WEEKEND REVIEW - JUNE 13-14
By Simon Heaney & James Wheeler
Saturday 13 June 2015
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE - FIRST TEAMS
Winchmore Hill CC 1st XI 268-6 dec (48 overs)
Bessborough CC 1st XI 134 all out (33.2 overs)
Winchmore Hill won by 134 runs
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE - SECOND TEAMS
Bessborough CC 2nd XI 205-8 (48 overs)
Harrow CC 2nd XI 216-8 dec (52 overs)
Winning draw for Bessborough
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION TWO
Twickenham CC 5th XI 182-7 (43.2 overs)
Bessborough CC 3rd XI 179 all out (46 overs)
Twickenham won by 3 wickets
Sunday 14 June 2015
LORDS CHESS VALLEY SUNDAY LEAGUE DIVISION THREE
Chorleywood CC 222-9 (45 overs)
Bessborough CC 136 all out (34.5 overs)
Chorleywood won by 86 runs
Defeats pile up for Bessborough
Bessborough suffered another heavy defeat on Saturday, losing by 134 runs away to Winchmore Hill in the Middlesex County Cricket League.
The home side posted a daunting 268-6 declared after 48 overs with numbers four and five batsmen Mark Barrell (82) and Chris Chapman (74) making hay as the sun didn’t shine.
The Bessborough innings started pretty well as in-form Kushal Patel (52) and William Grogan (12) put on 56 for the first wicket, but in what was described as Winchmore Hill’s “best performance of the season so far” bowlers James Geoghegan (5-23) and Danny Barker (3-23) got to work and skittled the rest of the side for 134.
Bessborough drop to joint second-bottom in a congested league and will be looking to get back to winning ways next weekend at home to third-place Harrow Town who are only 10 points above them.
The second eleven picked up four points from a winning draw in a crucial bottom of the table clash against Harrow at Headstone Manor. The away side, who have been steadily improving after some disastrous early games, posted a season’s best 216-8 declared after 52 overs. Nitin Modha (pictured) produced his third five-fer of the season with 5-65, while Rohan Desai picked up 2-79 in his first MCCL start of the campaign.
In reply, Bessborough got off to a horrible start as openers Adil Parker (3) and Vidoosha Jayawardena (1) both fell cheaply, but Tharshan Kanagaraj (88) and captain Phil Bush (34) put on 120 for the third wicket to rekindle hopes of a win.
After that partnership was broken Bessborough struggled to keep two batsmen at the crease together for long, although Alex Irani (26) and Desai (25 not out) did their best to get the side over the winning line. Sadly, they fell 12 runs short of victory and had to settle for a winning draw, closing on 205-8 from 48 overs.
That result extends Bessborough’s lead over Harrow to six points, the same distance as they are behind Kenton in third-bottom. Next week Bessborough travel to fourth-place Wycombe House.
The 3rd XI lost by three wickets away to Twickenham 5s in Division 2 of the Middlesex 1987 Cricket League. Richard Edmands top scored for Bessborough with 59 in a total of 179 from 46 overs. Twickenham’s Sarwant Singh claimed a remarkable 8-52 as Bessborough’s tail collapsed from a reasonably strong position of 145-4.
Spin-King Dipak Chavda (4-53) nearly orchestrated a famous win, but the home side just about had enough in reserve to pick up the 10 points, finishing on 182-7.
Unfortunately, the 4s had to concede their game against Hornsey due to poor availability through the teams.
The poor sequence of results didn’t improve on Sunday when Bessborough were soundly beaten by Chorleywood in the Lords Chess Valley Sunday League.
Chorleywood posted 222-9 from their 45 overs with Callum Neal doing most of the damage with 108. Spinners Thanuka Jayawardena (2-43) and Chris Jepson (2-30) had the most joy although Rohan Desai with 1-16 from 7 overs was the most economical. Desai also provided the moment of the day with a full-length diving catch at deep long-off late in the innings.
James Wheeler (26) and William Grogan (38) saw off a hostile opening spell but thereafter wickets fell all too regularly and apart from an entertaining ninth-wicket stand of 15 between Alex Irani (27) and Prashant Dhayal (4) Bessborough were nowhere near the target, being dismissed for 136 in 35 overs.
Bessborough’s T20 friendlies side, the Barbarians, had another poor week suffering consecutive defeats for the second week running. On Tuesday, they were humbled by 48 runs at Ruislip. Their hosts batted first and scored a very competitive 155-6 off their 20 overs. The stand out performer with the ball was vice-captain Richard Clarke who picked up 2-19 in his 4 overs. The Barbarians were never really in the hunt and were bowled out for 107 after just 16 overs. Captain James Wheeler top-scored with 26 while Clarke (20) was the only other batsman to score more than 12.
On Wednesday, the Barbarians were beaten by 34 runs by North Harrow at Headstone Manor. The visitors scored 143-8 off their 20 overs with Sahil Hathi (2-29), Babbal Singh (2-41) and stand-in skipper Ian Ridley (2-27) all picking up two wickets apiece. The Barbarians could only muster 109-8 in their innings as their batsman struggled to cope with difficult batting conditions caused by a low sun behind the bowler at the clubhouse end. Openers Hemmen Jutla (21) and Praekash Balendra (20) top scored but only two other batsmen made double figures.
The Barbarians will hope to end a four game losing streak this Thursday against Northwood Town.
Bessborough CC 2015 Fantasy League - Week 9 MVPs
- Rohan Desai 127 points
- Ian Ridley 116 points
- Dipak Chavda & Tharshan Kanagaraj 108 points