It says a lot about the strength of a club when the 4th XI had 49 players represent it from ages 10-110, or however old Cassie is these days!! As an experiment this was a huge success, having the best win percentage (76.47% if you are interested), of any Senior team in the club!!! So as the leaves start to fall from the trees and the shadows lengthen it is time to reflect on the season past.
We played 17 games (most of these against one of the 7 Kingstonian sides!!!) won 13, lost 3 and tied 1, not a bad return, this was in part thanks to having a solid core of players who turned out for most of the season, namely myself, Nad, Franny, Geoff, Kian & Ameer all of who played 9 games or more. I am a great believer that if you are prepared to give up your Saturday then in return you should be fully involved in the game and I hope everyone who played for us this year felt I was able to deliver on that promise.
The total stats for the season are attached in a separate spreadsheet, however, some of the key ones were:
- Total no. of runs scored: 1,917 (averaging 113 runs/game)
- Total no. of wickets taken: 114
- Leading wicket taker: Nad (19)
- No. of 5 wicket hauls: 2 (Sampad & Ameer)
- Leading runs scorer: Franny (203)
- Total number of Ducks: 23
- No. of 50’s: 7
- No. of 100’s: 2 (Matt Culmer 104 & Paul Campbell 109)
There were too many highlights to list them all, however, the main ones were against Kingstonian 7th XI, StJ hitting 32 off one over, against Sutton 30% of the team’s surname was Jones, one of whom, Owen at the age of 10, took his first senior wicket. The Frenchman’s batting in any innings, but in particular bludgeoning his way to 61 against……you’ve guessed it one of the Kingstonian teams, this time their 5th’s. On a personal note, my son, Will, making his senior TDCC debut against Kings Road CC, hopefully he will keep the pie dynasty going and finally Ollie John’s who having spent most of the day on the side of the road waiting for his old man’s Volvo to be fixed turned up 6 hours late for the game against Tooting United 1st XI, only to be bowled first ball!!
However, probably the best moment and one that summed up the season came on the final ball of the final game of the season. With 1 over to go, needing 1 to win and with 3 wickets in hand and with Mak & Cambers at the crease, you would have thought we were nailed on to win. However, the over didn’t start well with Mak being bowled, out to the crease strode our sometimes bowler sometimes batman and local gigolo, Nad, who managed to miss a straight full toss. That left Kian and the skip to bat, not wishing to play the ‘leave this to me’ card Kian was told to get out there and win it for us. Having dead batted the first 3 balls, Cambers walked up the wicket and had a few words with young Kian, which basically went along the lines of…’just get some bl**dy bat on it and run’ which he duly obliged and so the game was won the game, by our well-deserved player of the season, Kian.
I would like to end the report with a few thank you’s. Firstly everyone who gave up their Saturday and turned out for the club, secondly to Cassie & Mr Cricket for holding the reins when I was unavailable, to Dicko for making my job a lot easier during the week by organising a team, apparently at the captain’s meeting (news to me), and almost always with 11 players!!! Franny for collating the jugs, stumps, bails, balls, scorebook, scoreboard etc…. meaning I could just swing by the club and pick him up and finally Geoff for being the master of field setting.
Next season sees us enter the League, let’s hope we are able to retain the same spirit and culture and that we replicate the success of this season.
Have a great Winter and see you all in 2019.
Jonesy
Andy Jones,
4th XI Captain