Scorecard

Little Baddow v Springfield Cricket Club Saturday I on Sat 04 Jul 2015 at 1pm
Springfield Cricket Club Won 293 runs

Match report Saturday 4th July 2015, a day which will be remembered and cherished by many involved as records fell left right and centre on this momentous day!
The Saturday started off as every other Saturday does, me bowling a dream left arm spell on the practise wicket before the game and Mani rocking up 10 minutes before we were due to start, however from this point on it became blantantly clear that this was not to be your usual every day cricket match.
Brooks won the toss at Little Baddow (I hear it was a road) and to the joys of the Springfield top order, decided we would have a little (definitely wasn't little) bat. Keen to get out there and face a, weaker than usual, Little Baddow attack without key bowler Charles Julian who earlier in the year removed James Latimir-Jones and Jim Symonds (this would prove key later on). Out strode in form openers Prudence and Latimir-Jones, fresh off the back of a demoralising opening partnership against Thurrock in the previous week. 5 minutes later in strode opener Prudence run out in the second over for 1, the less said about it the better... From here on out, the Springfields top order hit top gear for the next 43 overs, let the fun begin. Mani Singh made his way to the crease having had very little time at the crease over the last few weeks due to the form of the 2 openers, today was his chance however in the grand scheme of things it was a chanced missed (by his standards) skying one to Goulding in the 7th over, it was worth noting that in the 6ish overs Singh was at the crease, he had managed to amass a fifty which included some absolutely colossal sixes, the largest would probably have made the carpark had it not struck the top of some trees as it came down. This meant Jimmy would join Lats at the crease for Springfield. From here, the batting was just an absolute joy to be a part of and it soon became apparent that something special may be on the cards for Springfield as both cruised to fifty and both hundreds shortly followed but the carnage didn't end there, there were still 15 overs to go when Lats reached his hundred leaving a very real chance that he could break Springfield's highest Saturday score record off 179* set by Damian Westwood. With ever-present class, grace, timing and sheer power, Lats began to hound down this record and soon enough he was there supassing the score and there were still several overs remaining, the next challlenge was the club record 244* set by Lats himself in a Sunday first team. This was however, a step to far and Lats fell for an record breaking (for a few minutes at least...) 182. The crowd rose as he strode off the pitch, bat held aloft, soaking in the rapturous applause from all the 20 or so crowd who had made the journey. It is worth noting that the partnership that Jim and Lats had put together was north of 200 (believed to be around 230), my guess would be that this may well be another Springfield record broken. With Lats out the way, the stage was set for Jim to produce something spectacular having reached a hundred himself amongst the chaos caused by Lats. The boundary lure kicked in as he saw Clark stride out to the middle and the last thing you want to be doing in 30 degree heat is go running with PT. As such, it started to rain sixes at Little Baddow, even Clark managed to hit the ball just over the boundary to claim his first six of the year (says a lot about how small little baddow's ground is more than Clarky's ball striking prowess...). Having been set a benchmark of 182 by Lats, Jim began to notch up records for himself, breezing past 150 with some absolutely glorious strokes and with roughly 2 overs to spare, he managed to surpass the record set by Lats roughly half an hour earlier to notch up the highest individual score by a Springfield batsman on a Saturday. The race was on, roughly 2 overs left and 200 in sight for Jim, could he become the first player in T rippon premier league history to score a double hundred, the crowd were on the edge of their seats willing runs to flow from Jims bat, this was tense stuff. One ball remained of the Springfield innings, Jim was on strike with 195 runs to his name, the team total read 494, could Jim hit the six he required to reach 2 quite frankly unimaginable landmarks prior to this day, the ball was bowled, the ball was struck by a tiring Jim somewhere near the middle of his bat, the ball rose up towards the crowd, I've never known a ball to fly through the air for so long, it took and age to drop, will it won't it... The ball landed the result, SIX!!! The crowd had managed to will the ball over the line as the records tumbled at the bat of Jim, 201 not out at the end of 45 overs, a total one can only imagine will take a very, very special player to overhaul. Not only that, Springfield had brought up the 500, which is also a T-rippon premier league record, again one can only imagine that this total would hold the record for many, many years and although my premier league cricketing career is still in it's early years, I have no doubt that a day like this will never be seen again certainly during the course of my career. Congratulations obviously must go to Jim and lets not forget Lats as well both amassing quite incredible individual totals and let us not forget Little Baddow cricket club who through it all, kept their heads held high and continued to play the game in the right spirit despite the fact they simply could do nothing on the day to stop Jimmy and Lats.
Anyway, a delightful tea was very much enjoyed after the first innings antics and Springfield set about trying to gain a full 26 points which their performance with the bat fully deserved.
Springfield started well with Ovel removing Goulding in the first over of the game to set Springfield on the front foot but from here, the Little Baddow batsman put up some strong resistence with a strong partnership coming from Sodhi and Patel. Sensing some Rijoca (Northern for rioja), Brooks removed Marrion from the attach after 9 overs (LOL fuming) and brought himself on and despite an irritated rant from Marrion, he managed to produce the breakthrough with Patel being caught by Clark looking to score a bit quicker than what had come prior. As the old cricket saying goes, one brings two, however in this case one brought three with Brooks as removing Bowles and Lucy in amongst some continued defiance from Sodhi who began to loosen up and was starting to strike the ball cleanly prior to passing 50. Brooks had no choice but to take himself off and unleash the CPs. Chay Pollinger from one end producing some hostile deliveries and Prudence from the other (much to the delight of the ever growing crowd... mainly Hunts). This move reaped the rewward straight away as Prudence removed Sodhi with his first ball for a well made 99. Chay required a couple of quick over before he struck to remove Danalak whom both CPs had proved far too quick for. The last strain of Little Baddow resist remained at the other end in the form of Vasu and with both CPs tiring after such explosive spells, it was the turn of the slow bowlers again in the form of Khalid and Ovel. Ovel struck straight away and removed Vasu thanks to a quite spectacular catch from Clark and then shortly after removed Raj thanks to a more than useful (but not quite on the same level as Clark's) catch from Prudence, these wickets fell either side of a wicket maiden from Khalid (key fact, remember for the next part). With one over left in his quota of 10, Khlaid removed his cap to bowl his final over and hopefully pick up the 10th wicket required for maximum points. "Take a blow Wasim, number 11 is in stand aside" said captain Brooks taking full advantage of his powers as skipper. It took Brooks his full 6 balls to remove the number 11 with Raina chipping the ball in the air to a hovering Lats who held onto the catch despite suffering from shock due to the captaincy he had just witnessed from Brooks... Shameless. Brooks had, undeservedly, finished with figures of 4-53, the stand out bowling performance for Springfield alongside Ovel's 3-30.
Overall, a magnificent day to be a part of, one that will live long in the memories of all involved I'm sure. Hopefully this dominant victory will stand us in good stead for our key match next week and fellow title hopefulls OCs.

Man of the match, you've guessed it Jim Symonds.
Dick of the day... Correct again, it's me Charlie Prudence for running myself our for 1 on a day when the teamed amassed 500, well played Charlie...

Springfield Cricket Club Saturday I Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 11w 8b 9lb 
for 3 wickets
29
500		        
James Latimir-Jones lbw b. Golding 182 24 11 1
Charlie Prudence run out himself 1 1 1
Manpreet Singh ct Golding b. Sri 52 9 2
Jim Symonds Not Out  201 18 13
James Clark Not Out  36 2 1 3
Chay Pollinger  
Mark Hudson  
Wasim Khalid  
Andy Ovel   2
Lee Brooks  
Ben Marrion  

Little Baddow Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Vasu10.008100.008.10
Sri10.0094194.009.40
Collett6.007500.0012.50
Willan5.005800.0011.60
Sodhi7.007000.0010.00
Raj2.003800.0019.00
Golding5.0082182.0016.40

Little Baddow Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 16w 13b 5lb 
for 10 wickets
35
207 (42.0 overs)		     
Golding ct & bowled Ovelo 2
Sodhi b Prudence 99
Patel ct Clark b. Brooks 28
Bowles ct Ovel b. Brooks 6
Lucy b Brooks 10
Vasu ct Clark b. Ovel 12
Danalak b Pollinger 4
Collett ct Clark b. Khalid 0
Willan Not Out  6
Raj ct Prudence b. Ovel 0
Raina ct Latimir J b. Brooks 11

Springfield Cricket Club Saturday I Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Andy Ovel9.0130310.003.33
Ben Marrion9.023100.003.44
Wasim Khalid9.0051151.005.67
Lee Brooks8.0053413.256.63
Chay Pollinger4.0110110.002.50
Charlie Prudence3.0119119.006.33