Top-of-the-table cricket at Wycombe this Sat (19th)
If you fancy some live sport this Saturday (June 19th) the top 2 sides in the Home Counties Premier Cricket League face off at London Road, with an 11am start.
Top-of-the-table Henley visit High Wycombe in what should be an excellent game of cricket. The match is a 120 over format. The side batting first can bat a maximum of 64 overs - they can, however, end their innings early in order to give themselves more time to dismiss the opposition.
Lunch is taken 1.00-1.30pm and tea is 5.00-5.20pm. The clubhouse will be open for drinks and snacks and I’m sure the club would welcome as many spectators as possible for this big game.
While the top 2 meet at High Wycombe, the bottom 2 play each other in a relegation battle as Tring Park host Thame Town. Let’s hope for some nice weather and some good cricket.
Comments
Thanks for that, @A_Worboys. Sadly, there seems to be disappointingly little enthusiasm for watching cricket these days, certainly on the Gasroom. Few of my friends are likely to be interested and I’m not over keen on going alone. Having said that, I slip into conversation very readily, wherever I am, so I won’t rule it out.
Some of the games I’ve been to recently have had remarkably good crowds. I think this is probably down to nice weather & simply wanting to get out & see some live sport.
Last Saturday I saw Buckingham Town beat Finchampstead. A low scoring game, most notable for the 7 wickets for 42 runs off 20.2 overs by former West Indian Test player Shane Shillingford. Now 38 years old, he took 70 wickets in 16 tests.
He opened the bowling and continued for the rest of the innings, pretty much unplayable. It was his third consecutive 'five for' for Buckingham. An interesting signing this summer, he has been banned three times in his career for an illegal action. He seems to have fully corrected it, I couldn't see anything wrong with it. He is now the leading wicket taker this season in the HCPCL, with 19 from his right arm off-breaks.
You can see last Saturday's results, and this Saturday's fixtures, on https://hcpcl.play-cricket.com/. I may go to HW v Henley, although Horspath v Chesham is attractive. I'm keen to get around all the grounds in the league.
It's good to get some news of local cricket. Even though it is the close season the BFP only writes about the Wanderers.
How such a pinnacle of local culture has gone downhill.
Best coverage of the HCPCL seems to be on https://www.sportsshots.org.uk/,
@sportsshotsnews on Twitter, or https://www.youtube.com/user/sportsshotsorguktv.
They send a photographer, and sometimes a cameraman, to one or two games each week.
These are 26 minutes of highlights of the Buckingham v Finchampstead game.
That was very interesting. Thanks for mentioning it. Good spin bowling with batsmen all at sea. Evidence of much practice at high fiving and post wicket celebrations. When I played village cricket it seemed that every time the ball hit the batsman's pads he was given out so it was good to see so many appeals turned. down. Also, we never had helmets; how much do they cost?
@wingnut, helmets seem to start at about £40 and go up to £250. Presumably you get what you pay for.
There does seem to be excessive appealing in these games, especially by fielders who can't possibly judge the line of the ball. All done to put pressure on both batsman and umpire I suppose.
Sledging occurs of course, there is constant chatter and encouragement of teammates. There was a bizarre incident recently at Tring Park when they played Henley. Visiting player Ali Akbar Raja was on the boundary, encouraging his bowler after every ball. An elderly chap, sat in his chair near him and reading his newspaper, took exception to his constant encouragement and asked him to stop. I heard him say that he came to cricket for some peace and quiet. The two got into a bit of an argument and the umpire came over and talked to the spectator, explained that the player was entitled to do what he was doing, and managed to calm things down. The spectator then moved his chair further away, Raja continued his chatter and eventually began his bowling spell, so was not near him quite so much.
It's funny how sledging has come to be accepted as normal. In many years playing cricket, it happened very rarely in my experience and yet it was very competitive.
I was surprised that the average age of those playing in that match seemed higher than I would have expected in that league.
Is there a sprinkling of former county players at that level @Steve_Peart or do clubs depend on older players mainly because younger players are not coming into the game?
@wingnut and @micra, there are some former County players, who didn't make it and were released. There are also some currently playing for County second XIs. Then you have players who came through the club's own youth setup, and some clubs, not all, employ an overseas player who also coaches during the week.
In 2013, 19 year spinner Ashton Agar was playing for Henley CC. He was called up to the Australian Ashes squad and made his Test debut at Trent Bridge. With the score on 117-9 he came in and scored a sensational 98 runs.
I remember how so-called "club cricketers" very much looked down on the local league, which, at that time, was the biggest in the South of England. They would rather play in their own bubble of what were regarded as leading clubs in the area..
Then, for whatever reason, they decided that, after all, leagues were not such a bad idea and they couldn't form them fast enough. It's good to see they have persevered. My last year or two playing was with a club that only played "friendlies"
and I found them more competitive than league games. Human nature I suppose.
Sledging is the worst thing about cricket, generally cringeworthy at the time and even more so on the after dinner circuit 15 years later.
Match on. Henley have won the toss & elected to field. High Wycombe batting then.
After a slow start High Wycombe scored 200-5 off their maximum allotted 64 overs. Late big hitting by Harvey Brennan (61 not out) & Teddy Casterton (52) helped High Wycombe set Henley a competitive total to chase in 56 overs. Game on.
Roughly 3.5 an over for Henley compared with High Wycombe’s 3.1. Can’t be easy if there’s as much cloud cover there as there is in Widmer End.
Thanks for the update @A_Worboys. Be interested to hear how it’s going.
In reply Henley started brightly but against some very good High Wycombe bowling have slipped to 54-5 off 17 overs.
Tea: Henley 58-6 off 23 overs
Match drawn. Henley 117-9 at the end. Henley escaped in a thrilling finish.
Thanks for that @A_Worboys. Family visited so have only just got round to your updates. Very much a winning draw.