NAZEING COMMON CRICKET CLUB

Junior Section August Newsletter

 Highlights

In a highly competitive practice match on a typical Tuesday night up at Nazeing, an interesting period of competitive banter involving the toughest of the O’Neill clan (Zoe; sorry Nick), and coach Shrekkie Elby, led to the Shrekmeister batting against the cunning bowling of Miss O’Neill, after a discussion which culminated in Elby asking Zoe which field she wanted her bowling dumped in, she just looked on knowingly. Picture the scene, Zoe O’Neill wanders back to her ‘long run up’ point, stares down at the ball, looks Elby right in the eye, a wry grin, then comes steaming in at full pace and proceeds to deliver a ball that frankly Michael Vaughan would have had difficulty playing, and poor old Elby can only watch on with inadequate horror as he watches his stumps cart-wheeling back towards the farmers field. Somewhat sheepishly he tucks his bat under his arm, looks at his primary club cricket shirt that he was wearing and wonders if it was an omen he should haven taken note of. Woefully he walks past a confident Zoe O’Neill who points the correct way towards the pavilion.

Old Chelmsfordians v Nazeing

 Nazeing Sunday 2s fell to a narrow defeat in a brilliant game at Lawford Lane, in a team with many Nazeing Juniors in it. Starting with under 15 Joe Grewal who scored a brilliant 48, 34 more from the in-form Ricky Light and a first ever five wicket haul for stand-in captain and junior coach Michael Plume. Old Chelmsfordians won the toss and elected to bat first on a good wicket, and it seemed to be a good decision as 60 runs were racked up inside 10 overs, assisted it has to be said by some wayward bowling from the make shift opening partnership of (coach) Kadwill and Atkins. The OC’s skipper was treated to a series of leg-side longhops that were put away with ease and quickly saw him move along into the 30s. Plume replaced Atkins with (under 15) Jack Finch, who paid his skipper back immediately with a fine delivery in the first ball of his spell, finding the outside edge which was smartly taken behind by Ricky Light, and the OC’s captain was on his way back. Malcolm Lee was introduced to replace Kadwill at the Tennis Courts End, but his 7 overs proved expensive as Chelmsfordians began to rebuild there innings, taking them past the 100 mark as the players took drinks. Living a slightly charmed life, the young Old Chelmsfordians opener past 50 shortly after the interval, with many of his runs coming through the air just out of reach of Nazeing hands, but some nice shots were mixed in too and he eased to a half century. The powerhouse left handed number 3 for Chelmsfordians looked in little trouble too, and was quickly racking up the runs as he too shot to a half century in quick time as the hosts moved towards the 150 mark with little more than 25 overs bowled. Pinder Grewal replaced young Finch at the Football Stand End and soon set about drying up the runs, with a tight spell of bowling proving frustrating for the batsman. Grewal nearly provided the breakthrough moments later, with (ex Nazeing Junior) Christian Rowntree just unable to cling on to a tough chance over his shoulder. The skipper decided to introduce himself into the attack from the Tennis Courts End, and it immediately paid dividends with the young opener fancying his chances off Plume’s first ball, but completely failing to read the flight and turn he found himself out of his ground as Light reacted quickly to remove the bails and send the OC’s lad on his way for 64. Nazeing just seemed to be gaining some momentum, and Plume provided a vital breakthrough, removing the big left handed with a good in-swinging Yorker dislodging the leg stump. The visitors began to step up there game, and OC’s were soon four down after a horrible mix-up left both batsman at the non-strikers end, with a quick piece of thinking from Richard Neave completing the run out. The OC’s wicket keeper, who had just run out his team mate, was celebrating his birthday aswell, but Plume spoilt the party, removing him caught and bowled first ball.  The keeper did not take this well and proceeded to throw his bat from the field and take out his frustration on an innocent cone which was watching the action from near the changing room door. The 20 year old was enjoying his best spell of the season, and he had his 4th wicket just two balls later, hanging on to another caught and bowled effort as the Old Chelmsfordians middle order was in full on collapse mode, not unlike a usual Nazeing effort. The youngster has long been mocked for his failure to take a five wicket haul for the club, but he had cause for celebration 2 balls later, as he took his third wicket in the over, as Jamie Atkins took a simple chance at short mid off. He eventually finished with career best figures of 8-1-21-5. 7, with OC’s declaring the innings on a 199-9, Grewal finishing with 11.2-2-49-1. Short of batsman for this encounter, with only Chris Chew as a recognised Sunday 2s bat, Plume turned to Ricky Light to open the innings, with 56* and 30 in his last two innings the youngster seemed the ideal man for the job. Light wasn’t to disappoint, as he and Chew set about chasing the total, with some quick running between the wickets early doors seeing the scoreboard move along quickly. However following some early wickets, with Nazeing in a spot of trouble at 32-2. Joe Grewal was the next man in, and he set about building an excellent innings, sharing a near half century partnership with Light, who too was showing signs of class as he moved into the 30s. The scored moved along into the 70s before Light was surprisingly bowled for 34. When father and son came together at the crease, with around 6 an over required at this stage, the pair are used to batting in partnership, and this showed with some sharp running between the wickets, coupled with some boundaries moving the Nazeing innings along nicely. The score reached the 120’s before the elder Grewal holed out, with a run a ball 18 to his name, and he was soon followed back to the pavilion by Andy Kadwill, who cracked an excellent for first ball, but couldn’t repeat the trick second ball and found deep midwicket. Still Joe Grewal was batting beautifully and looked in no trouble whatsoever as he moved into his 40s, manoeuvring the ball all over the ground. New man at the crease Jamie Atkins put on a few with the youngster, before Grewal was cruelly denied a much deserved 50, lofting one into the air which was safely taken as he departed. The youngster was really annoyed with himself, but was treated to an big ovation from both teams as he left the field with just 7 overs of the match remaining. Nazeing still required 60 at this stage, with Finch and Atkins at the crease, with Atkins looking the aggressor, but he was gone soon afterwards, edging to first slip, who took a stunning catch to dismiss the visiting number 8. Plume made his way to the crease, with 12 an over now required and just two wickets left. The spinners were on, and Plume quickly moved to 8, but was helpless to prevent defeat for his side as two wickets fell in 3 balls at the other end. First Jack Finch found midwicket, with what surely should have been called a no ball, before Malcolm Lee survived just two deliveries, playing onto his stumps to bring the Nazeing innings to a close at 161 with 4 overs still to play. It was a fantastic game of cricket for the neutral, with both sides playing some good cricket, and the return fixture at Nazeing in September should be an interesting affair. A good first 5-fer for Plume, but the spotlight was surely stolen by a classy knock from Joe Grewal. Result: Old Chelmsfordians 199-9 defeat Nazeing 161 by 28 runs. 

Nazeing Common under 13’s V Takeley

Takeley scored 56 for 6 from their full 20 overs with very good fielding from Nazeing, Bradley Hearn 2 wickets off two overs for only three runs and new player Jonny Whitnall 2 wickets off three overs for twelve runs and a great performance from Lee Scott 1 wicket off three overs for fifteen runs.Nazeing thinking they where in a great situation were soon pushed aside with Takeley bowling them all out for 53 in 19.4 overs with a great last and exciting over. Player of the match goes to Lee Scott playing out of his age group and showing he is a very able bowler, fielder and a very exciting batsman at the latter stages. 

Nazeing v Hockerill home and away at under 15 & 13 age levels

In what turned out to be a great all round weekend for the club with all bar one team winning, Nazeing completed a win double over Hockerill with both the under 15’s and under 13’s wining with relative ease. Darren Dack, manager of the under 13’s proudly stated, that my young side performed admirably all round to defeat Hockerill, and singled out Sian Waters for praise stating that her left arm spin bowling had the opposition bamboozled! 

Nazeing v Epping Foresters home and away at under 9 level

Nazeing fielding teams that half consisted of under 7 year olds put up a great fight against the senior herts & essex league club under 9 team. In the first match at home against Nazeing, they bowled and fielded admirably taking four wickets. Then with what can only be described as a clinical display of batting, captain and vice captain Connor Hearn and Jason Painter both took the runs ahead of the target they were chasing, then ruthlessly defended the total not risking any chance of a wicket loss. This led to a Nazeing victory. Alas a week later in a very similar situation, Nazeing had just edged ahead of foresters total in the penultimate over, but not realising this, the boys thought they needed to hit out, and promptly lost some wickets, then in trying to chase those lost runs, lost further wickets, which gave foresters the match by 11 runs.The final Nazeing junior matches of the season will be for this age group on the last day of August away in the South Loughton tournament. 

Good Luck & Well Done

Not everybody has had the greatest time this season, and we’d like to send a special message of good luck to Alan Oliver, who has missed most of the season so far after horribly breaking his arm. Good luck Alan, and hope to see you soon terrorising all those oppo batters!!Slightly closer to home coach Plume having been bemused for some time at not yet having achieved the coveted 5 wicket innings, then proceeds to do it twice in the space of a couple of weeks. Nice, and at the moment, two of the coaches are actually at the top of the senior charts. Paul Johnson is top of the batting chart and Michael Plume has overtaken the old chairman to be in pole position of the bowling chart. Coaches assistant (and technically still a junior member as well as being Saturday 2’s skipper) Ricky Light scored a match winning maiden 50 the other week, finishing with a glorius 6 over the bowlers and the supporters heads. Nice! 

More Stuff

We’ve acquired some new equipment recently, we now have three kwik cricket sets for the Fundamentals group, and on top of the tennis and hard ball bowling machine, we now have an intermediate bowling machine from Flicx uk as well. On top of this, we have purchased a flicx batting scoring practice net, which could be fun although with only 3  weeks left of the summer training season, time is against us.Just to remind everybody, the last Tuesday evening summer training session will be on Tuesday August 22^nd, at which point we will have a few weeks off before returning inside on a Sunday afternoon. Probably at King harolds school unless we can get an alternative cheaper venue. 

Nazeing competed this year in the under 11, 13 and 15 leagues. Alas with young teams we finished bottom of the 11 and 13 tables, but the under 15’s again with a youngish team finished bang middle of the table, and above most of the big village clubs.

Well done to all that participated this year.

 Paul Elby