Chesham CC w/e 14^th August

An important day for Chesham 1stX1 resulted in an excellent win over TVL leaders Stoke Green at the Meadow. With the games now back to the 50/50 win/lose format this meant that bowlers were limited to 10 overs thus handicapping the two skilled spinners for Stoke who often bowl almost unchanged and have been so successful. Batting first, Chesham were in trouble after the loss of Matt Rance, Mark Eteen and Luke Webb with the score having reached only 52 for 3’ Enter skipper Jason Rance to join Andy Goddard in a match changing partnership of 96. Two huge sixes by Jason caused considerable anxiety for Chairman Jonathan Royals as they threatened the roof of the pavilion. H probably breathed a sigh of relief when Rance fell for 59. Goddard was then joined by Tom Free (48 not out) in a free scoring century partnership before being dismissed in the penultimate over for a well made and extremely important innings of 89. Three more wickets then fell cheaply gifting Stoke two more points which may become important in the final reckoning, Chesham having totalled 255 for 8. In reply Stoke lost a wicket to Gift Kwatsha in the opening over but then the bowling was blitzed for 102 runs at over 7 runs per over before the classy Couth fell for 58 to a well judged running catch by Jason Rance off the bowling of Pip France. The hard hitting Nadeem Malik (43) was then bowled by Asad Rehman in the next over before a collapse set in. In spite of a few lusty blows by the experienced Zelfi Butt (28) the innings rapidly subsided to the bowling of Jason Rance (5 for 36) in a devastating spell, with assistance from Pete Clifford and Pip France (2 for12), the latter taking the final wicket with the visitors total on 165.  Skipper Jason had rather a good game having played a major part in this highly satisfactory victory.

Not so satisfactory was the result for the 2^nd X1 who went down by 6 wickets to North Maidenhead. Top score in Chesham’s inadequate total of 141 was David Hughes D’Aeth with 37 with some input by Waqar Butt (24) and Nouman Aslam (22). In spite of Dominic Goodman’s late spell of 2 for 4, thanks to a hard hit undefeated, century by Bakhari North Maidenhead sailed home for the loss of only 4 wickets. Having lost three games on the trot and falling perilously close to the Div 2a relegation zone the team need to beat fellow strugglers Tring Park 2nds at the Meadow next Saturday.

Similarly a much depleted 3^rd X1 went down by 7 wickets to Div 4 leaders Cranbourne. Chesham batted out their full 52 overs for a total of 156 for 9, Mo Asuaf top scoring with 42 and the evergreen Stuart Watson weighing in with an unbeaten 32. Cranbourne passed this score for the loss of only three wickets.

In the Chess Valley Sunday League Chesham totalled 290 for 8 to beat Amersham (154) by 136 runs.  The Sunday 2^nd X1 were narrowly beaten by a little matter of 286 runs, Redborne having hit 441 for 4 off 45 overs which Chesham (159) did not quite match!