Bessborough Cricket Club

The win at Northwood Town on Wednesday evening was a fairly comfortable. Barbarians captain James Wheeler lost the toss and Northwood Town’s captain Akshay Loomba decided to bat on a windy and overcast evening. Due to the amount of rain leading up to this game, we were forced to play on an artificial wicket which in normal circumstances may have frustrated our boys. However with the lack of cricket that we have played recently, we were just happy to get a game on.

From ball one, The Barbarians only had 10 men on the field (1 sub fielder from Northwood) as messers Heaney and Kimsey junior were delayed and stuck in the inevitable London rush hour traffic. With his plans out the window, Wheeler opted to open the bowling with T20 specialist Nick Wale.

Wale took a while to get into his rhythm with his first couple of deliveries going to the boundary. After settling down he resorted to bowling a mixture of medium pace and off breaks as he gradually got into the groove. Opening the bowling at the other end was the vastly improved Rajan Modha who bowled a couple of tight overs and picking up the wicket of opening batsman Sanghi when he clean bowled him for 14. Wale who bowled his quota straight through picking up the other opener Rahaway who was out to a good catch by Andy Carr at cover.

Northwood Town’s middle order of Keeta, Hills and later Firfire batted sensibly and with sluggish outfield, looked to push the ball into gaps and work hard between the wickets. The next pair of Barbarians bowlers, leg break bowler Richard Edmands and Simon Heaney were into the attack next and both showed a lot of promise as the pair haven’t bowled much this season.

Edmands in particular looked dangerous with his standard leg break and fizzing top spinner and it was no surprise that he picked up his only wicket with a vicious leg break that bowled the dangerous Hills for 16. More good work for the Barbarians followed with Steve Kimsey picking up a wicket with his first ball clean bowling Firfire for 20.

Meanwhile at the other end, Heaney continued to toil away and he was unfortunate with a couple of close LBW shouts. However after the later shout, the Northwood Town batsmen attempted a suicidal run and Ravi Kotecha was run out by a direct hit from wicket-keeper Richard Clarke.

Simon Heaney is certainly not a quitter as a bowler and he was rewarded with wickets in consecutive balls, clean bowling Keeta for 27 and then getting rid of captain Akshay Loomba first ball LBW. Heaney finished with figures of 2-27 off his 4 overs.

With the innings drawing to a close, Modha and Ian Ridley bowled the final overs of the innings with the pair picking up another wicket each with Modha getting Vadgama stumped by Clarke and Raj Kotecha being clean bowled by Ridley. Northwood Town were bowled out on the final ball of the innings when the inspirational Nick Wale, fielding at third man due to a finger injury, ran out Northwood Town’s number 11 Malik with a bullet of a throw which gave Clarke plenty of time to whip off the bails. Northwood Town finished with a very competitive 120 off their 20 overs.

Captain Wheeler and Ian Ridley walked out 10 minutes later to begin The Barbarians reply. Wheeler was asked by second eleven captain Phil Bush to make sure Ridley got some time at the crease as he was a little short of runs at the weekend.

The bowling in the first three overs was very tight with only 10 runs coming off it. The opening pair of Malik and Kapara bowled tight spells with very little to hit and a sluggish outfield made opportunities difficult. Wheeler and Ridley began dropping the ball into gaps and ran hard between the wicket before the pair started to play some shots. Wheeler in particular looked in fine form, picking the gaps to pick up some easy runs before unleashing a couple of booming boundaries square of the wicket on either side. As the partnership blossomed, Ridley also joined in playing some cracking blows through the off side.

The spinners of Kotecha and captain Loomba were introduced and Wheeler was savage on the pair from the start, especially against Loomba where he played the shot of the day by advancing down the pitch before lofting him over wide extra cover for four. Wheeler was eventually dismissed by Loomba for 36 attempting an adventurous sweep shot but the pair had put on 59 and the damage was done to Northwood Town.

Andy Carr came to the wicket but struggled with his timing as the ball began to skid and do some unpredictable things. He nudged and nurdled but was eventually bowled by a ball that kept low from Hills for 5. Ridley continued to be savage at the crease, especially off the back foot and he was joined at the crease by Borough Legend Carl Hoar who was making his first app for the Borough in a couple of years. Hoar still oozes class at the crease, displaying a water tight defence before switching to powerful and classy attack. He struck five classy boundaries in his innings with a tracer bullet of an on drive the highlight.

Ridley was tiring and was eventually dismissed for a very good 43, clean bowled by Kheeta. Richard Ward was the next man in, he was dismissed in identical fashion next ball by Kheeta for a golden duck.

Wicket-keeper and T20 specialist Richard Clarke was next man in and after keeping out Kheeta’s hat-trick ball he supported Hoar as we eventually reached our target of 121 with 7 balls to spare.

The Man of the Match voting was close for the first time this season with Carl Hoar and Ian Ridley both picking up three votes, but for his opening salvo of 36 with the bat, captain James Wheeler picked up his first Man of the Match bottle of wine this season.


Man of the Match James Wheeler (right) receiving his award from previous winner Richard Clarke

CLASSY CLARKE WINS DERBY FOR BARBARIANS

The following day saw the next instalment of the ‘Headstone Manor Derby’ with neighbours West Harrow travelling 100 yards across Headstone Manor to our home ground. Probably our greatest T20 game in recent seasons was against our neighbours in 2011, with Bessborough winning off the final ball after being in a hopeless position at one point. Could we possibly get another thriller tonight?

The match was thought to be in doubt with the large volume of rain that had come down in recent days, but thankfully groundsman Loz Horsley and worked hard to get the game on. The only other danger was the forecast of heavy rain with it due to hit our ground at around half 7. We started the game hoping we would get a full game in.

Captain James Wheeler won his first toss of the season and decided to bat first. This game was our first to played in our new T20 Barbarians coloured kit and the kit looked special on opening batsman Richard Clarke and Richard Edmands made their way out to the middle.

With outfield conditions very similar to Northwood Town from the day before and West Harrow adopting a very defensive approach in the field, Clarke and Edmands relied on pushing the ball into the gaps and running ones and twos, while looking to put the bad balls away. Clarke looked more comfortable at the crease and as Andy Carr commentated he looked relaxed and confident displaying the shots that everybody at the club has known about for years. Edmands who has hardly batted all season, battled hard and will feel better after this innings. He was gradually starting to look fluent before he was dismissed for 20 in the 10th over.

Simon Heaney and Andy Carr both came and were dismissed in quick succession with Heaney being dismissed for 4 and Carr 6. However Carr probably hit the shot of the day over extra cover which looked to have landed over the boundary rope, umpire Jerry Halfhide disagreed and signalled only a 4.

Clarke continued to bat fluently and he reached his second consecutive 50 for the Barbarians at home. Clarke showed the way forward in his innings where he struck only one 4 and three sixes. He went for power when required but also showed some delicate touches. He was eventually dismissed for 54 by opening bowler Niv.

Captain James Wheeler fresh from a man of the match performance the day before, joined Rajan Modha at the  crease but he was to last only two deliveries as he was caught at long off after going for a big hit. Nitin Modha joined his teenage son at the crease but the pair were involved in a run out after Rajan wrongly called for a single, was sent back by his Dad but was run out by a direct hit from midwicket.

Ian Ridley and then Barbarians debutant Mitesh Vyas along with Nitin Modha added valuable runs at the end as we finished with a very competitive total in the conditions of 118 runs from our 20 overs.

West Harrow’s reply never really got going as the conditions and the opening spell by seamer Steve Kimsey and off spinner Mitesh Vyas never allowed our visitors to get into the game. Kimsey dismissed opener  Sangeet plum LBW but it was the first change bowlers of Ian Ridley and Nitin Modha who caused the damage.

The pair picked up 5 wickets in a four over spell between them (Ridley 2, Modha 3) which ripped the heart out of the West Harrow reply. Ridley picked up and LBW (Mikhail) and a bowled (Kunj) while Nitin Modha picked up 3 wickets for 2 runs with captain Wheeler and Steve Kimsey JR both taking a decent catch off his bowling. Modha like Simon Heaney the day before, was on a hat-trick at one point but he could unfortunately not claim it this time.

The last rights were delivered by Steve Kimsey SR and the returning Mitesh Vyas who both picked up a wicket each. But the final wicket belonged to Rajan Modha who was excellent in the field, produced and outstanding throw to run out Veet for 12. West Harrow were bowled out for 63 in only 10 overs with the Barbarians winning by 55 runs.

Man of the match in this game, unlike the night before was not close with Richard Clarke who produced the outstanding performance of the night with his innings of 54, presented with the award after picking up 10 of the allocated 11 votes. This is Clarkey’s second award of the season.

Next up for the Barbarians, is a return game at West Harrow on Tuesday Evening.