Chigwell CC. Chigwell CC.
Match Report Date 22/06/2025 Oppo Chigwell (a) Type Timed Report by Undercover Boss The O's arrived at Debden Sports ground for the game against Chigwell on the back of 2 consecutive massive victories. The architect of the annihilation of the Bengeo Pre-school XI last week, Mr Oliver Buck was looking the worse for wear after a late Saturday night. His first words to Skipper Ritzy were 'My feet are knackered - bat me at 10 skip'. Having looked at the opposition and noticing that all of them were older than 9 years old, he also wasn't too keen on bowling or even fielding -it transpired he had been trying to find a replacement from 6am that morning without success, so had to play. Thanks Olly. All of the press build up in the week before had been about the return of former 'fives' favourite Sir Jack Baker Merry, who was feeling anxious after his serious arm injury had kept him out all season. Even so, having offered to open the bowling, batting the fielding, the bar and several envelopes, Jack was informed that he would 'definitely be getting a game'....more of this later. Skipper Ritzy having lost the toss (again) informed the troops that we had been inserted by the opposition in a traditional timed game. Then begun the usual search for 'STAR BOY' Sandeep who apparently arrived 20 minutes early but had been unable to find the entrance to the ground, this despite a great big sign that says 'SPORTS CLUB' just outside and so arrived 10 minutes late. Eventually the game was started with Edgy and Big Stef opening up and within 15 minutes both were back in the pavilion as the O's succumbed to 25-3 in a disastrous start that also saw the dismissal of the younger Baker-Merry after his great innings last week against the Bengeo foetus XI. 'Gentleman' Paul Elby began the rearguard action response and with a help from Alex Franklin and Chintan 'Chin' 'Chinny' 'Chinno' 'Chanter' Shah, moved the score onto 80. Enter 'Sir Jack'......whose words as he walked out were 'I'm not hanging around!'. 50 balls later Jack was on 12 having been dropped 4 times but luckily 'Elby the Destroyer' had launched into a deluge of huge hits that catapulted the O's score to 130 with 'Paul the Pounder" making an excellent 88, leaving the O's best individual score this season (I think!). Jack then took the game by the scruff of the neck and added another 15 runs to drag the O's to a declaration at 163-8 off 46 overs. Jacks contribution was a valuable 27. This represented a superb comeback from the O's who looked dead and buried at one point against some excellent Chigwell bowling. 29 of the 46 overs were bowled by only 2 members of the Chigwell team. After tea, the O's set about defending their total which looked like it was at least 50 short once the opener Bhakumar got going. After just 13 overs Chigwell had 83-2 on the board and Bhakumar had scored 66 of them! The 2 wickets at that point had been taken by Alex Franklin to continue his fine bowling record for the O's....not bad for a wicket keeper! Then a quite extraordinary period of 8 balls which saw 5 Chigwell wickets for 0 runs to reduce the home team to 83-7!! What made this even more incredible was that it included 2, YES 2! Catches from Big Stef, who was previously been known t stop, let alone catch a cricket ball!! The first of these was a full length dive forward to take the ball just above the ground. A transformed Stef (now known as Jonty Minkey) then picked up another catch from a skier and chased down numerous lost causes turning to give the finger to skipper Ritzy and all those that ever doubted his athleticism and flexibility in the outfield, so basically this is just about everyone. 3 wickets for the skipper in his pursuit of 1000 career wickets before his 90th birthday and 2 wickets for Australian Felix who bowled superbly throughout in trying his best to rescue the game for the O's. Alas the O's were eventually undone by a superb 9th wicket partnership of over 50 led by Chigwell's skipper Rob Allum despite the efforts of the previously mentioned Sir Jack who gave it a good go for 5 overs on his return. The kangaroo and koala loving Felix bowled an impressive 13 overs but couldn't quite get the O's over the line, as Chigwell reached their target with just 5 balls remaining in a thriller. Twice the O's came 'back from the dead' with both bat and ball and, even though we lost our unbeaten run (as we are rightly including games against girls and small boys), these are the games we want to play in. On to Matching Green.....
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© Dave Revell