HTCC News 21st May - 22nd May 2005

Good Day All,

We had our first washout of the season on Saturday and that means we have only
had patchy availability at the weekend. Could you please try and let me know
before tonight, if you can play this weekend? And don't forget we have games on
all three days, with a specially arranged match on Monday, The Cricketers vrs
the Tennis Players.

Important Notice
Annual subs are due this weekend, remember no subs, no cricket, it's as simple
as that! Cheques for £110 are payable to HTCC.

Tour Notice
I'm starting to collect the balances owed for tour, over the next two weeks -
please could you arrange to give me a cheque payable to HTCC, by Sunday June
19th.

Match News
Back to the cricket from last weekend, what a frustrating day Saturday was!
There were a lot of phonecalls flying around all last week trying to make sure
we had 22 players and an umpire, and then Saturday morning phoning the oppo,
to see if the Away game was playable. Eventually after a late start and a lost
toss, Kev and I walked out to bat, I made my mark to face the first ball and
the heavens opened, so we all went back to the club, joining the 2nd team to
watch the FA Cup final and help the club funds, by spending lots of money
behind the bar!
Sunday was a much better day, well apart from the hangovers (and I'm sure you
know mine was particularly bad - and I definitely didn't ask if Jim was a taxi
driver!).
The first XI played West London Deaf, on what was a poor pitch for Kirkland
Drive, we managed 233 for 3 in our 40, with yours truly putting on 150 with
Tony B - well done Tony for batting so long in such an unfamiliar role, a
really good, if not the most exciting 32! HTCC started with Justin and Dean
opening the bowling, with quite an out of shape cricket ball and gave us a
steady start - Justin's two wickets were well deserved. Dean deserves a special
mention, he is only 13 and came in the team because we were short, he opened the
bowling and although very nervous, he completed a tidy first spell, generally
good line and length, with a touch of swing. Well done Dean! After this, the
oppo then started to bat well and were getting away from us.At one point they
needed 168 off the last 20, then looking like they were going to get the runs
with 6 or 7 overs to go! Then the Skipper for the day, Alex, then brought
himself and Mo on, constricting the runs and taking 4 or 5 quick wickets to
leave West London Deaf 25 short. Well bowled you
two. However credit to the oppo for going for it when the game looked lost,
scoring 143 off the last 20 is a great effort.

The 2nd XI looked like they were going to have quite a good game, with Darren
Tarling yet again piling on the runs, with an excellent 76, but without much
support he got out trying to up the rate and the team ended up on only 166 after
40 overs. Another good bowling start by Jack and Owen, restricted the runs, but
after the bowling changed, Oakhill started to break away and in the end won by
ten wickets with 16 overs to spare. But it was the quite marked difference in
team philosophy that made it so one sided. As much as possible everyone in the
HTCC team is given a game, week in
week out, with the all the youngsters given a chance. Whereas Oakhill's no 1
opening bat, also had eight overs opening the bowling! He hit 129, their no. 2
bat only hit 27, a one man team I think!

Looking ahead to the weekend, Monday's game is the main attraction, what with
the tennis having such stars as Anuj, who also has been opening the bowling for
the ones, Jonny Fro, the captain of the tennis, who in recent years has starred
for the 3rd team, Jack, Dan and Josh, rising stars of the Sunday two's, not
forgetting ex first team players, Richard Heanes and Peter Campling, or Skipper
Webb, Ex 3rd team captain - It should be a good fun day and I'm sure one of
many surprises!

Hope to see you at practice nets tonight!

Cheers
Paul Hewitt