Welcome to this bumper edition of the Blog recounting a fantastic fortnight at The Rec.  Just a word of warning though, I wouldn’t advise reading this late at night as you probably won’t finish till the morning when you wake up!

Due to the excitement of cricket week I did not manage to find the time to write up last week so here we are now:

On Wednesday 1st, the Under 11s faced Roffey away from home and unfortunately lost. Once again I won’t bother trying to compete with Mark’s match report which can be found on this link http://wct.play-cricket.com/content/view.asp?id=10250481&cid=218&tid=14&referer=&fixture=&team=10087668

Saturday got off to a slow start at home. The U13’s were due to face West Wittering but there were a few delays to the start of play. Firstly we had some angry croquet players wishing to play but they were soon sorted out when they realised that the need of 22 young kids was slightly greater than that of the four of them. The next obstacle was the aftermath of the bee invasion we had suffered early in the week. The remaining bees had decided to reside upon the artificial pitch and so Groundsmen Gee was required to save the day. When play did eventually begin West Wittering was dispatched even faster than the bees for a grand total of 29 all out with Xavier Tras holding the only score in double figures. For their innings West Chilt mixed their batting order up a little to give a few other guys a chance to shine. Once again though, it was Xavier in fine form with a total of 20 which helped to see Chilt home with the loss of just one wicket.

The U14’s did not go quite so well losing to Ansty on Saturday Morning unfortunately my usual wealth of information regarding U14’s games is at school so I can’t really give you much more information than the scores  which were West Chilt all out for 70 with far too many ducks! Ansty got their relatively comfortably with 3 overs and 4 wickets to spare.

Unusually it was the adults who led the way on the Saturday although that was probably because one of the games was conceded!

Firstly the Firsts! We were away at Aldwick in a game we desperately wanted to win having somehow lost to them in an abysmal first game of the season which I do not care to recount! Once again we had them not many for lots, in this case 21-6 , and yet they still managed to reach a total of 108, it would have been many more but for the introduction of David Bowen-Davies who seemed to be completely unplayable taking 3-6 in just 2 overs. I guess at this stage I should probably mention Mick who bowled quite well taking 5-35. Then to the batting, we found ourselves in the rather unusual situation of having no openers.  By the virtue of being the only ones who did not specifically ask not to open myself and Gentlemen Steve found ourselves striding out to the middle. Steve was unfortunate to get a delivery that jagged back ridiculously of the seam to knock off stump out the ground in just the 3rd over. Things were looking a bit shaky when Callum “Clubber” Wyatt joined me in the middle at 10-1. Despite their Captains best that is rather pathetic and immature attempts at sledging I was not to perish until we had reached a score of about 50 by which point it was going to take a serious collapse to lose! Thankfully Mick then strode out to see us home with an unbeaten 45 and I think it’s safe to say he probably claimed man of the match for that game.

The Seconds had an even easier time of things with Clymping conceding the game which meant that Chilt got the full 30 points carrying us up to 2nd place with promotion definitely on the cards. In place of the cancelled game a 6-a-side fun game took place the highlight of which was apparently Tolson’s outrageous Dilscoop off Dave. Having experienced Tolson’s attempt at a reverse sweep yesterday, which for those who weren’t there was pretty awful, I don’t even believe he got bat on it but I’m sure the legend will live on!

Sunday the 5th was a mixed bag with just about every conceivable result occurring across the 3 games. The unbeaten U10’s continued their remarkable run although this victory was probably their easiest yet with Plaistow conceding the match. By the looks of the table which shows Chilt in second place behind Lindfield who are also unbeaten, we are awaiting what will undoubtedly be a thrilling top of the table clash between the two unbeaten titans of the U10’s league...

The U12’s unfortunately had to provide the loss for the day, losing out to Barns Green at The Rec.  Green batted first and posted an intimidating 118-4 which proved to be just too much for Chilt who only managed to reach 89-7 with notable performances from Reece Collins-Powell and James Monaghan who both retired.

The Sunday Side then provided a thrilling tie against Ashurst to finish the day.  Chilt batted first and once again the ducks were out in force with there being 4 in the innings, thankfully our more talented overseas players, that is Bob and Shaun managed to share a 72 partnership for the second wicket which allowed Chilt to reach a total of 177. Now as you may have guessed form the whole tie thing Ashurst also reached 177 all out with a certain West Chilt youngster Mark Fischel, who for some reason was playing for the oppo, reaching 44 before falling to the Welsh Wizard with just the one run needed for victory. This apparently was the first time a West Chilt adult’s team have been involved in a draw, although allegedly Peter Jones played in one such game in the early 19th Century, and if Big Bird’s captaincy is to be remembered for nothing else he will at least have this remarkable statistic to boast...

And so onto what was a very successful cricket week. It all began with Naezing Common on the Monday. They turned up a little late having come from the pub and as was evident from their pint laden umpires they planned to carry on drinking! They batted first and made 146 all out. Almost everyone had a bowl except for JC and Mick although Jake proved to be the most effective with his liquorice allsorts taking 3 wickets from the bamboozled Commoners!? We got there relatively comfortably with plenty of wickets in hand and in doing so claimed our first victory against Naezing in 3 meetings. The real fun began after the game with Naezing doing their best to drink us dry and savouring the superb bbq of which it was said whoever purchased the produce must have been a real connoisseur, don’t know who that could have been...

And so to Tuesday and what was undoubtedly going to be the highlight of the week. The Aussie T20 with great cricket, music, DJing, pizzas and even, purportedly, some dancing girls. Alas we were not to find out on that Tuesday due to the torrential rain that inevitably led to the game being cancelled and as yet we are still waiting for the rearranged date.

Wednesday saw our first ever game against Uckfield Anderida which proved to be a very tight match.  Uckfield won the toss and chose to bat first in what was meant to be a Pro (??) 40 game but was actually reduced to 35 overs due to a heavy rain delay. Uckfield matched our 2 Aussies with 2 of their own and they set about getting Uckfield off to a bit of a flier. Thankfully due to a couple of super catches (if I may say so myself!) from Mick and yours truly we managed to get rid of them. From then on in life was a little easier and we managed to get them all out for 151. It should have been a simple chase but we were quite slow of the mark, some would describe it as a perfectly paced innings. Thankfully Mick saw us home with just 3 balls to spare. Apparently Uckfield have already agreed to a rematch next year which is good news as it was an exciting and competitive contest.

On Thursday the challengers were Lingfield. With Mick finally given the chance to have a bowl with the new ball he took a devastating 3-8 and with some help from our latest overseas signing a West Indian Paceman (?!!) going by the name of Gregory Martin had the top order reeling, with them 5 down for not many it looked as this was going to be a walk in a park. That wasn’t quite how it worked out mainly thanks to stubborn resistance from their captain an ex minor counties player who was eventual, with them 5 down for not many it looked as this was going to be a walk in a park. That wasn’t quite how it worked out mainly thanks to stubborn resistance from their captain and an ex minor counties player who was eventually completely deceived by a cunning full toss from Wardy. Lingfield were eventually restricted to 181-7, a decent but well chaseable total.

Thanks mainly to Dave, who yet again received his customary drop, we were off to a flier, 3 fours in the first over if I remember correctly. Wardy fell with the score on 60 but was soon followed by Captain Llewellyn who was completely bamboozled by a yorker from the ex-Devon player who was bowling mystery spinners. A collapse soon followed with Dave finally falling on 78 quickly followed by Mick and myself who both received interesting LBW decisions from Trigger Tolson!! Thankfully the kids did good with Dougie and Jake seeing us home with 2 overs to spare and 26* and 12* respectively.

This left us with 3 wins from 3 games going into the Chairmen’s vs President’s game. Peter Jones won the toss and chose to have a bat which left us Chairmen’s out in the field. The game started very slowly, that is the scoring rate not the overs rate which we mistakenly kept much too fast. The introduction of Grant Morrrish and his fellow ringer Carl helped to speed things up. It has always been an ambition of Grant’s to try and hit one into James house and so on this occasion I was only too happy to oblige serving up a rank full toss which he duly smashed towards the house only just short of the windows!! Despite the fact that Grant had almost smashed her windows Jude continued to cheer for him which I tried to explain was wrong but to no avail!! Thanks to the aforementioned late acceleration we were set a target of 250-2.  Unfortunately due to a very slow over rate we were left with more than 10 fewer overs in which to make the runs and therefore never really looked like getting close. We stuck to our guns all the way and continued attacking till the end but the game ended finishing in a draw with us finishing on 221-8. Perhaps an overs game would be a good idea for next year so we can at least have a fair contest with a winner at the end of it??? After the game was the bbq as run by the U13’s dream team to wrap up an unbeaten cricket week, it proved to be very popular with the pavilion and patio overflowing with people, when’s the extension coming??!!

This weekend was heavily affected by rain which was quite handy as this blog is already far too long!!

However Saturday morning was not too badly affected and the U13’s comfortably beat Eastergate to finish the season unbeaten and claim the title of Champions of the West Area Under 13’s League. Well done to all the lads and here’s hoping that this is the first of many pieces of silverware at West Chilt this year.

The unbeaten U10’s continued their remarkable run beating Barns Green away from home to set up what promises to be an exciting top of the table decider against Lindfield next Sunday. A little bit of plagiarism here, this is Fitz’s account of the game:

West Chilt Under 10’s maintained their perfect start to the season and go into the last match against Lindfield heading the table on net run rate from Lindfield. The teams arrived at a drizzly Barn’s Green and having won the toss Patrick Cope elected to bat first. The opening pair of George Lee and Eddie Miller found the Barns Green opening bowlers a struggle to get away and were unable to get off to their usual flying start but Eddie Miller scored regularly and preserved his wicket in scoring 15 runs. The next pair of Zac Cisoti and Harry Jones both scored fluently and achieved the highest partnership of the innings of 31.The third pair of Crispin Tavares and, in particular, Paul King kept the positive momentum going and at the end of their partnership the team score was 275. They were replaced by Charlie Treasure and Gatsby Fitzgerald who took the team score to 287.  Charlie batted very well to score 15 runs in that partnership.  The final pair of Patrick Cope and Alex Scott took the final total to 312 with their usual fine running and shot placement.

 

The game was over after the opening West Chilt bowlers destroyed the opening partnership with George Lee taking 6 wickets in his first two overs. The remaining West Chilt bowlers continued to exert pressure and took regular wickets with Paul King capping a fine all round display with two wickets for two runs. Barns Green finished on 217 with West Chilt taking 11 wickets to cap another excellent performance.

 

Seeing as he went to the effort to write it I thought I might as well include it, the fact it saved me a bit of writing is just an added bonus!!!

That’s it for this bumper edition of the blog but it in a shameless attempt to rack up a few more comments I would ask for everyone to submit their favourite moment of Cricket Week below.

I’ll start things off with MG’s fantastic reverse sweep nailed to the point boundary for four although I can’t remember who it was against!!!