AWCC vs Great Houghton Sunday 27th May 2012

Yet again the sunshine shone down brightly on an outstanding wicket at Ashton Wold, the blue wonder having worked its mystical powers once again. With the heat rising and the hangovers wearing off, Awdry lost the toss and our opposition elected to send AWCC into the field to endure the intense UV rays.  Sunscreen was henceforth applied by players of both teams keen to stay perfectly winter bleached for the up coming Jubilee revelry in honour of Liz.

The opponents were Great Houghton, always a strong team, their track record at Ashton, not so strong, took to the crease.  Jack “animal” Wood & Doug “wore a hat on his way to the ground” Heath opened the bowling, both shocking the two openers with their pace and assortment. At the same time they gave veteran AWCC player Jonah “Zinger” Burdett, returning after a prolonged absence, a reason to be thankful to new comer John (Doug’s Uncle) for lending him his keeping mitts.  An exquisite exhibition of cricket from both bowlers and our new keeper.  Aided by some rigid early fielding from the rest of the AWCC line up.

Unfortunately the batting was better, GH got off to an immediate start.  The sun drenched out field was lightning and the pavilion boundary short.  Relief came when JW bowled a terrific out swinging ball that was caught just as dazzlingly of the bat by another new comer to the AWCC team, Alan “chino”.  Another wicket fell some time after that.  More GH batsmen came to the crease, more wickets fell, and more runs were scored.  Sugar and yet again another new comer Mark “usually wears jazzy trousers” bowled some tight over’s but also got smashed about a bit.  The same can be said for Jack “inventorofmuckypooparmbowling” Allen.  Awdry had his first spell of the season and bowled well, obviously relieved to have passed on the keeping duties.  Awdry slowed the GH pace a little but he too struggled in the English climate.  Palmer fielded with the agility of a mountain goat and the strength of an Ox.  Supported as always by an ever ready Mr. Lucas in the covers.   John (Doug’s Uncle) dropped a sitter and a hard hitter, bruising his thumb in the process.  At lunch GH had amassed a big score, the fourth batsman of the day scoring 100 runs.

Lunch was excellent.  A hearty affair consisting of traditional sandwiches, fruit, some spicy peppers and some most agreeable home made cakes.  Our thanks to Mrs. Sugar Ray for the wonderful sustenance.

The sun was still hot, and the air abundant with late spring goodness.  Pete Lucas and Jonah Burdett took to the field both brandishing home grown Lucas willow.  JB was caught cheaply after a steady start and Lucas struggled to find his left handed go.  GH bowled in good form from both ends from the off, fielding tightly too.  Very few runs were scored before Palmer had to ask for middle.  He hit some runs and about 7 balls later he was bowled by what was surely the finest ball ever to be bowled at AWCC?  He thought it was and the bowler agreed.  Palmer’s average now in tatters.

The run rate looked healthier though and so to the middle went new bat John.  Pete got out by another good ball from the same bowler that bowled a better ball to SP, and Doug “my uncle can’t catch” Heath went in to bat.  John and DH batted well together the strongest partnership for AWCC of the day.  DH hit a six and another and another and some fours and he ran some too, a notable effort with the bat.  Then he missed a ball.  He was out.  More AWCC batsmen went in, the Skipper stuck to his normal sweeping routine and picked up a few runs, and then more wickets fell.  John swore he hit the ball, GH appealed, they hit his pads, JA agreed and triggered his finger without hesitation.  Some more batsmen followed, as did wickets.  Jack “JUMBO” Wood decided he had had enough for the day and gave the bowler a catch ending a sturdy tail end partnership between Mr. Sugar Ray and himself.  Great Houghton had won.

"A fart competing with thunder" - Graham Gooch assessing AWCC performance against GHCC

W.G.GRACE

AWCC v WBCC

Ashton Wold v Wakely & Barrowden
Saturday 26th May 2012


The sun was shining, the sky was a clear azure blue and the pitch was hard with a light covering of grass. The bumble bee skipped through the longer patches of grass and the butterfly basked in the atmosphere for the best day for cricket of the season thus far. The toss was won and in the glaring heat of the midday sun we elected to field. Luckily, the team enjoy running around in searing temperatures; if nothing else, it only aids any form of excuse for bowling ‘mucky poop arm.’

A strong start was had as Lloyd and Jack ‘Animal’ Wood peppered the opening batsmen, supported by tactical talking from the square leg umpire and Gerald. Two balls later, Richard clung on to a faint edge like a fat kid being thrown a cupcake. This was just the start of what can only be described as a laboured collapse – spanning a total of 37 overs.

The introduction of Doug ‘little bit like Chris White but not quite as grumpy’ Heath and final figures of 3 for 10 off 7 speak for themselves. His excitement of bowling to left handers was not only told but also shown as he bowled the perfect imitation of any first class swing bowler. Highlight of the innings could only be the slip catch snuffled out of the air, single handed by Sugar. Let it be known, on the night of the 26th May, Mrs Sugar was unaware of what hit her and against all biology and common understanding of the reproductive system, baby Sugars were created; we shall call them Sugar Lumps.

Sugar, along with Nigel, provided partnership destroying spells of bowling required to hurt the opposition further. To this point, there was no sign of any ‘mucky poop arm’ but this was all to change. Many have compared him to Graeme Swann, others mock but some realise the importance of the taking a wicket in the first over of any given spell. Following two mediocre looseners bowled by Jack, the third ball drew the batsman into swiping at a ball from outside the off stump, flying to the covers. Doug ‘I can only aspire to be as good as Harry Chapman’ Heath flew through the air like a gazelle on a hot plate taking a splendid catch. This was to be the end of the spectaculars as inspired bowling changes meant wickets fell and the innings came to a clear cut end of 117 to win.

Only four Aston batsmen were necessary to chase down the target. The opening partnership of Marcus and Gerald saw the lion’s share of the runs going at over the required run rate. A short spell of economical bowling from the opposition reduced the run rate to equal to required. This bored the umpires as each maiden passed. A class 50 from Marcus saw Ashton home to a comfortable win with valuable contributions provided by the supporting partners; including Dan and Richard.

In summary, a pleasant day was had by all

JA

AWCC v CCC

Ashton Wold CC vs CAMRA cc
Sunday 19th May 2012
The first home game of the season was finally upon us and as always we were happy to welcome CAMRA to our home ground. It could have been argued it was too soon for cricket as players arrived in coats and various winter garments to be greeted by Ashton cutting the wicket and the square leaving what can only be described as a soggy unpredictable wicket (in true Ashton style.)
Ashton won the toss and put CAMRA into bat, good captaincy from Awdry.
The game went underway with J.Wood and D.Heath as the opening bowling partnership, CAMRAs opening bats seemed to be managing the tricky conditions until Dan Blatch snaffled one in a nonchalant fashion at cover off woods bowling. Blatch now finding cover the appropriate place to position himself as an alleged fielder of the year. Wood went on to take another wicket as Heath offered no breakthrough. It was then time for the long awaited return of N.Barnes and his extreme yet tempting pace deliveries, Barney proved to be straight on the spot and along with Sugar’s bowling the new partnership showed the previous pairing how to do it, bowling tight lines and picking up a couple of wickets. Captain Awdry then finally gave into the temptation that proves too much for most captains and brought on the golden arm of J.Allen, mucky poop gets wickets and this happened. After a period the batsmen adjusted to Allen’s flight bowling so Sugar returned to the crease. A couple of wickets led Ashton to face the batting partnership of Bradbury and White, one member seeming to possess the entire cricketing prowess the other lacked. Bradbury in usual fashion batted quickly, scoring numerous boundaries which led to the introduction of Blatch to the bowling line up, this was partnered with the return of Heath to finish his spell. Blatch bowled tight lines accompanied by a much improved second spell from Heath to slow the run rate of CAMRA and restrict them to 146 with Bradbury reaching his 50 with a six from the final ball of the innings, charitably bowled by Heath.
Teas were taken and Allen demonstrated yet another string to his bow with fine salmon sarnies.
As the game resumed Ashton unleashed the somewhat unlikely opening pairing of Blatch and Lucas to the middle, facing the CAMRA tried and tested opening pairing of Jex and White. Jex was on the spot and accurate as always probing away and eventually taking the wickets of both Blatch and Lucas after they had provided us with a slow but respectable start. G.Palmer then took to the middle and was accompanied shortly after by his son S.Palmer. Gerald displayed some interesting but effective shots which partnered with forceful batting from his son led them to a 50 partnership before the fall of Gerald’s wicket. Buckley having successfully avoided the pace bowling then came to the crease, and scored eloquently alongside S.Palmer who was quickly approaching the 50 landmark for himself. Shortly after Palmer reached his 50 the wicket of Buckley fell, fortunately for Ashton the game was nearly won. Despite a brief and erratic innings from Heath and an interesting innings from Awdry suggesting perhaps wicket keeping isn’t the worst part of his game Palmer stayed firm and guided Ashton to another victory.
Good game played in good spirit.



Many apolagies for the lateness im a stupid fat head
DH

AWCC v WCC

At Wansford 13/05/12




So, at the fifth attempt this year, Ashton Wold manage to get a game of cricket. The ground at Wansford was somewhat soft underfoot as expected given the month of light monsoon weather that has helped to blight many a cricketing aspiration so far this summer. However, with an artificial wicket for the playing surface at least we weren't going to be digging squelchy trenches with our bats later in the day.

A team big on enthusiasm, hangovers and spurious banter took to the field to bowl after stand in captain Richard "butterfingers" Awdry failed his first on-field task of the year and lost the toss (twice!). Fortunately, a team is more than one man so Ashton still had plenty of time to cover for their captain's shortcomings.

In the absence of a recognised wicketkeeper, Awdry took responsibility of the gloves and gave the task of opening the bowling to Jack Wood and Matt Gunnell, a right/left arm combination that must have given the opposition misgivings much in the way that Waqar and Wasim would have done for Pakistan in the 90's.

Steaming in from the A1 end, Wood was the first to strike, getting consistently good shape through the humid air and breaching the defences of the Wansford opening bat. However, not to be outdone it was not long for Gunnell (on his comeback game after breaking every bone in his body last time out for Ashton and after having been hampered by a groinal incident when the skipper deemed it necessary to test his reactions during warm up) picked up one for himself with an in-drifting yorker.

Not long later and Gunnell picked up another after a miscued pull was in the end well judged by Gerald Palmer at square leg. His expression suggested that initially he thought the ball maybe going some twenty feet over his head, but he adjusted well and that was 3 down for the home side.

As the game continued on, John 'Supersugar' Ray bowled a good spell but without breakthrough as Wansford looked to consolidate and Doug 'chaser of the squealing pig' Heath bowled a generally tight spell of swing bowling to claim another wicket for Ashton.

However, just as Wansford might have been thinking they could get a pretty good score, Jack 'moonpie' Allen tossed his first delivery up over the batsman's eyeline (the snow on the ball spoke wonders...) and somehow hit the base of the stumps despite the batsman attempting some kind of pull shot. To make up for this, later in the over he also got a wicket with a good ball that turned (yep, this one was pitched) enough to beat the batsman's defences and leave the home side 6 down with plenty of overs to go.

From here a bit of a fightback ensued and some good shots along with some questionable fielding/wicket keeping helped the left/right partnership at the crease to give the home side a total to defend and Inghram eventually proceeded to fifty.

In an effort to get a breakthrough, Dan 'golden arm but moves in slow motion' Blatch was brought into the attack and lulled the batsmen into a false sense of security by letting his second ball sit-up juicily to be swatted over deep square for a large six which almost reached the river. Fortunately, Dan improved after that and even induced a couple of edges that narrowly evaded the valiantly diving wicketkeeper. Bully that Dan is though, somehow he managed to hit the erstwhile lefty batsman in the box. As he lay prone on the floor it was left for everyone to wonder whether he was in pain or just embarrassed. This subdued the poor lad but by this time Wansford had at least got a total to bowl at, but some more tight bowling from Messr's Gunnell, Wood and Blatch (aside from the apparently obligatory half tracker he has to send down in every spell apparently) kept the total to a respectable 172.

After tea it was given to Pete Lucas and Mark 'I only hit sixes before June' Buckley the task of setting a platform for the chase, a task which they set about steadily but without too much incident, Buckley hit Ashton's first six of the season, a delicate pull over deep square. Eventually Lucas fell, but having set a good platform of 60 off 17 overs, Sam Palmer came to the crease looking to ease his hangover and atone for his earlier under par fielding efforts. After some initial controlled aggression he took to the short leg side boundary like a camel to a spitting contest, either splitting the field with precision or powering the ball through or over them. A1 catastrophe was averted by an intervening tree as Sam tried his best to land one on the Asphalt. As he went on, all the boundarys got much the same treatment and when Sam was run out by Mark "easy single" Buckley for 79 the game was all but over, Doug Heath and Buckley proceeding to the target with ease, the latter finishing 48 not out to kick off the season in good style to give Ashton a win and make me much more relieved about the byes (12) conceded between my legs.

Thanks to Wansford for managing to get a game together as I know Darren the skipper was desperately trying to find players to replace a couple that had let him down as we arrived at the ground.



RA

2011 Awards Night Winners

Congratulations to all the winners on awards nights, and thanks to everyone who attended, if you didn't shame on you, you missed a wonderful evening.  Be sure to get a placed booked for next seasons awards night put the date in your diary now, January 26th 2013.  At a venue to be confirmed.

2011 Award Winners

All rounder - Dan Blatch

Batsman - Samuel Palmer

Bowler - John "Sugar" Ray

Player - Samuel Palmer

Most Improved - Jack Wood

Fielder - Harry Chapman

Clubman - John "Sugar" Ray, Peter Lucas, Bernard Rotham