 early wickets for A. Kuzhupilly (2/36) dismissed both openers in his first three overs. A wicket apiece for T Mukherjee (1/26) and J Campion (1/16) as well as a superb run out for C Hagger reduced Theydon to 5 wickets for not many runs. As with the first innings, batting became easier once the batsmen were set, as Swallow (105 retired) and Gilbert (73*) helped Theydon recover to 250/5.

Man of the Match: J Campion – 100* ret. & 1/16.

So, all Chelmsford teams recorded victories in each of their games on Saturday 24th April. Absolutely brilliant from the CCC boys and hopefully this isn’t the first and only time this happens, this season. Fingers crossed for more wins, good batting and bowling displays and great times for Chelmsford Cricket Club in 2021!

Thank you for reading,

Written by Oakley Bromfield.