1st XI Cricket 2008

 Date

Opposition

Venue

Result

 23/4/08

Swanbourne House

Home

Tie

 26/4/08

Bilton Grange

Away

Won

 30/4/08

Beachborough

Home 

Cancelled

 07/5/08

Wellingborough

Home 

Lost

 10/5/08

Spratton Hall

Away

Lost

 14/5/08

Oundle

Home

Won

 17/5/08

Bedford Prep

Home

Cancelled

 21/5/08

Stoneygate

Away

Lost

 18/6/08

 28/6/08

S. Anselm's

Away

Lost

Swanbourne (Twenty/20)

Maidwell Hall batted first and, after a steady start, began to accelerate the innings through the bats of Joss Stoddart and Jack Tripp.  Tripp was in very good touch and hit the ball to most parts of the field. He finished up with 63 not out. Stoddart played a more controlled innings which enabled his partner to play more freely. He finished on 46 which is an effort he should be proud of.

At tea the thought was that Maidwell were in the driving seat. After an early breakthrough from Allhusen and FitzRoy Newdegate it appeared to be the case. Swanbourne did not give up and their no.5 batsman hit the ball very well and went on to reach 97 not out. Having been dropped 6 times he gained in confidence and saw his team home to the tie result. Congratulations to Swanbourne who never gave up the run chase and finished better than Maidwell did.

This was a very good win. On a good grass wicket Maidwell struggled to post any kind of total. Barrow was the only batsman to make any positive contribution with a fine 38.

The fielding display was one of the better ones I have witnessed at Maidwell. Catches were taken at the correct times and the bowlers tried to bowl in the correct areas. Tripp in particular caught a fantastic catch at short extra cover. The four seam bowlers bowled well and, although further work is still required, are becoming more consistent. Constant took 3 wickets as did Stoddart, with 2 a piece for Allhusen and FitzRoy Newdegate who again performed admirably.

Alas more work needed and another hard couple of sessions before the Beachborough game.

This was a fairly poor display although the bowlers did continue to show better lines and hitting their correct length has also improved. Alas another set of four rather simple catches put down again. Having said that I would have taken 99 runs for victory after the bowling had finished.

Batting was made to look hard early on with some very poor shot selections. With an inexperienced set of players it is always difficult to recreate any match situations during any given games lesson. Allhusen looked to be going very well but after his dismissal it began to look like a familiar display. Never mind, hard work ahead.

Spratton were the better side on what was a very hot afternoon. Fielding first was tough in the heat and there were the usual 4 dropped catches, but concentration levels were always going to suffer with the conditions. Humphrey continued to show much promise with his bowling and his return of 6-1-9-1 was true testament to his efforts.

151 was probably a score to test our batsmen but Gray and Stoddart began to build a good partnership. Unfortunately after Stoddart fell we lost a couple more wickets and the result was going to be academic. However there were signs that our batsmen are beginning to build their own innings and things should be better next Wednesday.

This was a better performance all together. Both FitzRoy Newdegate and Stoddart bowled very well early on and soon got amongst the wickets, FitzRoy Newdegate again with the lion's share of 4 this match.

Having dismissed the opposition relatively cheaply both Barrow and Stoddart batted sensibly and selfishly to both get a nice red inker to their name. Barrow 29 and Stoddart 21 respectively.

On what was a perfect batting surface Maidwell under-achieved yet again having been sent into bat. Lack of experience meant batsman were believing that their  innings' were better than was actually the case. At tea it appeared obvious to me that we were under par by 50 or 60 runs. Looking at the score book we got most of our runs in boundaries there are always very few 1's and 2's in any innings. The batsman look for their big shots and often miss the easy singles and two's on offer.

As it turned out this was proven to be correct with Stoneygate under no real pressure to score quicker than the full tosses and long hops led them. It is a shame as the cricket season is now all but over. If players are really to improve then experience needs to be gained.

This was a match played in cold, windy conditions. Maidwell fielding wasn't really up to scratch although even Humphrey caught a catch today! Wright and Stoddart bowled well with Stoddart taking a couple of wickets in his opening spell. Harvey came on and with a quicker and extended run up took three very good wickets. 92 runs was a reasonable target to get on what was a longish outfield. Tripp and Constant went in and played positively. Tripp with 58 not out and Constant 22 not out knocked the score off fairly easily.

Maidwell batted first on a sunny evening. Having had a great start they lost 3 wickets in 3 balls to get somewhat behind on their original plans. Allhusen 23, Gray 44, not out and Whitbread 24 (not out) were the main contributors to the scoring. Maidwell came on to bowl and collectively they managed to frustrate Lutterworth. Constant claimed 3 good scalps to hinder the run chase. He was superbly supported by Barrow, Wright, Pratt and Crichton. Eventually Crichton got the final wicket.

Match number two in the Twenty/20 season saw Maidwell post a good score thanks to Gray 44 not out Constant 28 not out.

Good bowling in particular from Stoddart, Wright, Pease and Crichton enabled Maidwell to place pressure on the Witham Batsman and eventually win. 

The Twenty/20 season is going fairly well thus far. Some good bowling and fielding restricted Oakham to 109 off their allotted overs. FitzRoy Newdegate was again the pick of the bowlers taking 2-11 in his 4 overs.  Barrow, Pratt and Harvey all chipped in with a wicket a piece.

Maidwell took little time in setting about the target. Tripp 36, Gray 43 not out and Stoddart 14 not out were the main contributors to the run chase.

This was a good team to play against. They had a few very good batsman and played some really positive cricket against us.  Crichton took two good scalps today and bowled very well. In what was a timed match Maidwell got bowled out just 7 minutes before the end of play. I was a little disappointed with the run outs this time around; we had two in the last 15 minutes of play. Not to worry, as the team had a great day out.

Maidwell had a good challenge tonight. Some average bowling and poor fielding at times allowed Swanbourne to post an aggressive total first up. This after FitzRoy Newdegate bowled very well, twelve coming off his four overs and Barrow 13 off 3 overs.

With a large crowd watching Tripp and Allhusen set about the total. Tripp was nothing short of awesome. He scored 94 runs before getting run out. A fantastic knock! Allhusen then got 37 not out and Gray 16 not out. A great evening!