Stalbridge Cricket Club

What a beautiful weekend - the sun shone, England beat the Aussies and............ oh well we didn't quite get the results we wanted across the board, but hey, there's always next weekend!

Early last week our two Under-11 teams, The Outlaws and The Pirates took on Mere and Marnhull respectively.

The Outlaws continued their unbeaten start to the season, beating Mere at home by 96 runs! Luke McLaughlin made 47 in 4 overs as the SCC boys posted 321-3, while all the team contributed in a good all round bowling effort, keeping Mere to 225-4. Skipper Matt Longley took two wickets and under-9 player Billy Daniels finished with 1-13 in his three overs. For his great debut in stepping up an age group to u-11, Bill Daniels was Man-of-the Match.

The Pirates didn't fare so well at Marnhull. After a really good bowling and fielding effort - probably their best of the season so far - in which Matt Williams took 3 for 6 and Cam Woodhouse 2 for 9, there were high hopes of a victory if the batting performance could match up. However, wickets tumbled rather too regularly, with nobody really getting to grips with the Marnhull bowling, and we ended up on 203-8 chasing 238. Matt Williams was awarded Man-of-the-Match for his bowling spell.

Also on Monday the Under-13 Reds played a Cup game against Buckhorn Weston, with the winners set to play SCC Blues in the following round the night after, on Tuesday. The Reds posted a disappointingly low total with the bat, making 50 for 5 after 16 overs, with only Todd Whichello (19) and Ollie Legg (7) staying at the crease for long. In reply, the Reds bowling attack almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as Buckhorn staggered over the line with one wicket to spare in the 14th over. Sam Yeo took 3 wickets and Man-of-the-Match Ollie Legg took 2. If only the team had made a few more runs.......

So, this meant that Buckhorn hosted the Blues on Tuesday in the next round of the Cup, and the undefeated Blues made no mistake. Posting 136-2 in 16 overs (Max Nettley 30no, Will Bourne 32no and George Coleman 29) the lads set a formidable target, especially given their strength as a bowling outfit. So it proved, as Buckhorn were dismissed for 64 with Tom Perkins taking 4 for 6 and Jamie Anderson-Deas 3 for 4.

This took the Blues through to the Quarter-Final of the County Cup on Thursday in The Park against Dorchester, a game that saw one of the most ruthless performances by a Stalbridge side in a big game for quite some time and one of the most remarkable individual bowling performances. The Blues were really up for the game and a fine bowling and fielding display saw Dorchester all out for 49. Will Bourne, Jamie A-D and Jasper Hodgson all got amongst the wickets but were eclipsed by Tom Perkins who, in his four overs, took 5 wickets without conceding a single run! Though the Blues lost two wickets early on, they were never in trouble, as Will Boune and Joe Daniels saw them home in the 9th over - Will putting Dorchester out of their misery with a 6 over mid-wicket! Tom Perkins was deservedly Man-of-the-Match and the Blues march on to meet Bournemouth in the County Cup Semi-Final.

The final junior match of the week saw the Under-9s take on Stur & Hinton in a friendly in The Park. In a close match, played in beautiful sunshine with lots of people watching, all the players of both sides had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed what was for several their first ever competitive match. Stur batted first putting up 272, and all the Stalbridge players bowled very well showing good accuracy. In reply, the team crept towards the winning total, with the final pair of batters taking lost of quick singles, only for a wicket towards the end to snatch away the chance of victory as they came up 7 runs short on 265. It was an excellent game and great effort from many inexperienced players, and Max Townsend was named Man-of-the-Match.

Some of our U-13s also shone for North Dorset in trouncing East Dorset (hurrah!) on Sunday at Marnhull. George Coleman hit 59, Max Nettley 33, Joe Daniels 31
and Jamie Anderson-Deas continued his excellent season with the ball in taking a fabulous 7 wickets for 18 runs with his leg-spin!! Well done lads - North Dorset 258-4, East Dorset 89 all out!

Across the age-groups, our Stars-of-the-Week were:

Under-9 - Tom Lomas-Walker & Theo Maher
Under-9 - Max Townsend
Under-11 - Billy Daniels & Matt Williams
Under-13 - Ollie Legg & Tom Perkins
Under-15 - no game

As last weekend, the seniors only managed a disappointing 1-3 record this weekend past. The 2nd XI secured an important win at Broadstone, while the 1st XI, 3rd XI and Sunday XI all came up short.

On a decent track and fast outfield in The Park, the 1st XI saw Wimborne hit 231-9, a total that was by no means exceptional. Andy Dike took 2 for 46, while our new all-rounder, Ben Ladd-Gibbon, started in fine style taking 3 for 39 in 10 overs of quick bowling. The Stalbridge innings was as usual not hampered by run rate, but rather by the regular fall of wickets, partly due to some especially 'unfortunate' umpiring decisions. Despite another good knock from Alex Sullivan (54) and useful starts by Reece Wilson (32), Stu Sweatman (29) and Ben Ladd-Gibbon (28), the innings tailed off to finish on a disappointing 194 all out with 13 overs still remaining.

The 2nd XI travelled to Broadstone 3rds in need of a win, which was duly secured with a good all round performance. Colin Moore (55) and John Sullivan (55) laid the foundations for a decent Stalbridge total, as the returning Iain Lomas-Walker also ran off his saddle sores to contribute a useful 28! Cameron Rawson and the record-breaking machine that is Richie Brown added a valuable 16 runs for the last wicket as the team finished on 224 all-out, a reasonable total on a small ground but one that would need good bowling to defend. Rhys Horsman, Cameron Rawson and James Lewis all took two wickets to halt the momentum in the Broadstone innings, Rhys in particular bowling a very tidy spell of 12 overs 2 for 38. John Sullivan then got to work, taking 4 wickets to finish off the opposition on 194 all out. Even Broadstone's renowned 'misery guts' couldn't deny we deserved to win!

On a weekend when many players were unavailable, a very young 3rd team were forced to play with only 10 players, enabling Puddletown to post a bigger total than they otherwise would have done. It was hard to plug the gaps in the field and at tea Stalbridge were left to chase 295 to win! Nonetheless, there were some excellent bowling performances in the taking of 9 wickets, with Under-13 Jasper Hodgson taking 3 wickets on his senior debut alongside Neil Ford, who also took 3 victims. Whilst the team faced an uphill struggle to win the game, they showed great spirit to reach 229-5 in their 45 overs, with Neil Ford (50), Julius Guthrie (32no), Ben Chandler (23) George Coleman (15no) all in the runs, and an excellent 47 from new Club member Eddie Stevens. To secure 9 points in defeat is a good effort.

Unfortunately, the Sunday XI slipped to their first defeat since the opening weekend, losing away at Swanage. Chasing 210, the team lost by 14 runs to finish all out on 196 - reports suggest that a less than perfect fielding display may have contributed to the defeat, though looking at the 'athletes' on the teamsheet that is very difficult to imagine (!). Chris Hedges got some useful time at the crease making 79, while Hayden 'Wayzer' Williams took 3 wickets for 15 in typically miserly fashion! 

We still await our first perfect weekend of results!! Surely it's just around the corner.............as always!

Have a good week.