Scorecard

Ipswich v Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) on Sat 08 Jul 2023 at 1pm
Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Won by 10 runs

Match report Just your typical Saturday afternoon in the sun, nothing much happened here. Well, that's one way of looking at it, others might suggest that but for the decisive actions of the opposition skipper and senior player we may have become embroiled in another royal scandal; bear with me on that, more to follow.
We batted first and lost Stuart far too early for his or anyone else's liking and were three down with not too many on the board when Daryl was brilliantly run-out and Alex's recent purple patch was brought to an end after only 7 sweetly struck boundaries. The stage was set for the return of Will Spicer (sporting a rather interesting top lip) who, along with Ollie Stovell, helped to re-build the innings with an excellent century stand. The pair batted serenely for some time until Will tried to climb into a chest-high full toss and skied a catch. Fortunately, Daryl at square leg spotted the obvious no-ball which was acknowledged by a good number of the Ipswich team and Will was reprieved. I say a good number, but not all, as one player in particular (think of Princess Anne's first husband for a namesake) whinged vociferously from his position at cow corner, but thankfully to no avail. Ollie eventually fell for a well constructed 45 that included a couple of clubbed maximums and though Will went on to reach 80 it felt as if momentum had been lost as Ali went cheaply as well and any thoughts of 250+ became a distant dream. Skipper Joe and young Ethan Frost provided a few lusty blows in the last couple of overs so that we finished on 237-6, but there was some concern during the tea break that perhaps we were just below par.
It felt even more like that as the Ipswich openers built a decent stand with very few alarms until Ali made the first breakthrough. Unfortunately, at that stage one didn't bring two and Ipswich were looking well set at 121-1 in the 26th when the vociferous whinger became a blatant cheat. Their opening bat, who had reached a solid half century skied a full toss from Joe that was barely above knee height and was caught by a magnificent one handed grab by Calum at mid-off. Cue wild Green celebrations only to find that he who I can't be bothered to name called no ball. What followed was surreal, their senior player as the standing umpire called it a legitimate delivery, but still square leg was insistent that it was a no-ball and our lads were struggling to contain their fury; questionable leg befores are one thing, but this was just so wrong. Out came the Ipswich skipper for a chat and eventually sanity was restored and the bat was given out - I know that our boys were hugely appreciative of the intervention of messrs Elford and Bumphrey, it was just the right thing to do but well played gents. A replacement umpire was obviously called for and interestingly, whilst your correspondent wandered the boundary edge, I overheard a conversation between the opening bat and the cheat where the cheat fully admitted to cheating but as he tried to justify it, it was only fair to even up bad decisions! Unbelievable that one sour individual could come so close to ruining what was an excellent game of cricket. You can probably tell that this is an issue that I simply cannot countenance - its just not cricket!
So let's get back to the action. Connor Murphy was rested after an economic spell and Stuart started wheeling away from that end; he eventually got through an 11 over spell and claimed four critical wickets as Ipswich increased their risk taking when the required run rate grew. Joe similarly blunted the home batsmen from the other end and executed one superb run out off his own bowling - you had to feel for the non-striker as the Ipswich skipper struck a fierce drive back at Joe, but this wasn't one of those run-outs by deflection onto the stumps. Oh no, Joe grabbed in cleanly in one hand as he dived to his left, turned and threw down the stumps; great work. As the asking rate grew and the wickets tumbled he who shall not be named was ultimately required to make an appearance with bat in hand. However, like a true diva he kept us all waiting for surely five minutes, which is two longer than permitted by section 40.1 of the laws of cricket, so he arguably should have been timed out. However, we graciously played on but he can feel like he retained the moral high ground, oh apart from not walking after a huge nick to his first ball. Nevertheless, with Calum returning to pick up late wickets the Green eventually prevailed by 10 runs, with the clock approaching 8pm - 7 hours to bowl 90 overs, that's test match standard.
Now I feel that there has been too much negativity in this report, so in addition to the result I'll try to end on a more positive note. It really was a well-fought match, played largely in a respectful way between the players and the beers bought for us by them at the end were very gratefully received and really must be reciprocated when we next host Ipswich.

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 2w 6b 1lb 
for 6 wickets
11
237		        
Alex Hammond ct M Somarathne b M Phillips 34 28 7 121.43 1
Stuart Hammond b J De Cosimo 5 9 1 55.56 1
Daryl Sleeman run out  (K Raj) 15 25 2 60.0
Will Spicer ct S Bumphrey b M Phillips 80 95 7 1 84.21
Ollie Stovell ct M Phillips b K Raj 45 55 4 2 81.82
Alastair Hammond b J De Cosimo 9 16 1 56.25
Joe Young Not Out  27 30 3 1 90.0
Ethan Frost Not Out  11 14 2 78.57
Calum McDonald   2
Connor Murphy   1
Ollie Licence   1

Ipswich Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jamie De Cosimo12.0053226.504.42
Mark Phillips10.0142221.004.20
Jack Elford6.004800.008.00
Nicholas Johnson5.003900.007.80
Kundaliya Raj5.0019119.003.80
Chris Bell7.002900.004.14

Ipswich Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 10w 3b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
17
227 (44.4 overs)		     
Mihira Somarathne ct C McDonald b J Young 65 79 10 82.28
Jamie De Cosimo b A Hammond 30 50 5 1 60.0
Nicholas Johnson run out  (J Young) 30 54 3 55.56
Jack Elford ct S Hammond b S Hammond 27 31 3 87.10
Chris Bell ct C McDonald b S Hammond 6 9 66.67
Ryan Bumphrey b S Hammond 17 1
Steve Bumphrey ct C Murphy b S Hammond 17 2
Duminda Silva ct O Licence b C McDonald 1
Mark Phillips Not Out  13 1
Lee Cooper ct A Hammond b C McDonald 4 1
Kundaliya Raj b C McDonald 0

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club Two Counties 1st XI (Saturday) Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Calum McDonald8.4130310.003.46
Joe Young12.0066166.005.50
Connor Murphy8.012800.003.50
Alastair Hammond4.0029129.007.25
Stuart Hammond11.0055413.755.00
Will Spicer1.001400.0014.00