Scorecard

Watford Town v Bessborough Cricket Club Barbarians on Fri 07 Jun 2013 at 6pm
Bessborough Cricket Club Won by 5 wickets

Match report The Barbarians began their 2013 season with a thrilling victory off the final ball at Watford Town on Friday night, last season’s Player of the Year Richard Clarke stole the show striking 17 off the final over to end 42 not out.

After losing 3 games in the last week due to weather and cancellations, it was great for the Barbarians to get on the field at last. We travelled to Garston for the first meeting between us and Watford Town at their picturesque Woodside ground.

Captain James Wheeler lost the toss and his new look side which contained five debutants (Conboy, Peck, Rameez, Gill and Newland) took the field. Fourth team bowlers Tom Newland and William Gill opened our bowling and both showed some nerves early on. However after a shaky first few overs the pair settled down.

However it was 15-year-old seamer Ravi Vyas, who was playing in only second ever Barbarians game who picked up our first wicket, clean bowling the dangerous Traxon for a very aggressive 21. On a decent batting wicket, Town continued to score quickly and it was a good test for the inexperienced Barbarians bowling attack.

Tom Newland, who was asked to switch ends by his captain picked up the second wicket when he had the dangerous Si brilliantly caught by Ray Conboy at cover, who had a couple of balls earlier dropped an easier chance off the same batsman.

Our three fourth team seamers bowled the opening 12 overs and despite all bowling good spells, Town were well set with only 2 wickets down and our Barbarians were staring at a total in excess of 160. However, Wheeler had two trump cards up his sleeve in the shape of vastly experienced seamer Ian Ridley and exciting young spinner Kibreeth ‘Kibby’ Rameez. The pair conceded only 39 runs in the final 8 overs with Ridley picking up three wickets and Rameez two. Both bowled clever spells, mixing pace and angle to dramatically dry up the boundaries for Town.

Kibby, bowled a fine last over, conceding only 3 singles and picked up the wicket of the dangerous Van Crickleburg who was well caught by Kiwi debutant Simon Peck at long on. However, even though Town had not finished the innings, quite as they would have liked, they still ended up with a competitive 136-7 off their 20 overs.

In response, our opening pair in Paul Jarvis and Richard Edmands made a steady start against some good new ball bowling by Town bowlers Phelps, Baldwin and their captain Andrew Canning. Jarvis in his first game of the season, was watchful but showed his strength off the back foot with a savage square cut in the first over and a dismissive pull shot a few overs later. Edmands, had much of the early strike and looked it in good touch, especially through the offside.

However, tight bowling and good fielding, stopped the Barbarians from getting up to the required run rate. Jarvis was dismissed in the eighth over and Edmands three overs later for a well made 29. This brought debutants Ray Conboy and Simon Peck to the crease on the debut. The pair, playing their first competitive games of cricket for 20 years were both dismissed fairly quickly by trying to raise the runrate.

This brought captain Wheeler and last season’s player of the year Richard Clarke to the crease with the Barbarians required nearly 70 off the final 6 overs. Both batsmen were playing their first game of any cricket since last summer, but both looked in good touch, working the balls into gaps in the big outfield at the Woodside ground and some powerful pulls and cut shorts.

Wheeler ended up having the majority of the strike in their partnership of 53, but when he was caught at long on off the first ball of the penultimate over, Clarke took over. Joined by new batsman, Ian Ridley, Clarke struck 11 off the remaining five balls to leave us requiring 14 off the final over to win.

Facing the experienced spinner Van Crickleburg and with Watford Town posting scouts in all of Clarkey’s key scoring areas, the odds were stacked against us. But after taking nine runs off the opening 3 balls which included a brilliant straight drive which went for a much needed boundary. Clarke and Ridley scampered four runs off the next two balls making the match tied. With the Watford Town fielders all in on the single, Clarke clipped the final ball of the match for four giving us a hard fought and brilliant victory by five wickets.

It was a fine ending to a great game between the sides and it will definitely go down as one the best Barbarian games that has been played. After the game, Richard Clarke was named man of the match for his brilliant 42 not out and he was presented with a bottle of wine on the balcony.

Up next for the Barbarians, is a home game with Sky Sports Football this Thursday.

Watford Town Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 1b 1lb 
for 7 wickets
7
136 (20.0 overs)		     
Traxon b  Vyas 21
John b  Ridley 37
Si ct  Conboy b Newland 35
Van Crickleburg ct  Peck b Rameez 19
James b  Ridley 0
Dave b  Ridley 7
Balilal b  Rameez 2
Baldwin Not Out  3
Holingshead Not Out  1
Phelps  
Canning  

Bessborough Cricket Club Barbarians Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Thomas Newland4.0024124.006.00
William Gill4.013100.007.75
Ravi Vyas4.0038138.009.50
Ian Ridley4.001735.674.25
Kibreeth Rameez4.0022211.005.50

Bessborough Cricket Club Barbarians Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 10w 5b 5lb 
for 5 wickets
23
140		        
Paul Jarvis b  Baldwin 10 2
Richard Edmands lbw  Canning 29 4
Ray Conboy b  Holingshead 8 1 1
Simon Peck st  Si b Canning 4 1
James Wheeler ct  Holingshead 26 3
Richard Clarke Not Out  42 6
Ian Ridley Not Out  0
William Gill  
Kibreeth Rameez  
Thomas Newland  
Ravi Vyas  

Watford Town Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Phelps4.001600.004.00
Baldwin4.0017117.004.25
Canning4.0033216.508.25
Holingshead4.0022211.005.50
Van Crickleburg3.003000.0010.00
Balilal1.001400.0014.00
 
Photos and video of Watford Town v Bessborough Cricket Club Barbarians on Fri 07 Jun 2013 at 6pm

Watford Town v Barbarians (1)

Richard Clarke being presented with his Man of the Match Award by captain James Wheeler after our win at Watford Town

Watford Town v Barbarians (2)

Captain James Wheeler presenting the Barbarians Man of the Match award at Watford Town