Saturday 30th August 2008: Old Whitgiftians 2nd Xl v Egham 2nd Xl.

The ECC Sausage munchers rocked up at Old Whitgiftians requiring a win to keep them in the race for possible promotion to the Premiership division.......

After much discussions mid week the team appeared to be stacked with batting and therefore the Skipper's strategy was to:

Well we all know about best laid plans..........

OW's opened the batting and got off to an effective start with K Ahamd (44), P Chatwal (26) and V Patel (35).  ECC bowled well on throughout with the wicket not benefiting either the batting or bowling side.  ECC achieved their objective to bowl out the opposition for a reasonable total with plenty of overs in the game (A Reid 4-53, P. Champken 3-41, M Bax 2-19).  What an opportunity a win would create a showdown for promotion 145 runs required from 60 overs, to say that we were confident was an understatement - what a fantastic position..........

ECC went out to bat 145 required off 60 overs, statements ringing round the ears such as:

Nevertheless ECC were bowled out for a miserable 133 just 12 runs short with R Chatwal 4-43 & V Patel 4-23 being the pick of the bowlers ....Special mention to a superb innings from M Price 63 who with a little more support would have seen us home and to Roy Roberts who had to endure unacceptable behaviour...

For all those that played in this game and for the Sausage Army this year please take a little moment to reflect on the season the successes and failures.  There are plenty of lessons to be learned from the 2008 season.......

There will be no "sausage munches" in premiership next year :-(

Saturday 23rd August 2008: Egham 2nd Xl v Cheam 2nd Xl.

Another fine day at Vicarage Road as Egham takes on second from bottom Cheam. Keen for victory the skipper wins the toss and puts the oppo in to bat. A brief team talk from the skipper on today’s vital game, a must win for the Egham boys, and a confident Egham take the field.

The confidence showed straight away with Dave Morris opening the bowling and removing the opening batsmen with the first ball of the day. Cheam had reinforced their batting line up with 3 first team batsmen, which didn’t really help as the second one was on his way back to the dressing room after the 6^th ball of the day, double wicket maiden first up, Egham boys are buzzing. In his third over Morris takes a third wicket to really put Cheam under pressure, with Morris having a dream start it looked like Cheam would be all out for 50. Morris was feeling like he was on for a great day with the ball until the batsmen got in their umpires ear and he decided to start no – balling Morris for throwing the ball. Cheam were obviously in the s**t so had to do something about it, so after his 3^rd over Morris had to come off.

Opening the bottom end was the skipper, the other opening batsmen tried to attack the big man by coming down the track early doors, he was a lucky boy as all his shots were in the air and managed to miss the fielder’s every time. But his luck didn’t last too long as lover man, replacing Morris from the top end, got the wicket of the opening bat. Cheam 37-4 and in trouble. Lover man and the skipper continued to bowl well. Replacing the skipper at the bottom end was pricey, which did the trick, pricey and Loverman bowling well together they managed to pick up 4 more wickets between them, a great spell from Loverman bowling tight and looking good. Replacing pricey was Bradders, he bowled well and didn’t give too much away but unable to get his name on the scorecard with a wicket. The skipper put himself on to replace Loverman and got the wicket the Egham boys needed, and left it to pricey to finish the Cheam batsmen off at the other end. Cheam all out for 159 off 47.1 over’s.

Morris 3-1-3-3 Reid 17-4-63-1 Patel 16-3-42-3 Price 7.1-1-24-3 Staight 4-0-17-0

So the Egham lads were confident at tea that they were able to knock off the 160 runs required but it wasn’t to be as easy as they had hoped. The Egham openers started well but there were just 24 runs on the board before Hunte slashed one to slip. Enter Bouch, he knuckled down and took his time, at the other end Smith was starting to fire, hitting the Cheam bowlers over the infield and boundry’s were coming fast, then it was the same shot that got him caught at cover, Smith unlucky not to get hold of it. Two more wickets of Jonah and the Chairman left Egham 58-4 with Bouch and Pricey at the crease. Bouch was batting superbly until he lost his wicket, 24 to Bouch. The skipper joined Pricey In the middle, Pricey batting well and taking his time, the skipper hits one right out the screws and gets caught at cover, unfortunate to miss his opposing skipper. Egham 83-6 and looking a bit shakey. Harrison joins pricey in the middle, with the number of over’s not a problem they both dig in playing some superb cricket, until Pricey gets one that kept low and was out LBW a good solid 30 for Price. Next batsmen in Morris, a chance to get some sweet revenge on the Cheam boys for an incident earlier on in the day. Morris supports Harrison well who is scoring quite freely the other end, both batsmen were getting on top of the fielding side and gradually edged their way towards the total of 160, a few big blows from Harrison and a couple of boundaries from Morris took Egham across the finish line, both batsmen finishing unbeaten on 17, sweet revenge for Morris and a great knock from Harrison, but more importantly a fantastic win for the Egham lads, one we had to get.

Danger

Saturday 16th August 2008: Egham 2nd Xl v Spencer 2nd Xl.

Despite all the clouds and the prediction of rain ECC 2nd X1 "Sausage Army" met Spencer for the second time this season.  The game was well poised with ECC being 8 points clear of Spencer in the League table with 4 games left..

Skipper won the toss (again) and asked Spencer to bat, hoping that the pitch would give some assistance to the seam attack.  Unfortunately this was not to be with Spencer getting off to a flyer with D Bunning (80 runs) smashing the ball to all parts.  During the middle part of the innings ECC managed to limit the success of the batsmen for a while with notable bowling from P Champken (17-59-3).  Spencer again kicked on at the end of the innings (G Edwards 57) to manage 269 for seven wickets off 50.5 over's - a tough ask for ECC...

ECC openers took the field and faced some tight bowling from the Spencer openers whom were keen to reverse the league points position with a win.  It was slow going for the batsmen (M Hunte 20, L Pooley 23) and a decision was made early in the innings that the win was out of reach and that a draw would be the best result.  The team adapted well and achieved the draw to keep them ahead of the opposition in the League tables with the Skipper and Loverboy seeing out the over's...

A result that may be crucial at the end of the season

Motivated by last weeks win over Beddington, Reidys super charged army reached quite early at Esher. Army was amazed by some multimillion houses around the beautiful club house at Esher. Looking at ground everyone noticed unevenness of outfield and what is that, one side there was 2inch less stumps because of slight slope. But army look confident to thrash Esher who was struggling at bottom of the league table with some drastic changes on the day in their team.

Esher won the toss and forced regular captain Reidy to come for bat. The wicket was looking good with some nice patches for bowlers. Egham open the batting with Richi and Huntey. Despite taking early wicket of Huntey neither bowler really found their best form to break partnership between Richi and Pricey. Richi at his best scoring quick runs without playing risky shots, other end pricey was carefully building his innings. Finally 2^nd wicket to success after 175 runs at scoreboard gifted by sleeping beauty. Pricey was stunned to get run out decision but another well deserve fifty for Pricey. Soon after that Jones became victim of sleeping beauty this time. Richi finished his beautiful innings at 106runs. Well deserved ton. Egham lost 4 wicket in 25run but that did not stop Egham skipper who was determined to put more than 225runs quickly. Egham set target of 236 to achieve for Esher.

Chumpkin and Loverman opened bowling for Egham with an old ball Good decision by skipper. Immediate success for Chumpken in first over. Benzai Harrison took brilliant catch behind wicket. Esher was struggling. Skipper Woolhead looking dangerous at other end but here came Chumpken again. Clean bowled skipper. Esher 36/2. Champking and Loverman bowled beautifully with an old ball. Loverman sent 2^nd opener back. Esher 60/3. Reidy decide to take new ball. Esher middle order played bravely against fast and furious Reidy and Dave. But none of the batsman able to score big runs. Excellent bowling by both bowlers and Esher was struggling at 142/9. Egham looking to finish early but one man standing against all odd. Asfand Khan started hitting six in every over. Bowlers struggled to keep Asfand quite and taking last wicket. And from nowhere game started looking scary for Egham. What a turn over from this all rounder. Finally the good old Baxy brought success for Egham. Wooooooooooops could have been embarrassing match for Egham. But thumbs up for skipper and his army. Kept the nerves in tense.

Highlights:             Egham                                             Esher

With a new skipper temporarily installed, the mighty 2’s took on Beddington on the hottest Saturday of the year so far. The heat clearly affected Beddington, who took the unusual step of not all turning up till after 1pm, their captain bringing up the rear. This meant both teams had untried captains walking out to the toss where again the heat took its toll and Beddington agreed to bat.

A keen Egham side walked out to field around 1.20, full of Lee’s inspirational words and instructions not to turn off at the 30 overs and wasting any early inroads. The good news was that we didn’t. The bad news was that it took 30 odd overs to make any inroads what so ever!!! To be fair last week three top bowlers weren’t playing and the captain gave all the new comers attacking fields to bowl at and drew no luck whatsoever early on, both openers secured pretty chancy 50s.

So the sausage army was staring down the barrel at 150 – 0 off 32 overs. Lee was wondering how he was going to explain this to what would be a very grizzly bear and then controversially decided to bring the lover man back for a second salvo ahead of Banzsai’s leggys. Happily, first nut off the spell brought an edge and the aforementioned spinner pouched the catch behind the stumps. What followed was the most dramatic turn around of an innings most of the Egham players had ever witnessed.

Cummings, the remaining opener then ran out his number 3 next over, clearly surprised by Lee’s agility, footwork and tracer like throw the batsmen was not in the frame. Two overs later and Cumming’s was plum LBW to Bradley. This led to one of the most sustained sulks seen at Vicarage Road since a certain A. Ward went on holiday! Whether this affected Beddington’s moral or not is besides the point, the flood gates were open. Brad and the Lover Man bowled brilliantly in tandem taking eight wickets between them. Guran picked up 6 for 34 and the Spanish Archer firing in with 2 for 63. The collapse left Egham chasing 204 to win, Beddington having lost 10 wickets for 50 runs…ouch.

Fortunately the Bax tea seemed to cheer them up, another smashing spread. The Egham team have definitely enjoyed the last 4 weeks at home and made sure they made the most of fielding first.

The chase was set up by and built around a strong opening partnership. An excellent 82 from Pricey gave the innings continuity with everyone chipping in. When Pricey finally fell a classy 31 not out from the skipper’s younger brother, coming at 7, saw the ship home. The younger brother looked quiet good to be fair. He is unlucky that he is on holiday next week, with availability so good at the club, he will struggle to get his place back. A small mention to Muncher who rolled back the years to play a important cameo at the end and smashed the winning runs.

A great win then. It showed nothing is won or lost in the first hour and a half of a game. Moreover, outstanding grit and temperament was demonstrated by all in the team and if this can be repeated, a late surge up the table is not out of the question.

Egham Pork Chargers faced Worcester Park for the second time this season needing to reduce the points gap between their current position 4th and the two top sides.  Worcester Park won the toss and decided to bat with J. Evans (54) batting well however Worcester Park had not considered "PORKY CUMBERLAND" who bowled brilliantly for 17 overs on the trot (17 overs, 5 maidens, 38 runs, 7 wickets). Egham CC felt that a declaration at 50 overs for 200 was a very reasonable declaration and looked forward to a typical solid run chase!!

Unfortunately the Egham innings lacked application and at times responsibility with the exception of L Pooley (32) and M Watmore (40) who run out of partners which led to the side being dismissed for 146 after only 38 overs with 12 overs still remaining.  Definitely more Porker than Charger this week - hopefully lessons will be learnt for next week

After successfully travelling into London we faced Spencer on week 6 of the Surrey Championship. Arriving slightly earlier than expected we started a gently warm up while we waited for Chrissy Wot and Pooley who were not able to negotiate the traffic around Spencer. Short after the arrival of Chrissy and Lee, the skipper went out for the toss and we were put into bat.

At first we thought that this was going to be a day for our batsmen to cash in on some runs on a decent track. However, after a few over’s we could see that it was going to be a lot harder to score runs than we had expected. This was down to excellent bowling from the opening pair of Spencer who made it very difficult for the top order to score. This resulted in the score being 51-4 and looking in a bit of trouble. Micky and Pooley then got us back on the right track, until Micky was run out with the score on 92. Still not sure whose fault it was but I think it has been worked out now. After Pooley fell short of his half century (43) it was left to the young guns of Venus (Craig) and Skater boy (Jamie). They both played some lovely shots in a partnership of 66 and help to set a reasonable target of 184.

It then came to the bowlers to do what they do best and bowl out Spencer. This looked like the case when Danger and Sips took 4 quick wickets with the score only on 34. However, they couldn’t break through again and were taken off to change things up and give their legs a rest. Skater boy and Muncher were brought on and bowled very tight, but were unable to get a break through. After Venus and Reidy had a short spell to try and break up the growing partnership Danger and Sips were brought back into the attack. They both took wickets in their first over’s back with Danger picking up another 1 a few over’s later to make it 5 in the match. It looked as if Egham were on their way to another victory, but some decent batting and a few loose deliveries meant that Spencer were able to reach the winning draw target. They finished on 157-7.

Standout performances: Lee Pooley 43, Jamie Hoddle 40 and David Morris 5-30

Egham travelled to the picturesque ground of 3^rd placed Farnham for week 5 of the Surrey Championship. The Sausage Army (an appropriate name given by last weeks guest columnist) were in confident mood after the win against Esher the previous week and the usual jovial banter was flying in all directions.

Reidy once again proved to be a fine "tosser" and elected to field. The new ball was in the capable hands of the "Fiddler" and "Dangerous Dave" and both bowled beautifully. Kiddo starting the ball rolling by having opener Ungaretti caught at square leg with a very good catch by Jamie Hoddle (bad back and all)!! "Danger" then cleaned out the no.3 with a beauty and Egham were on a roll.

Kiddo went on to clean bowl two more of the Farnham boys with superb off cutters and finished with figures of 3-20 to take back to Wiltshire. Replacing the "Fiddler" at the far end was Muncher the "Great Cumberland", but after a brief spell of blood, sweat and more sweat he was replaced in order to come back later at the right end to aid his away swingers.

Craigy and Reido bowled well in the middle of the innings, Craig enticing the no.7 to edge into the hands of Lee at slip who clung on safely making it 3^rd time lucky!! The skipper claimed two wickets and nearly had a third with a diving effort by Jonesie at wide mid on. The "juicy" Cumberland….by now sizzling in the afternoon sun returned to snare the crucial wicket of Farnham skipper Ian Thorpe (brother of Graham) LBW for 41 who was holding the innings together and followed this up with a further LBW.

The Farnham innings closed with a catch in the deep by Chrissy Wot (note… celebration slightly less animated this week lads) off the bowling of "Danger"…job done 123 all out. We then returned to the dressing rooms to hear the Farnham boys on the receiving end of the most almighty rollocking from their very "p****d off" skipper.

Chrissy and Sucky opened up after tea putting on 25 before Sucky decided to have a wander in the direction of Farnham Castle after a ball had just passed the outside edge of his bat. Alas for Sucky the "chirpy" keeper spotted that our big "Pork & Leek" might have a rather large turning circle and was quick to run out the Egham stalwart whilst bat was still in the air!! Needless to say the lads weren’t slow to give him a little stick for this aberration during the course of the evening.

Young Jamie went fairly quickly to a good catch soon after…..so enter Jonesie at 26-2. By now the Farnham boys were starting to get a little "chopsy" especially our dear friend at cover point who had the Play-Cricket stats of every Egham player in his pocket. During the course of the innings I was reliably informed by Farnhams answer to University Challenge that the stats showed I was the slowest run scorer in the team…..thanks for that…and Jonesie was advised publicly that he had a batting average of 12!!!

Unfortunately this appeared to get to Jonah as he attempted to "nick" my crown as slowest player in the side by hitting 5 off 700 balls!!

Enter Big Cuz at 55-3 and game tightly poised with Farnham bowling well. However no more wickets fell and a fine unbeaten partnership of 69 with Micky 31 n.o and Chrissy 53 n.o saw the boys home to a great 7 wicket victory. The batters had great encouragement from the team members on the sidelines, a good drink was had afterwards and Egham leapfrogged their hosts into 3^rd place in the table.

And so week 4 of the surrey championship saw Egham 2’s take on a mid table Esher side who hadn’t got off to a great start this season. Team morale was high in the changing rooms and it didn’t take long before banter started flowing in Craig Bartlett’s direction (spearheaded by CD and ably supported by Dangerous and Micky Watmore). After a comprehensive warm up of Reidy smashing balls into orbit for us all to catch, we were soon in the field. CD and Dangerous Dave took the new ball and bowled pretty tight lines to restrict the openers (one of which was about 10 yrs old). It wasn’t until CD took the wicket of the 10yr old with an LBW that the wickets started tumbling. After 6 overs the hangover kicked in and Jamie Hoddle took over at the top end. He made an immediate impact taking 2 quick wickets and bowled good lines, however his spell had to come to an end…..enter Craig Bartlett and a very entertaining period of cricket. In his first over the wanna be blonde took the wicket of what appeared to be Esher’s only batsman, CD taking the catch. Then only a couple of balls later the ginger lad had the next batsman walking, clean bowling him; and by the reaction on the face of the batsman it appeared Craig bowled something like Murali would have bowled (he was utterly bemused by a ball turning an inch). After Roy providing some good entertainment by saying to next the batsman," that’s middle stump batman" CD came on again to wrap up the innings along with Muncher in 39.1 overs, Esher finishing all out for 112.

Bowling figures of note: CD 3-16, Jamie Hod 2-22, Craig "wanna be blonde" 2-22

Tea wasn’t ready yet as we’d rattled through the oppo so fast, so Chrissy Watmore and Sucky lead the batting attack out after a quick turn around. Sucky was unfortunate to be judged LBW and was soon back in the pavilion……enter Craig Bartlett and another entertaining period of cricket. Crissy was looking solid at the other end as too did Craig until the oppo started throwing the ball at him (whether it was accidental or not, we’re not sure), one throw catching him on the back that had him down like a sack of sh.t. After a barrage of abuse from his team mates, Craig stopped crying and soon snicked one to the keeper.

Baxy then joined Chrissy and smashed a quick fire 46 no. to lead Egham home. Chrissy finishing on a solid looking 32 no. A convincing win from Sausage Army.

CD

For round three we were greeted at Leatherhead & Cobham with somewhat warmer weather than the preceding week and actually sunshine, however there was a very stiff breeze which would make bowling and batting more difficult!

Reidy finally lost a toss and we were put in to bat on a hard, dry pitch. We got off to a decent start with plenty of attacking shots from Risky while Sucky kept his end ticking over. Leatherhead bowled well on a decent pitch which had a two paced feel at times.

Sucky was the first to fall caught behind and Risky fell later to a good catch at square leg after some further lovely drives. Jonesy batted patiently for 24 before being caught behind. The middle order performed well with Mick hitting a good 43 which included some big blows again, ably supported by Pooley who ended up on 24. Baxy came in towards the end when we were in need of some quick runs and delivered; scoring 51 off 42 balls including a massive six onto the pavilion roof, a joy to watch! Egham were eventually all out for a respectable 232 in 53.5 overs.

Egham’s defence got off to the best start possible with Dave Morris taking a wicket in only the second ball and then a further wicket shortly after, meaning both openers had been dismissed for ducks. He then carried on with a good spell to bag 4 wickets for the game. After a steady start Dave McCarthy bowled well with plenty of balls beating the outside edge and was very unlucky not to collect any wickets for his efforts. Reidy and Kiddo also collected 2 wickets a piece with Reidy dismissing Perry for 96 which contained some fortune, including the ball hitting the stumps but not dislodging the bails, unlucky Davy Mac! After some dominance by the Leatherhead batsmen Egham managed to regain some control and after a very close finish with Leatherhead falling short by 3 runs, Egham avoided defeat and finished a good game with a losing draw.

We finally arrived at the ground rather later than planned thanks to the fantastic navigation from the skipper. After a swift warm up, we were given the nod by the skipper we were in the field. Chris Davies took the new ball and straight away got in to a good rhythm.

The track was a little on the slow side and it became quite apparent the scoring would be slow. Chris & Stefan continued to bowl pretty tidily keeping the Beddington openers under the cosh. The score finally reached 30 off the first 20 over's. Eventually Egham get the break through they thoroughly deserve the wicket goes to CD who had continued to bowl with great control.

The skipper takes over from Stefan and starts well, the fielding from Egham up to this point has been very tight not giving the opposition anything. CD is given a rest & the ball is given to Muncher the Cumberland Veteran. The cry of suck it in son comes ringing from the boundary as he struggles to Run up to the wicket. The bowling continues to pressurize the batsman into mistakes and then Muncher clean bowls no3. Another tidy spell from Stefan & CD keeps the game well in control for Egham. But with the soaring temperature the skipper had to give the Seam attack a well deserved rest, enter the Bartlett. Craig bowled with great control & varied his pace & flight, he went on to take 2 well deserved tickets with Beddington declaring on 165 for 5 from 52 over's.

The Egham innings started with Mike Hunt & Paul Suckling getting off to a very solid start. Hunty smashed a couple of exquisite cover drives for 4 and looked in great nick, then disaster struck for the Egham opener, going for yet another quick single pulled up after tugging his hamstring. He was replaced by Jonesy at the crease. Paul slowly but surely started to get on top of the Beddington attack keeping up with the desired run rate. Jonesy then drove straight back at the bowler who snared the catch. Enter Craig Bartlett, the two Egham batsman continued to keep the score board ticking over at a good rate.

Craig finally fell pulling to mid wicket for 27, Mick appeared to be in a hurry and was caught trying to cut to point for 2. The skipper was next up Egham needing 43 to win. After the first ball raced to the boundary for 4 from the skipper's blade, the opposition new he meant business and spread the field. This had no impact what so ever

Both batsman finding gaps and boundaries at will. Adam finished on 29 with man of the match Paul Suckling finishing on an excellent 72.

Egham running out winners with 7 over's to spare.