Halstead (A) - Sunday 1st June

Team for this Sunday. Meet at Mill Road at 11.45am.

Phil S (c), Dan Y (wk), Darren D, Stuart J, Noman H, Tony M, Dave H, Raj A, Justin R, Karl H, Sid P

Tour washout

Unfortunately, our tour this year to Derbyshire was a bit of a damp squib - we travelled up on Friday in the faint hope that we might get some cricket - unfortunately heavy rain meant we didn't get a single ball.  It did allow us to sample the many delights of Chesterfield and included the notable feat of converting Dan Young into an ale drinker - congratulations Dan!

We can only hope for better next year!

PBUK Cavs Collapse

The Property Book Cavaliers played their second CECL match on Tuesday against the reigning champions, The Real Oddies.

The Cavs fielded first and restricted the Oddies to 163/4 from their 15 overs. D Dellar (0-12 from 2), N Hussain (0-11 from 2) and H Kumar (0-9 from 2) all bowled economically, with the successful bowlers being J Rawlings (1-33 from 3) and T Craiston (1-25 from 2). The other two wickets were run outs, with D Young collecting good throws from H Kumar and JJ Elliston for both wickets.

The Cavs reply brought back memories of the 2012 CECL Final against Boxted as a top order collapse saw the Cavs slump to 15/5 before D Dellar (5) and JJ Elliston (5) added 12 for the sixth wicket (the highest partnership of the innings), with JJ hitting the only boundary of the Cavs innings. With wickets continuing to fall, the Cavs were 37/9 after 8.2 overs, T Craiston (7 - the top scorer) and D Young (2*) got the Cavs up to 45 before Craiston jnr was bowled after 13.4 overs - Both batsmen enjoying some time in the middle... The Cavs slumping to a 118 run loss, G Knight claiming unbelievable figures of 4-1-12-6 for the Oddies!

Cavaliers break their duck

This week the Cavs 2s were forced to play their home game at Mile End and, in a strange twist, Real Oddies were the away side having moved base to the Garrison, and were returning to their old home before having played at their new. Oddies skipper Pete Pearson won the toss on the hottest day of the year and unsurprisingly chose to bat. It took first change bowler Zubair (10-2-34-1) to break the opening partnership swinging one in to trap Pearson lbw after James Bardell was again unlucky in his opening spell. After that, M Hall (85) played his shots and rode his luck whilst building frustrating partnerships with a number of Oddies which helped the away side build a reasonable score. Sid's best bowling (4 for 41) for the club, assisted by a smart slip catch by Karl, kept the Oddies in check but the lower order stuck around long enough to play out all the full 45 overs. Atif S (10-2-31-1) and Craig (2-0-6-1) took late wickets before James (10-2-34-1) clean bowled the last man with the final ball of the innings. All of which left the Cavaliers a reasonable target of 176 to win. 

The reply started with a bang as Raj (14) took 12 off the first over, but he perished trying to continue the assault against the ever accurate Pearson. Sid (18) and Ed (48*) then built a base against the opening bowlers, as it came apparent that both would bowl straight through. Unfortunately Sid chipped to cover in 19th over which meant new batsmen had to get themselves in before the attack on the change bowling could begin. Zubair (7), Pete (0) and Greg (0) all fell to the deceptively dangerous Bulger (10-2-24-3) whilst Karl (6) was run out. Kelum (8) batted nicely and was unfortunate to be stumped off the keeper's pads which left the 2s in all sorts of bother at 97-7 in the 34th over. The stage was set for a hero, and on walked James. Playing straight and running hard (two all run 4s!) he smashed 37* in just 28 balls to get Cavs over the line with an over to spare.

MoM James Bardell for the match turning innings.

Property Book Cavaliers - Chapter 1

The mid-week Cavaliers team supported by local lettings agency Property Book travelled to our second home, West Mersea, for the first game of the year.

From bitter experience we know the Mersea big hitting batsmen well, most having made 100s against us in league and cup matches over the years. To be set a target of 164 wasn't the worst we might have expected although Mersea were lacking some strength in depth. A valient chase led by 80 from your correspondent gave the PBC a sniff but good bowling from Storrar was the main difference with PBC falling 19 short of their target.

Teams for Sunday 18th

First Team vs Great Bentley (Home) - Meet at the Rugby Club @ 12noon
Phil S (C), Vinnie, Jack K, Simon, Stuart, Dan S, Darren, Noman H, Dave H, Dan Y (WK) & Tony

Second Team vs Real Oddies (Mile End - Home) - Meet at MILE END @ 11:30am
Ed (C), Raj A (WK), Zubair, Kelum, Karl, Gregg, Sid, Craig, Peter J, James Ba, & Atif

Tour to Derbyshire - confirmed

Our tour to Derbyshire this month has been confirmed.  We will be heading up to Derbyshire on Friday 23rd May, and again staying at Holly House School.  Our fixtures at present are:

Fri 23rd: Chatsworth House (T20, 6pm)
Sat 24th: rest day
Sun 25th: Hathersage (40 overs a side, 2pm)
Mon 26th: Elton (40 overs a side, 2pm)

There are still spaces for the touring party if you would like to join in.  The cost is £85 and all tourers are requested to transfer their tour fee to the Cavs account as soon as possible.  Please contact Phil Sadler or Peter Johnson for further information.

1st XI: High Easter - away (11th May)

The team for this weekend: Phil S (c), Darren D, Dan Y(w), Simon G, Jon R, Noman H, Raj A, Martin V, Dan S, Sid P, Dave H.  11.30am meet at Rugby Club.

Youth Triumphs Over Experience

The first home match of the season saw the second XI entertain a very young Coggeshall side - The oldest Coggeshall player was 22 whilst the youngest Cavalier was 25. As the Cavaliers strapped themselves into their knee and ankle braces, the Coggies were energetically warming up on the outfield which was perhaps an omen of what was to come.

Coggeshall skipper Tom Pickles won the toss and elected to bat. The pressure from a tight opening spell from Zubair (10-0-36-0) and Atif Sarwar, which saw one opener chip a catch to Karl, was relieved by a steady flow of byes, despite the best efforts of last minute stand in wicketkeeper Gregg to get behind the swinging ball. The game was beginning to get away from Cavaliers by the time Sid came on to try his mixture of spinners, and he was immediately rewarded with 2 wickets in as many balls. Unfortunately from there the fielding got worse, with any number of catches going down (Ed being a main offender!), which let Pickles continue serenely towards his second hundred in two innings, leaving Raj (6-0-42-0) and Sid's (10-0-50-2) figures unjustly bruised. Some late hitting was countered by the returning Atif (10-2-23-3) and wickets for David M (5-0-28-1) and Karl (2-0-26-1), but couldn't prevent Coggeshall posting a formidable 245 for 7.

Unusually the Cavalier response got off to an electric start, taking 44 from the first 4 overs with Raj taking out his frustration on the opening bowlers. However once the Coggies opener Egg (3-35) shortened his run, he regained some control and dismissed Ed (12), Sid (0) and Raj (41). It was then left to Zubair to anchor the innings with a well constructed 66. Unfortunately no-one could stay with him for very long with debutante Steve Bertie (0), Pete (5) and Kelum (0) all falling to a very tight spell from young Gibson (5-3-9-3), whilst Karl (9) & Gregg (11) played some lusty blows before joining Atif (1) as victims of the even younger McCabe (3-21). Zubair was last out with the total at 171 trying to reach the boundary that would have meant an extra batting point.

MoM Zubair for his excellent batting and miserly bowling.

Friendly Start for First XI

The first team enjoyed a warm up match against Chelmsford at Chelmer Park ahead of the first league match of the season.

It's been a while since Cavaliers played any friendlies and our inexperience meant the hosts had to rescue the situation and provide a match ball. The preliminaries were carried out in a friendly fashion and Cavaliers agreed to bat first in a 40 over match, slightly delayed as the Chelmsford keeper was late to arrive.

The first over was profitable as Simon dispatched over and under pitched balls to be boundary but the going was more sedate for the next 10 overs as the bowlers tuned their radar and Simon & Vinnie struggled with the slow pace of a soft, straw coloured wicket. Just as the opening pair started to accelerate Vinnie fell to a poor ball hit to extra-cover. The change bowlers, especially from the top end were regularly dispatched to the boundary as 80 runs were added for the second wicket putting the Cavaliers on a decent 100-ish off 20 overs. Captain Darren and Simon had a conference and decided to accelerate the scoring but this was Darren's downfall as he missed a pull. Young Ollie Hills was unlucky to time a flick to square leg. Debutant Salman took an immediate liking to the spinners dispatching them down the ground time and again to make 45 off 25 balls ensuring Cavaliers made a competitive score. Simon fell just short of his hundred and the inning closed at 221-9.

Tony Mayhew was not out for the 100th time since records began - an amazing achievement.

Stuart and Asif, on loan from C&EE, opened the bowling and it was immediately clear that Chelmsford were going to attack anything off line or length. Asif was very unlucky having found the edge of the stronger opener's bat only for Darren to shell the catch. With runs coming at an alarming rate Cavaliers turned to Noman and Ollie Hills who both made an impression by dismissing an opener each. Suddenly the game was back in our hands as tighter bowling restricted the scoring and the required rate got up towards 6 an over.

A good partnership led by the left handed #4 put that game back in Chelmsford's favour and thanks to some geriatric fielding and rusty bowling the game ran away from the Cavaliers, eventually going down by 5 wickets.

Man of the Match: Simon (92)

Teams for Sunday 4th

First team Vs Chelmsford (away, Chelmer Park) - Meet at the Rugby Club @ 11:30am
Darren (C), Simon, Vinnie, Dan Y (WK), Noman, Stuart, Salman, Phil S, Ollie H, Asif I & Tony

Second team Vs Coggeshall (home) - Meet at the Rugby Club @ 12noon
Ed (C), Sid, Raj A, Pete, Zubair, Atif, Asif K, Karl, Dave M, Kelum and Gregg