Cricket: Cassowaries soar high above Belhus
Date posted: 18-09-2012
Belhus 1st 259-8
Brentwood 1st 260-4
This excellent match produced two centurions – one in each team – at the Old County ground on Sunday. First up, Ryan Wells of Belhus chalked up a fine 114 from 94 deliveries and included a formidable 14 fours and five sixes. He put on 137 for the first wicket with veteran Mike Randall who hit eight fours until he was caught behind for 42. Wells was eventually dismissed in the thirtieth over as part of a mini-collapse which saw Chris Baker and Charlie Lewis both dismissed without score. As the forty overs evaporated, there were cameo innings from Scott Stonham, 11, Greg Mendham, 16, and Peter Clark with 15 not out. Danny Norris was dismissed from the last ball of the innings with 13 runs to his credit. After tea, Brentwood’s Surajbally and Doug Maxwell put on an astonishing match-winning second wicket partnership of 211, as the hard-hitting Surajbally finished on 135 not out from 106 deliveries. His savagery yielded no fewer than 18 fours and, like Wells earlier, five sixes. Maxwell played a supporting role with a number of deft late cuts, often guiding the ball towards third man. He eventually succumbed for 81 when Belhus skipper Joe Joyce extracted some turn on the solid Brentwood pitch to make it 239 for 2. Extraordinarily, Joyce was on a hat-trick when he repeated the feat with his very next ball as Beecheno returned to the pavilion after just one ball. Any hopes of a hat-trick were scuppered when the new batsman, Dawes, pulled the all-important delivery to the mid-wicket boundary and Joyce later finished with 2-57 from eight overs split by three short spells. Norris picked up the remaining two wickets to fall with 2-33 from six overs.
Belhus 1st 197-9
Chingford 1st 201-7
Belhus emerged with great credit from this fixture at Chingford on Saturday as their hosts had only suffered four defeats in the current season so far. Chris Baker top scored for Belhus with 40, but in a fairly unusual scorecard with individual success and failure occurring almost alternately throughout the Belhus knock, there were runs for Peter Clark 29, Danny Norris 39 and Wayne Read with 21. McGregor was the star performer with the ball for Chingford with four wickets at a cost of just 20 runs from six overs (two maidens). After refreshments, number three batsman Lawrence hit a fine 87 until he was bowled by Roy Heffernan (1-29), though McGregor completed a fine all-round performance by producing a match-winning undefeated innings of 63. For Belhus, Billy Winter picked up two wickets for 32 runs from eight overs, while Norris, Michael Fogg and Joe Joyce joined Heffernan in picking up one wicket apiece.
Cassowaries 273-4
Belhus 3rd 157 all out
A Cassowary may be a flightless bird, but the Cassowaries that visited North Stifford on Saturday afternoon certainly overwhelmed their hosts as Patel smashed a fine 112 before deciding he’d had enough and retired back to the pavilion for a deserved rest. He hit twenty boundaries before calling it a day. Such was the fierceness of the Cassowaries batting, the normally reliable bowling of Robert Long was despatched all over the village green as his five overs went for 58 runs without reward, and one of those was a maiden! The wickets were shared by Sam Hall, Cliff Cansdale and Mike Randall, who took one wicket each. After the break, Tom Thompson played a Keep (1-13) delivery onto his stumps with the sixth ball faced but his opening colleague Randall hit five fours in a solid innings of 36. There was some impressive batting from Belhus juniors Toby Reynolds, with 14, and Billy Maidment, who made his highest personal score to date by accumulating 35 runs. The Belhus tail wagged as Hall and Cansdale put on 42 for the eighth wicket, Hall being the dominant partner with 26 and Cansdale dropping anchor with 13. Pick of the visiting bowling was Smith with 3-24 from five overs, one of which was maiden.
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