SCOREBOARD BOB's CRICKET DIARY.
Click here for MENU of 2002 2nd X1, Board X1 and Junior Cricket
Please note that I will have very little to put on this Cricket Diary during the colder darker months, other than the odd word about the monthly Gloucestershire Cricket Lovers meetings, so have a great Christmas and Winter. I've got to catch up on all those jobs on the house and garden that should have been done during the last 5 summers. Enjoy the Ashes (and no, I didn't mean Bonfire Night, although I hope you enjoy that as well). Cheers, Bob.
I was kindly invited to join the County Ground's Stewards at their Buffet Lunch, held
at the Filton Ex-Services Club today.
This was organised by one of the Stewards, Nick Hawkins, and a fine job he did - plenty
to eat and drink, a really friendly atmosphere, a series of jokes from Dave Morrison (the
Chief Steward, who manages his troops in the right way - with respect and good humour), and
a further story/joke from Peter Whitby, who also managed to win the skittles.
My heart started racing when I knew we were going to play skittles. My mind went back to the
time when I scored 0 on 6 ends of 'Front Pin First'. So to avoid the 'yips' (or whatever
they're called), I downed a swift pint, and stayed in the background hoping they wouldn't
notice me. But, 'Come on, Bob' soon rang out.
Luckily, I managed to keep the ball on the alley (success!) and the task was all the easier,
because taking my turn after Sean, our Head Groundsman, I usually only had one pin to aim at.
I didn't hit any, but it seems better somehow - missing just 1 pin rather than missing all 9.
All good fun!
Congratulations to Peter Whitby, the winner (despite being a Middlesex member), but also to
Nick Hawkins, who by finishing runner-up, gained some reward for his efforts in organising
the get-together.
The afternoon was made complete by the appearance of Mike Smith, our intrepid left arm seamer, looking fit and well. He even joined in the skittles, but I think he found it slightly more difficult aiming at (up to) 9 stumps rather than 3.
Many Thanks, Mike, for coming along and making our day, to Sean Williams and Dave Bridle, our 'recently retired' Head Groundsman, and all the other stewards, and thanks also to Dave Morrison, and especially to Nick for sorting it all out.
I went to the first of what helps me through the winter - Gloucestershire Cricket Lovers, held
on the SECOND MONDAY OF EACH MONTH (from October to April inclusive).
If you're interested in coming, it's £3 on an evening for guests, or £11 for membership for the
whole winter (+ a £2 joining fee for new members). Meetings are held in the Grace Room at the
County Ground (times 19.30 for 19.45 except for 14th April 2003 which starts at 19.00 prompt).
Today, we had Jeremy Lloyds, the First Class Umpire, who played for Gloucestershire 1985 - 1991.
As well as outlining his adult life - first at Somerset, coaching and playing in South Africa,
playing for us, and then umpiring, he gave some very interesting views on cricket as it is
played today, particularly how players prepare for matches, also on TV replays and technology,
from an Umpire's viewpoint.
A very pleasant evening.
Future Meetings:-
11th November 2002 - Matthew Maynard
9th December 2002 - John Budd (Bedminster C.C.)
13th January 2003 - Martyn Ball
10th February 2003 - Martin Horton and Roy Booth (ex Worcestershire players)
10th March 2003 - Peter Robinson (ex Worcestershire and Somerset)
14th April 2003 - Cricket Lovers AGM followed by Tom Richardson (the County's Chief Executive)
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Annual Dinner of the Bristol & District Cricket Association - as a guest of the Konica Bristol Youth Cricket League.
It was a great evening - lovely home made Steak & Kikney pie, sherry trifle, cheese & biscuits as well as starter, coffee and plenty of wine.
The speaker was Mike Watkinson, ex Lancashire captain who also played 4 Tests for England.
He gave a humorous account of the match against West Indies, in which he got 80-odd not out
to save the match, including a vivid description of the effects of the ball which got Thorpey
in the box, and details of Ray Illingworth's (not so) inspiring team talk, along the lines of
'We need to bat to tea to save this match'.
He also got well stuck into his ex team mates Michael Atherton and particularly Wasim Akram -
all in good fun.
Great news for the table I was on, came in the form of an announcement that Konica are continuing their sponsorship for another 3 years, which is worth in excess of £20,000 to the Youth Cricket League in Bristol, which does so much to help the development of young cricketers and coaching in the area.
The evening was rounded off with the prize-giving, Timsbury taking top honours, winning not
only the Senior Division title, but also Division 1 of the Second X1 league, and Division 2
of the 'A' X1 League. I think one of their players also picked up an Individual Award. (Sorry,
the wine was taking effect by then!).
Thankfully, I didn't win the draw, avoiding the embarassment of having to go on stage in front
of 270 guests, to collect a prize.
Many Thanks to everyone who helped organise the Event, and special thanks to the Youth League for inviting me.
Had a pleasant day on the Scoreboard at the County Ground, doing the GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNTY CUP FINAL between STAPLETON and BRISTOL WEST INDIANS.
Bristol West Indians won the toss and chose to bat, but lost early wickets, reaching 55-3
after 21 Overs. Kevin Riley had just hit 2 consecutive fours off Mike Birkenshaw to move
onto 30 off 68 balls. He continued the acceleration until caught in the deep for a fine
68 off 99 balls out of 106-4. B.W.I. then collapsed to 110-7 off 33 Overs and Stapleton
seemed to have a great chance of causing an upset in this Final.
Then Courtney Ricketts and Pat Langlais came together and built a fine unbeaten partnership
of 91 in just 75 balls, Ricketts scoring 48 off 45 and Langlais 39 off 35. This put the
Bristol West Indians back in the game with a competetive 201-7 off their 45 Overs.
Stapleton's best return came from Mike Birkenshaw with 3-54.
Stapleton looked fairly comfortable at 24-0 off 8 Overs, but lost 2 quick wickets, including
captain Steve Leonard who was very disappointed to be adjudged run out at 30-2 off 13.4
Overs. Andy Holloway, who'd taken a nasty crack on the hand while fielding, and Graham
Parker-Jones slowly rebuilt the innings, each scoring 23, but the run rate required was
increasing rapidly.
From 68-2 off 24.5 Overs, needing a further 134 off 20.1, wickets began
falling. The task of scoring 7 or 8 an over by each new batsman was too much, and Stapleton
seemed to accept defeat at 105-7 off 36 Overs, needing 97 off the last 9. They almost played
out time, finally succumbing at 150 all out off 44.5 Overs, and losing by 51 runs. (The
wickets were shared amongst the bowlers, but the best figures were 2-28 from the spin off
Courtney Ricketts).
The presentation ceremony, performed by Trevor Crouch, was half over by the time I'd walked
across, so I missed the announcement of the Man of the Match award (if there was one).
However, I was in time to see the Winners medals given to the Losers and vice-versa - to
the merriment of all concerned.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BRISTOL WEST INDIANS!
and commiserations to STAPLETON who did so well to reach the Final!
A very enjoyable (and noisy) day.
I'll give the diary a miss for a while, in order to concentrate on getting all the results I can onto the website.
Although the match didn't involve Gloucestershire, you may be interested in what
happened in the UNDER 19 COUNTY FINAL between SOMERSET and HAMPSHIRE at the County
Ground today.
The match was scheduled to take place over 2 days with each side
batting for 100 Overs, if not all out earlier.
However, Hampshire, who won the toss and chose to bat, were bowled out for 125 in 57.3 Overs.
Somerset took just 25.2 Overs to score 128-2 and win by 8 Wickets with a day to spare.
Best performances were a 39 by Hampshire's Captain, Steve Snell, 3-34 by Somerset's Adam Kelly, and in Somerset's Innings, 70* from Tom Webley and 34* from Gareth Andrew.
Watched ENGLAND U19 v INDIA U19 at Taunton on telly - great game, India winning by 1 Wicket in the penultimate over, but no Gloucestershire representatives were playing.
India thus won the One Day Series 3-0, after losing the Test Series 1-0 to England with 2 matches drawn.
Back to the County Ground for the 1ST ROUND match of the 2003 C&G TROPHY between the GLOUCESTERSHIRE BOARD X1 and SURREY BOARD X1.
Glos won the toss and put Surrey in on a dull cloudy morning. Early on, Johnny White (Thornbury) bowled particularly well, returning 7-2-14-2 in his first spell, and Surrey were struggling at 37-2. However, a partnership of 199 between S.Bahutule(105) and Joe Porter(96) took Surrey to a highly competetive 290-4 (including 46 Extras) off 50 Overs. Johnny White finished with 3-32
Glos lost Stephen Caple in the first over for 1, but a superb partnership of 164 in 26 Overs between Mark Coombes (Knowle) and Ben Staunton (Bath) put Glos in with a great chance. Mark scored 97 off 98 balls (11 fours) and Ben made 56 off 77 (7 fours). Glos then collapsed to 227-7 as the pressure built.
With 74 needed off the last 8 Overs, Mark Guest (29* off 35) and Graham Williams (17 off 21) tried hard, but the task was too great and Glos fell short by 17 runs at 273-8 off their 50 Overs.
Although Joe Porter returned figures of 10-0-51-4 to add to his 96, S.Bahutule (1-47 to add to his century) was named Man of the Match.
I got over to Coombe Dingle for the 2ND DAY of the 2NDS against GLAMORGAN and saw plenty of action.
Glam batted well in the morning and progressed to about 300-4 shortly after Lunch (Watkins made 84 and Hughes went on to 140).
Although up against it, Glos fought back really well in the afternoon, and dismissed Glam for 344. Toby Sharpe, previously at Northants, thoroughly deserved his figures of 6 for 56.
Unfortunately, Glos fell away again in their 2nd innings, and failed to take the game into third day. They were all out for 100, losing by an innings and 120 runs against a strong Glamorgan side.
Interestingly, Damian Forder (ex Glos) played for Glamorgan, and Alex French (ex Glam) played for Gloucestershire. The promising 16 year old Adam Robson of Nailsea also played for Gloucestershire.
Another good day at the County Ground, hosting the UNDER 19 ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL between ENGLAND and INDIA.
An exciting finish saw India win by 3 Wickets off the first ball of the last over, England making 265-8 (50 Overs) with India 268-7 (49.1 Overs).
Jamie Pearson, who made his First Class debut for Gloucestershire against Northants on August 15th, opened the innings for England, but was out for 1, edging to second slip in the third over.
On the same day, our 2NDS struggled on the first day of four in their SECOND X1 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME against GLAMORGAN at the University Ground, Coombe Dingle.
Glos were 124 all out, top scores being Stephen Pope (33) and Sunil Bhatt(28*)
I understand Glam were about 140-2 at close (Ryan Watkins 40*, John Hughes 30*).
Went to see my mum in the Forest of Dean.
We had great fun at the County Ground today, hosting The KONICA BRISTOL YOUTH CRICKET LEAGUE FINALS. The Champions are:-
NOTE - This site is probably a bit basic (and experimental) at the moment, but I am trying to learn how to program in HTML (showing off now), so as to improve it in due course. However, I hope you get some enjoyment and useful information from it.
To finish, here are some useful links:-
Cheers for now,
Bob. (20th October 2002).
Please E-Mail any suggestions or comments about this Website to:- bob@scoreboard.fsnet.co.uk