Dan Callingham setting up the win
A brief report: it’s far too nice out to spend an hour writing, but here goes…
TLDR;
SCC batted first and scored 223-7 in their 40 over thanks mainly to Dan’s 80, a battling 29 by George, 26* from Ross and a typical 40 from 29 balls by Phil Clayton… Flimwell bowled and fielded well in the heat, but missed a couple of catches which made their task more difficult.
Flimwell put away the bad balls and ran extremely well to put pressure on SCC, but the home team fielded well; stand out bowler was Phil Clayton who bagged 5-33.
A bit more…
SCC won the toss and made the easy decision to bat first. The wicket looked flat and hard and despite looking as though it might break up it was baked and only a couple of balls went through the top all afternoon (as always, well done Julian).
Dan and Cam started the innings well and hit some nice boundaries in the first couple of overs off the lively Ansari (1-36) and skipper Knight (1-38) who managed to knock Cam’s off stump back during his 4th over. George entered the fray and showed good concentration for 29 off 49 balls before the entertaining Hugo Lloyd (3-53) go the better of him.
Dan played another composed innings for his 80 from 80 balls, including 14 fours, and should have pushed on to 3 digits. He fell when playing back to a straight ball from Dench (1-53) and was easily adjudged LBW. Dench had been unlucky earlier in his spell when Dan was dropped at mid-wicket – no catch is simple, but it probably should have been taken by one of Flimwell’s better players.
This did introduce Phil Clayton to the party and smashed his first ball back over the bowlers head for a big six towards the House – ‘see ball, hit ball’ cricket at it’s best! Phil didn’t stop there and smashed another 2 sixes and 4 fours in another entertaining knock of 40 runs off 29 balls. It came to an end with an unexpected catch – Phil was looking for another maximum and got under the ball and sent it high into the blue sky – a lot of money was lost when the fielder calmly pouched it at mid-off.
Willy came and went after a bit of a struggle, as did Jonny and Alex. Ross (26*) marshalled the lower order and managed to get Julian (8*) to run a couple of singles.
After cooling off in the dungeons there was no real rush to get back on the field, but eventually fielders, batters and two umpires were located to begin second part of the match.
The bowling attack wasn’t the strongest – not because anyone was particularly bad, but Phil and Ross were probably the only two regular bowlers. Fortunately, the mobility of fielding side was tipped in the favour of the fast with a good throw!
Knight (42 off 40) clipped the first ball of the Flimwell innings behind point for a 4 off Ross’s first delivery. This set the tone for the first 10 overs – anything off line was put away and Dan had to resort fairly early to protecting the boundaries. As was mentioned earlier this is easier when the side is made up with fielders who can get to the ball quickly and throw from distance!
Flimwell ran exceptionally well in the conditions. When you look at the two boundary counts you can see how Sennocke essentially won because the boundary was protected and Phil Clayton took 5 for 33 in 8.5 overs. Sennocke hit 31 fours and 3 sixes – Flimwell only managed 20 fours, but what it does show is how well they took singles and turned some singles into 2. At several points wickets were needed to stem the flow of runs and fortunately Phil bowled at the stumps – 4 of his wickets were bowled.
Back to the cricket on the day – Knight and Lloyd (31) started really well before 3 wickets fell in quick succession. This meant Dench (61) partnered up with Ansari (30) to start giving Flimwell ideas of victory. Ross (1-35) kept it tight and Cam, 2-31 from his 4 over, bowled Dench to put Sennocke back in control. When Ansari was caught by Dan of Darren the Flimwell charge came to a halt and it was just down to whether Phil could put together a final spell to take a well deserved 5 wickets.
All in all an excellent match in gorgeous surroundings on a lovely hot afternoon.