MCCC vs Whalers CC, April 26th, Palewell Common - Won by 16 runs

The signals did not look good. Dark clouds circled Roehampton and the
immaculately laid out Pinkney picnic seemed only to tempt fate further. The
wicket was as rough as some of the hangovers, but the new opposition friendly as
Whalers won the toss and elected to field. An impressive opening partnership
between Andy Spencer (31) and, making his Corinthians debut, Mark Downing (38)
laid the foundations for a good total. On a track where no two balls were the
same, their stand was particularly impressive. Last season's run machine Brian
Douglass posted his first real score of the year, an excellent quick fire 66 not
out. Supported by an unbeaten 13 from Steve O'Neil he led us to a total of 179
for 3 from 40 overs.

Having weighed the opposition down with mother-in-law cake, Kam and Vic Luis set
about a good opening spell with the ball. Notably, Kam took his first wickets
for the club in an excellent spell of 3 for 35. Graham picked up a couple of
important top-order wickets in a tight spell and Vic returned to finish with an
economical 1 for 25. With MCCC well on top at 20 overs, Whalers came back
strongly as their tail wagged and looked set to overhaul us in a tight finish.
However, a smart catch from Mark in Tony Hammond's third over left them 16
short.

An excellent team effort, and thanks from your wet-behind-the-ears stand-in
captain. A glance at the Corinthians almanac (or Graham as he is more popularly
known) revealed a rare April victory. And we stayed dry.

MORDEN V EASTERN WANDERERS
A very one sided match, eastern being of considerable strength,
batting first, and from the off looking to set a very high score.
40 overs later and 309 for 6
any style of bowling was punished, no one escaping lightly
thanks to all bowlers for giving 110%

BATTING: their bowlers continued where their batsmen left
off, Halden 2, tony 1, zafar top with 27, brian 25
steve o 2 graham 0 imran 0 charlie 0 & jim 9 n/o
with charlie jr 1 and george filling in the last two places
after being let down .

My thanks to everyone for their effort.
cheers TONY

Saturday 19 April 2003. MCCC v's Bickley Park CC - Lost by 6 wickets
The pre-match weather report for Saturday was for some great cricket weather. However, it was more of an occasion for wearing
2 jumpers! It was a cold and miserable day and the wind sweeping across the Bickley Park made the conditions even harsher. This
was a conference fixture so we were a bit unsure about the strength of the oppo. From the final team list I had double counted someone and subsequently asked Jess Sharling to stand down for this game, which he kindly did so. When everyone arrived we only had 10 men! This is something that won't happen again and I'd like to appologise to the rest of the team for this.We won the toss and the wicket was well prepared and flat so I decided we would have a go at batting as there was the promise of rain later on in the day.

Andy Fletcher and Andy Spencer once again opened the batting sucessfully aided with a bit of luck. With cold hands Bickley were
finding it hard to hold onto their chances off the bat. The opening partnership was good for 40+ runs. Andy Spencer was the first to fall with a sharp catch by the Bickley Skipper at first slip. Sam Cope went in at number three and looked a bit out of sorts and was bowled off a full toss. Majid got off to his usual brisk start before Bickley decided to bring on their spinner. When Majid decided to go after the spinner but slipped and was duely stumped.

Andy Fletcher had been keeping the Corithians total ticking over nicely with a good array of shorts with middle-order support from Kam Wimalasekaram with some nice improvised shots. Bickley to their credit were very good at limiting us on boundaries especially around the mid on area. Andy Fletcher was unlucky enough to be bowled on 49 trying a forceful shot. I [Imran] decided to bat at number 6. We still had about 14 overs to go and I wanted to make sure we used them all up as this would be some useful batting experience for everyone. Kam and I managed to run quite a few quick singles with Bickley's fielding keeping the boundaries down. Next out was Kam trying to push the run rate. Jim Patel despite being advised by the skipper to play himself in couldn't resist smacking the first couple off balls he recieved!!! Jim was later well caught at mid off on 17 in over 48. Zafar Khan the second player to make his Corinthians debut on this day was out bowled on the last ball of the same over. The following over Graham had the last two balls to recieve. Unfortunately trying to give himself too much room on a ball of good line was bowled. It was down to Tony Hammond to take the last ball of the Corinthians Innings which finished on a respectable total of 155 from 40 overs.

Sam Cope and Kam opened the bowling for MCCC. We needed an early breakthrough but the wicket was pretty slow so anything short sat up nicely to be wacked. It became quickly evident to pose a serious threat to Bickley we needed 225+ runs as their openers carved up our attack at will. First change was Graham Pinkney and Majid Rafiq. The change of pace did slow things down, however Graham was proving to be canon fodder so Zaffar Khan came on but the conditions were becoming increasingly difficult with the ball hard to grip. Majid continued at the other end and was the pick of the Corinthians bowling. Tony Hammond came on to slow the inevitable result down with some good line and length. We lost by 6 wicket in the end.

Some good things came from this match. We batted reasonably positively against some tight bowling and fielding. Our bowling still looks a bit inconsistent and our fielding needs to be sharper.

Team for Saturday 19 April 2003
Imran Ahmad (Captain) Graham Pinkney, Jim Patel, Jess Sharling, Sam Cope, Kam, Zafar Khan, Andy Spencer, Andy Fletcher (Vice and Keeper), Tony Hammond.
The lineup looks stong in the bowling department with Sam and Kam coming in. Brian is off this week so the batting looks a bit short. Zafar Khan and Kam are both making their
Corinthians debut this weekend. Weather is looking good for the game on saturday.

SATURDAY 12 April 2003 MATCH REPORT v's Crossbats

We put up a good battle against Crossbats on Saturday, losing by around 40
runs (I don't have the scorecard to hand). An excellent innings from Majid
Rafiq gave our score a massive boost after a solid opening parternship from
the two Andys (Fletcher and Spencer). Ash played a nice cameo batting at
number five. Chasing 250 batting second on the first day of the season was
always going to be a hard task. Majid reached his century in the last over
of the match.

A tight opening spell with the ball from Vic Luis couldn't tie down
Crossbats for long. Majid and Graham P slowed the run rate down. Graham
claimed his usual haul of wickets with straight balls (something we can all
learn from! especially me). Tashfin Shafique got his first wicked for the
club when Brian opened his catching account diving catch at midwicket.