Cricketing Memories Part 6 - Andy Wood

Experts believe that the first traces of The Immortal Andy Wood playing for CACC date back to around 400 years ago. Since Play Cricket began however he has 364 wickets to his name at an average of 16.36. He also holds the record for most time spent in the field without ever using his hands, currently standing at 2469 overs. Woody is also a long serving member of the committee as club chairman, which made the first attendee at meetings according to the minutes - A Wood Chair.

So for what I hope will be the last blog in a long while, here are some memories from Woody.

Earliest Cricket Memory – I was taken to watch Yorkshire play at Bramall Lane by mum and dad in either the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. The only memory I have was a batsman getting a massive top edge which came towards where we were sitting under one of the floodlights and the fielder dropping the catch right in front of us much to the derision of the crowd. I remember feeling really sorry for the fielder and have personally been able to relate to what he must have felt at that moment several times over the intervening 50 years!! In terms of Coal Aston CC, my first memory was being approached by Julian Bradwell in the playground at Gladys Buxton School in 1975 and asked if I wanted to go down to a training session at Stonelow as his dad Gerry was setting up a new junior team. The rest as they say is history.

Favourite Ground – sadly I have never played on Queens Park in Chesterfield but started watching cricket there in the early 1970’s and still support the Chesterfield festival every summer and hopefully the festival will survive next summer post Covid. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, the touring sides played several games against county sides between playing test matches, as one day cricket was only just beginning to take off. I can remember seeing both Australia and the great West Indies side, including Clive Lloyd playing on the ground. Magical memories. In terms of grounds I have played on, I always liked playing at Youlgrave for the fantastic views and general setting of the ground, with two decent pubs just up the road.

Best Team Mate – I have to give this accolade to two long serving members of the Club, Gerry Bradwell and Tony Cookson for the way they captained sides that I played in. Both have a depth of knowledge and understanding of the game that I have never been able to match.

Best opponent – I give this to a club rather than an individual and they are Sheffield Centralians and for no other reason, than I always seem to take wickets against them. Its strange how most players have lucky opponents or grounds and also unlucky grounds and opponents. Whenever I turned up for a game against Sheffield Centralians, I always felt confident that I would have a good day.

Best moment – this goes back to the 1990’s when I was a regular in the second team and you will be surprised to learn that it was with the bat and not the ball. We were playing Maltby Main at Stonelow and I was last man in and we needed 5 to win. There opening bowler, who was referred to as “Scud”, had just sent the previous batsman’s stump cart wheeling out of the ground with the first ball of the over. I can’t remember who was at the other end but Scud came blazing in and sent a perfect Yorker at my toes, which somehow I managed to get a bat on and the ball went straight back down the wicket about 6 feet. I then realised that I had been called for a quick single and the other batsman passed me as I was just leaving my crease !! Scud in his haste to finish the match off picked the ball up and flung it at the stumps missing by about 2 inches and as nobody had chance to back up, the ball flew to the boundary and I had finished 5 not out off one ball and secured an unlikely 1 wicket victory. The lads went mad and I ran off the pitch punching the air, which riled Maltby and before they left the ground the word got back to me that Scud was going to “do me” in the return game. As it happens I did play in the return game and made 11 from memory but their captain kept Scud away from the bowling whilst I was in and as Maltby won the game, I managed to leave Maltby in one piece that day !!

Worst moment – a few years ago the third eleven had a last day of the season relegation game against Millhouse’s in Millhouse’s Park, where the winner stayed up and the loser got relegated. The opposition batted first and got around 140 and initially things looked good for us as we got to around 108 for 3 with plenty of overs left. However Dill (Paul Steele) was out for 40ish at that point and the rest of us panicked (including me) and threw our wickets away and we lost by 8 runs. It grates with me now and the game was probably over 10 years ago !!

Funniest moment – I had a spell as vice-captain of the Sunday second team about 15 years ago with the captain being Brian Hemstalk. At the time Brian’s sons Lewis and Clarke played in the team. The start time was 2 pm and it got to 1.50pm on one particular Sunday afternoon and the opposition who had been warming up for half an hour and were getting agitated that we were showing no signs of tossing up asked what was delaying matters. I said (as none of the Hemstalks were present), that I was waiting for the captain and two players. At that point Lewis turned up and I said to him in front of the opponents captain, “Where’s Brian he needs to toss-up” to which Lewis said “ Mum says he can’t come until he’s washed the pots” !! At that point, I had to decide if to ask the opposition if we could just hang on a bit or whether I tossed up and one look at the opposition captain told me that he wasn’t going to wait for Brian to finish his domestic chores !! As you can imagine this got mentioned several times by the opposition during the afternoon!!

Thanks to Woody for finishing the blog on a high. Good luck to all starting to play in the league again this weekend, get making some good stories for the next lockdown! 

Cricketing Memories Part 5 - Andy Lockwood

Following on from the popular Butcher Cup 1995 argument, Locky has provided us with some of his past memories to enjoy. Former first team captain and opening batsman Andy is the only honorary member of the club that I am aware of, mostly down to his part in the rebuilding of the main pavilion back in the early noughties.

Earliest cricket memory

Debut for Coal Aston juniors aged 11, Hallam away. So will have been summer 1978.

Favourite Ground

Queens Park, Chesterfield.

Was a regular supporter when Derbyshire used to play at least twenty days of first class cricket a season at Queens Park in late 70s and early 80s when the best cricketers in the world regularly played county cricket seven days a week (John Player League on a Sunday). The touring West Indians in 1976, Australia in 1977, Somerset (Botham, Richards and Garner) spring to mind. Derbyshire themselves were a different proposition in those days with three England regulars in Miller, Taylor and Hendrick and two quality oversees players Wright and Kirsten. A fantastic cricketing education and a great way to spend school holidays.

Best Team Mate(s)

Gerry Bradwell and Tony Cookson. Always competitive no matter what type of league (or friendly) game, always respectful to opponents and umpires, strong powers of observation.

Closely followed by Julian Bradwell.

Best Opponents.

In the Daggers one  Saturday night, someone was reading an article in the Green Un where an ex Pakistan Test bowler had signed on for a Huddersfield League team. After bowling against the West Indies, Brian Lara had described him as the fastest bowler he had ever faced. At the end of the article it stated that he had also signed on to play for Sheffield Works Department in the Sheffield Midweek League, who we just happened to be playing the following Wednesday.

With two equally fast Pakistan bowlers opening the bowling at Olive Grove and many supporters turning up to watch their hero, I was still batting at the halfway stage when these bowlers had used up their overs. At the fall of a wicket I asked the wicketkeeper which one was the ‘Brian Lara’ bowler, only to be told ‘neither, he’s coming on next’.

I managed to survive and there was still one over left when I ran out of partners on 49 not out. We only had 9 men (surprised we had that many), Gerry and Beeky wisely declining the offer to make up the numbers. And so I was denied the chance of scoring a half century against the fastest bowler in the world, and all with no helmet.

Talking of fast bowlers, opening the batting was a different proposition pre 2000 with no bowling restrictions, no covered wickets and no helmets. The pure fear of getting caught on a drying wicket has now gone from the game. Also the bowlers never seemed to tire – one bowler worthy of a mention was Russell Ward of Maltby who would bowl 23 overs of fast bowling straight through although he was gentlemanly enough to pause in his run-up when a double decker bus passed behind the bowlers arm at Maltby. Or maybe he was just having a rest!

Best/Proudest Cricket Memory

115 not out v Warmsworth, my first game back after breaking my arm whilst batting against Mexborough.

Worst/Lowest Cricket Memory

Getting bowled out at home by Norton Woodseats for less than 50. You feel the pain more when you are captain.

Funniest Cricket Memory

A junior game at Queens Park against Chesterfield. Our respected leader and mentor Gerry Bradwell gave us a strict talk before the game about how we were playing at the best ground in the area and that we were to be on our best behaviour, keenly observed by his ever-present assistant and scorer Alan Beecroft. In those days Coal Aston junior sides were made up almost exclusively of pupils of  Gladys Buxton school, anyone from ‘the other side of Dronfield’ played for either Dronfield Woodhouse or Dronfield Contact. As a result of this smaller pool of players to pick from, numbers tended to be made up by cricketers of dubious ability and character. Our mottly crew that day included amongst others myself, Darren Howson,Wiggy and Fearn, so whilst umpiring Gerry had justified cause for concern. Things were going fine until, at the fall of the 5^th wicket, a certain Andrew Messer strode purposefully onto the hallowed turf. As he got halfway to the wicket he suddenly did an about turn and ran back towards the pavilion. ‘What’s up Messer?’ asked an astonished team mate. ‘Forgotten my box’ came the reply, so the previous batsmen then gave him his box (shared equipment in those days). ‘I’m not wearing that it’s got a pubic hair in it’ said Messer and walked back to the wicket to raucous cheering from his team mates. Two balls later Messer was hit where his box should have been and was carried back to the pavilion to a standing ovation not seen or heard at Queens Park since Geoffrey Boycott scored a century for Yorkshire.  At the interval we were quite rightly on the receiving end of a severe reprimand from an embarrassed and fuming Gerry (much to Beeky’s amusement).   

Little was seen of Andrew Messer’s cricketing talents in future years as he moved from Coal Aston to make a living as a priest. However, after an acrimonious departure from the church, he did make a few appearances for Coal Aston’s midweek 11  in his early forties. But the magic had gone, so he reluctantly decided to call it a day. Can now be seen walking his border terrier around the streets of Coal Aston.

Another former team mate of mine was Howard Cresswell. Brought up on Shireoaks Road, a stone’s throw from the Coal Aston cricket pitch, Howard was an angel as a youngster. After a family move to Chesterfield he unfortunately fell in with the wrong crowd and found it impossible to stay out of trouble. Fortunately for Howard he had a knack of remaining elusive to the local constabulary. Until one day the police, knowing he was a keen cricketer, decided to out-fox Howard by catching him on the hop at a cricket match at Old Whittington. Whilst batting, I remember seeing the police turn up and chase an unsuspecting Howard across the outfield, rugby tackle him and cart him off to a waiting police car while still in his whites. The game carried on and Howard was never seen again.

Better later than never?

Evening all, I wasn't going to bother today but Locky has been giving me stick so here are some past Sunday games to look back on. As we will be playing next weekend I'll be calling it a day on the blogs for now, can always revisit at another time, and we do have some player interviews lined up for the next couple of weeks.

1st July 2001 

Going way back to Mansfield 2001 for a Sunday 1sts game where a young Rich Mintoft took 5/41 opening the bowling as we bowled Mansfield out for 162. Impressive figures for Roey being used as 3rd change in the attack. This was too much for CACC who batted out their 40 overs for 126/9 for some losing draw points, the days in which Rich was an opening bowler and number 11 batsman did not last long!

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/529485

5th July 2009 

The Sunday 1sts hosted Clowne at Stonelow and were asked to bat first having lost the toss. I managed to get us off to a decent start before some classic late order Sunday hitting from Brett, Dan, Rich and Locky took us up to a first innings score of 215/7. In reply the veteran seamer knocked the top 3 over, paving the way for Gramps to take 5/35 and Locky to take 2 late wickets as we bowled Clowne out for 117. Take note of 3 stumpings from Rich to complete a classic Sunday performance.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1113363

Meanwhile at Chesterfield Road South Barry Eke and Lewis Hemstock were making light work of Mansfield's batting line up, taking 3 wickets each as they were bowled out for just 95. Unfortunately for CACC this match was taking place in a parallel universe in which Rexy is an opening batsmen, and therefore we were bowled out for just 59 in reply. Good red inker for Shads though.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1132786

4th July 2010 

What a game this is for the Sunday 2nds in the Bear Pit against Cuckney. Batting first Cuckney made 253/4 in their 40 overs, scored almost exclusively by their number 1 and 3 batsmen. Some experimental 1-over spells in their for CACC but all wickets taken involved El and/or Alex Barrett. A daunting total but a strong opening partnership between El and Steve Cross set us on course for an unlikely victory. Grant and Bateso finished the job as CACC knocked the runs off in the final over just 3 wickets down. A great chase, any memories of the game would be gratefully received.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1417388

1st July 2012 

A trip to Primrose Hill for the Sunday 1sts to face Blackwell. CACC won the toss and only Liam made it to double figures as we were bowled out for just 65. The stats show that our number 11 Steve Thompson faced 24 balls for his duck, in what must have been an electrifying last wicket partnership with Chips 4 (34). Despite the low total some CACC members were confident that they may have enough on a tricky wicket, and this turned out to be justified as Freddie and Liam shared the wickets to bowl Blackwell out for just 41.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1784965


An honourable mention to Jack Haslam who 7 years ago bowled 1 over 0/29 away at Grassmoor, remarkable effort.

Been great to see the club re-opened this weekend, thanks to Kev who has put in measures to ensure that we can adhere to the social distancing requirements whilst using the bar, and hopefully get playing again next weekend.

Our lowest ever score (?) and friendly fire

There were some great games to look back on from this weekend, I've even had to leave a few good ones out just so it didn't go on too long. Those that didn't quite make it were a 1 wicket win for the 1sts away at Darfield with Dan and Johnno just about seeing us home, the 2nds defending a low score at Conisbrough with young leggy Junaid opening the bowling and doing the damage for us, and finally Vanders 83 from just 37 balls from last season.

A lot to choose from, and here are the matches that made the cut:

4th July 1999

This game from way back is down as being played on a Sunday but as a 3rd team fixture I'm including it today. The first innings went very well for CACC as they bowled Grindleford out for 117, Steve Rhodes the pick of the bowlers with 5/28. Unfortunately this was back in the dark days of no bowling restrictions, and on their way to bowling 23 overs each, Grindleford's two bowlers took 5 wickets a-piece as we were bowled out for just 81 in reply.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/3925326

3rd July 2004 

A big win (actually a winning draw) for the 2nds away at Baslow, and a fine all-round performance from Ritchie Marples whose name has been spelled incorrectly on scorecards and honours board for all time. Batting first Ritchie made 108 in a total of 204/4 from from 46 overs. He then also took 5 wickets trying to complete the job but Baslow managed to hold on for a losing draw, batting their overs out just 68/9.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/356889

2nd July 2005 

A great run chase for the 1sts who were faced with a difficult first innings score of 239/7 having asked Whitley Hall to bat first. The fall of wickets isn't available unfortunately but 25* from Whitley's number 10 will have been frustrating at the end of the innings. But an opening partnership of 218 between Locky and Rich led the way to CACC winning just 2 wickets down and 3 overs to spare. Locky finished on 114 and Rich carried his bat 104* to see us through to victory.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/620148

7th July 2007 

With all other games cancelled it must have been a rainy day at Mexborough for the 1sts. Luckily we won the toss and bowled them out for 93, Nick with figures of 5/12. Si got us into trouble early in the second innings though by running Locky out and it was a nervy looking chase until we were saved by Johnno and Jimbo down the order, who saw us home in the 39th over with just 2 wickets to spare, Freddie will have been sat nervously waiting to go in!

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1047817


4th July 2009 

A few people have mentioned a 35 all out to me this year but everyone has kept this first team score quiet. Winning the toss against Warmsworth things were going well as Johnno took 6/24. Maybe Cookie thought that the job was done and gave a few others a bowl as Warmsworth's numbers 9 and 11 both made it into the 20s to boost the score up to 100 and get some momentum going. The reply was a disaster and looks like a premium rate telephone number as CACC were then bowled out for just 30.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1122217

Meanwhile at Carr Lane an interesting story unfolded for the 3rds. After sticking Sheffield Medics in Rexy took 5/29 as we restricted them to 182/9 from their 46 overs. A good partnership between Sweety and Jamie Drake broke the back of the run chase and Paul was leading the way to victory before being adjudged LBW on 99. Now some of you will realise at this stage that the 3rd team do not get allocated any league umpires, so what adds to this tragic story for Paul, is that it was his opening batting partner Barry who gave him out LBW! CACC went on to knock the runs off 3 wickets down.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1134754

6th July 2013 

An epic battle for the 1sts away at Whitley Hall. Whitley batted first and amassed a big first innings score of 297/9 from their 50 overs, including a couple of frustrating last wicket partnerships as James Brown, who must have Got a Brand New Bat, made 42* at number 9. Unfortunately I wasn't there to witness it but I'm told that the run chase was a great watch. An opening partnership of 141 between Dave and Locky, followed by a 111-run partnership between Dave and Liam really put CACC in with a chance. Dave eventually fell for 139 including 14 fours and 8 sixes. The game went right down to the last ball where unfortunately, Dan was unable to dig out a perfect yorker from Whitley's Jaco, and was ran out with 2 runs needed for victory - a top effort.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1975440

That's all for today, enjoy your beers if you are heading out, will possibly wrap these up now that it looks like things are returning to something like normal, but will definitely look back at some Sunday games tomorrow.

Cricketing Memories Part 4 - Rich Mintoft

Evening all, this week's look back comes from Rich , former first team captain who joined the club at the same time as me through Brian Hemstalk's junior teams. Rich has played 203 games for the club according to Play Cricket, although it will be a few more than that in reality with hopefully a few more to come. He has 5 centuries and 13 fifties for the club including a high score of 156 not out. Rich will also tell you that he used to be a rapid bowler in his day, and although that's up for debate, he certainly has a safe pair of hands with 117 catches to his name. So let's hear from him:

Earliest cricketing memory

Feel like I’ve always played cricket for as long as I can remember! I think the picture attached shows me aged 7-8 and Si aged 4-5! First CACC cricketing memory was a visit to Dronfield Junior School by Brian Hemstalk looking for players for a new junior side.

Favourite ground

Favourite ground will always be Stonelow. Favourite away ground has to be one of the tour venues because I’ve managed to score a few runs at most of them, I’ll go with Wellington.

Best teammate 

Locky. Probably the person I spent most time batting with and had the biggest influence on me with the mental side of batting and concentrating in the field.

Best opponent 

Wasn’t the best at the time of playing against them but 2 test match captains in Faf Du Plessis and Joe Root take some beating. Played rep cricket with Michael Simpson at Collegiate and he always scored bag fulls against us from about under 13s right through to the first team games. Hit the ball miles as well.

Best cricketing memory

A couple here. My first senior 50 batting with my Dad at Chesterfield Barbarians as a junior carrying my bat for 85* and my first ton batting with my brother Si at Whitley Hall were both special.

Captaining the CACC first team to promotion to the Premier league in 2011. We had a brilliant side around that time, loved every minute of it.

Worst cricketing moment 

Being rolled out for 35 on Stonelow was embarrassing. Highlight of the day was managing to get them 4 wickets down in response including Si catching one in the grill of his helmet at silly mid off and the umpire giving the batsman out!

Golden duck opening the batting away at Kexborough, bowled top of off stump trying to clip one to leg, and the golden duck on my ‘return’ a couple of seasons ago having watched us get 300 odd in the baking sunshine all afternoon.

Funniest moment 

I was fortunate enough to attend a large number of tours to Shropshire from the age of 16 and each one seemed to be better by the previous for funniest moment.

I have a couple non-tour related mooments that spring to mind however, the first was in our final junior match at u17s for CACC when I was batting near the end of the innings with Matt ‘chunky lover’ Johnson. One of us hit a 4 and as we passed at an extremely leisurely pace to return back to our creases, Matt managed to stumble over absolutely nothing and with a little squark ended up sprawled across the wicket.

The other was more of a random moment looking back rather than being particularly funny. Batting at a well known SY League ground I was out in the middle where we were on course to a 9 wicket victory. As I put my head down to prepare myself for the next ball the wicket keeper said words along the lines of “oh for gods sake not again” I looked up and saw an interesting, topless character wandering towards the wicket. The keeper then said rather more quietly “don’t say anything.”

For the next couple of minutes the whole ground stood in silence as the invader stumbled his way across the middle of the pitch, and headed towards the boundary before scaling a perimeter wall.

The umpire threw the ball back to the bowler and as play was just about to recommence I made a little enquiry to the keeper as to what had just happened to which he replied “he did same other week and someone called him a **** so he came back with a gun.”

We didn’t hang around for a drink after that one.

Thanks to Rich for the memories, I'll leave you with a few pics until we are back at the weekend. 

A Trip to A&E

The title says all it needs to today, so I'll dive straight in.

25 June 2006 

The earliest Sunday games I can find from this weekend are back from 2006, starting with the 1sts away at Eckington. It was an impressive batting performance as Hibbsy and Si put on an opening partnership of 159. Si was out for 66 and Liam joined Alex in the middle for another strong partnership before he was eventually caught out for 119. CACC went on to make a first innings score of 265/6. Eckington batted out their 40 overs in typical Sunday style, good 1 over spell in there for Rich though.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/788250

Meanwhile the 2nds were at home to Kirkby Portland. We won the toss and restricted Kirkby to 163/9 in their 40 overs, wickets were shared out and included some chaotic running towards the end by the looks of it! It was a solid run chase by CACC led by John at the top of the order with a half-century. The incorrectly spelled Chris Sanders also finished 56* in a rare appearance for the club as we knocked the runs off just 4 wickets down.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/786194

28 June 2009 

A lackluster performance for the 1sts at Stonelow having won the toss and batted first against Farnsfield. A sequence of single-figure scores only broken by Brett with 25, and then Locky managing to make 57 down at number 9 somehow, my guess is that Gramps was dead-batting it at the other end. We could only make 133/9 in the end, with Gramps and Shads ensuring we weren't bowled out. This was never going to be enough although we did take 5 Farnsfield wickets with us.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1113355

27 June 2010 

Another poor showing from the 1sts which I include solely because of Mark "Shads" Ashmore's performance. Again winning the toss and batting first we were bowled out for 86 by Spital at Eastwood Park. After we were both dismissed, I remember sitting by the boundary with Loz away from the pavilion, as Shads was batting. He took a ball to the helmet and hit the floor with an echoing shriek, we laughed as he retired "hurt" and was helped off the pitch by Spital players. Their team remained markedly more concerned about Shads' well-being than we were at tea and he was eventually taken to hospital. This meant that after Spital inevitably knocked off the winning runs, I had to drive his stupidly big people carrier car to Calow to pick him up, where he had been clip-clopping around the hospital in his spikes for the last couple of hours. Obviously there was nothing wrong with him and he stuck his head through the car window and said "there's some reyt birds in A&E".

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1417194

26 June 2011 

A thriller away at Handsworth although it will not have felt like it for those watching whilst we batted through our 40 overs for 128/3. For the crowd that did stay for the second half though, things started to look interesting as Handsworth immediately fell to 0/2 with quick wickets for El. After a couple of recoveries, more wickets for El and a key run out for big Chris Tye saw CACC looking good for the win with the score on 107/9, with ducks for numbers 7, 8 and 9, surely there can't be much left to come. El's figures of 6/19 ended up on the losing side however as a last wicket partnership of 22 saw Handsworth over the line with just 2 balls to spare.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1640091

30 June 2013

The Sunday 2nds were at home to Morton and did a decent job to bowl them out for 154 in the first innings. 3 wickets for Yanni or John (depending on whether he was Greek on that day or not) Mouzakis. Unfortunately CACC did not have much to offer in reply despite a one-man effort from Eliot who finished with 75. El completely let us down though by throwing his wicket away as we were just 12 runs short of victory, what a disappointment, especially after such strong efforts from the rest of his family that day.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/2010912


30 June 2019 

We'll finish with a game from just last year, as it provides a few entertaining moments, starting with Jack Hall who was cleaned up first ball of the match after CACC elected to bat first. There were plenty of runs to follow with young Rabbers making his first half-century with 66, and some late hitting from Dan who finished 74* in a first innings score of 245/8. Some expensive figures in amongst the 7 Whiston bowlers used, although it's nice to see a couple of wickets for Mr Struggles.

In the second innings CACC went with 8 bowling options and captain Vanders led the way with figures of 4/25 on the way to victory, Whiston bowled out for 178 to complete a good Sunday game.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/3920162

That's all for this weekend, back Wednesday with more memories from an ex-first team skipper.

Tough Defeats

Thanks to Locky for his piece in the week about the Butcher Cup from way back in 95, it was very well received. Unfortunately for you all it's back to me again, to recap on some Saturday games gone by.

25 June 2005 

Starting with a closely fought victory for the 2nds away at Maltby. CACC chose to field having won the toss and did a good job to bowl Maltby out for 133 in the final over of their inning. Wickets were shared around with Buzzer's 3/26 being the stand out figures. In reply, apart from Dill the top order collapsed all around except Liam Smith, who showed why he went on to be nicknamed The Pump, as he never let us down. Liam finished 42* to guide us to victory in the penultimate over, ably support at the end by Ash Fern with 19*.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/620636

27 June 2009 

Another game for the 2nds, this time a thriller at home to Whiston. The away team got off to a steady start and an innings of 82 from their number 3 helped get them to a decent score of 188/8. Most of the bowlers chipped in with a wicket, Bob Buckle's 3/23 were the best figures. In reply batsmen kept getting in then getting out and at 124/7 things were not looking too promising for us. A timely 50 partnership between Bob and Jack took CACC towards victory though,  but there were still 11 runs required when Bob was dismissed and the always reliable Freddie came to the crease. It was a nervy end to the game which I remember well, the winning runs were scored off the last ball of the match.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1122468

It was a much less tense match for the 3rds at home (Carr Lane at the time) to Stocksbridge. A 50 opening partnership between John and Barry set the platform for a strong first innings score of 193/8 with good contributions Eliot and Rexy. In reply both openers were ran out, then Buzzer and Woody made light work of the rest of them, as Stocksbridge were bowled out for 75 to complete a big win.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1134750

25 June 2011 

If I ever publish my own cricketing memories then this game for the 2nds away at Rotherham Phoenix may go down as my worst moment. We had been out for Johnno's birthday the night before so many of the team turned up hungover, including Roey who had woken up on his living room floor and turned up with leftover pizza.

We chose to bowl first and Si put in a good spell of 5/59 as we restricted Phoenix to 166/8 in their 46 overs. In reply, an opening partnership of 74 between Si and Simmo got us off to the perfect start, but this was followed by a collapse that took us from 107/1 to 146/9. This left Roey and I as the last wicket partnership, and we had put on 18 going into the last over, needing 3 to win. I faced the first ball of the final over and I thought I had hit one back past the bowler so I set off running straight away, what had actually happened is that I had hit it straight back to the bowler, who picked the ball up and threw my stumps down for the run out. It's a moment that I relive often!

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1713835

30 June 2012 

I don't know if this is right because I definitely cannot remember it but look at this scorecard, I got 60 and nobody else got double figures! Game was rained off anyway to probably save us a defeat.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1781276

29 June 2013 

Another memorable game for the 2nd team on their travels to Finningley to face Donny Town. We were asked to bat first and at 13/7 we were discussing whether we would have to stay for tea. A great partnership between Roey and Andy Tye saved our blushes though, Andy ended 54* as we finished up 117 all out to restore a bit of pride.

Doncaster were cruising in reply at 56/1, but a flurry of wickets shared between the bowlers got us back in to it. At 109/8 and in the last over of Johnno's spell, he had an absolutely stone dead LBW shout turned down, with their waiting number 11 batsman not looking like a world-beater. I remain convinced that John would have been banned for life if the umpire had been able to understand what was said next, luckily English wasn't his first language. The umpire called me over as captain and asked me to have a word with the bowler as he was "saying bad things to him", I claimed not to have picked up on it and had a quiet word with John. Unfortunately that turned out to be our last chance of victory, as Donny's number 9 and 10 held on for the win in the overs that we have given them.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1977096

To end on an honourable mention this time for Liam, who 10 years ago bowled a spell of 11.2 overs 7/20 to bowl Rotherham out for 128 in response to CACC's 203/7 - well bowled Sir!

Back tomorrow for some Sunday matches.

Butcher Cup 1995

Evening all,

We have a guest contribution to share today from Locky, who has provided the following article looking back at a Butcher Cup game from back before Play Cricket (and many of you) were around. For anyone unaware, the Butcher Cup is a local T20 competition played between teams in and around Dronfield, and at one time had 8 teams enter and were exciting games to be a part of. Enjoy.

When the Butcher Cup committee brought in a rule to restrict bowlers to a maximum of 4 overs, I was against this decision for two reasons. Firstly this lowered the standard of the cricket on offer as weaker bowlers were brought into action. Secondly it handed an even bigger advantage to the stronger team. Under the old system the best two bowlers in the team would invariably bowl ten overs each unless they got injured or were bowling particularly badly. This meant that if your best two bowlers had a good night, one batsmen in your team managed to score a fifty and the rest of your team fielded like trojans, then you had a chance of winning any game no matter who you played against. As happened to Coal Aston in the Butcher Cup final of 1995.

           

Coal Aston’s opponents that night were Dronfield Contact, arch rivals of the older members of the club although the actual players of the time got along reasonably well. The reasons for the antagonism were too complex to understand but had built up over the years and the scars ran deep. Dronfield at the time were firmly established in the South Yorkshire Premier League and boasted the likes of Adam Marsh, Ryan Williams (who both had spells on Derbyshire’s professional books), Roger Bird and Andy Myers. In contrast, we were languishing in the third tier of the South Yorkshire League and, in truth, were only there because of our two outstanding players John Muncey and Julian Bradwell. Facilities were looking tired and had barely altered since being built in the late sixties, a number of senior players had recently retired and more alarmingly, we had no junior section at the time since Gerry Bradwell’s recent retirement after a remarkable twenty years at the helm.

            On the morning of the match, captain Kevin Smith received a phone call from John Muncey informing him that he would be unable to play as his wife had been taken into labour. John Muncey was a very well respected performer with both bat and ball, a former first team captain, a mainstay of the club throughout the eighties and nineties, in fact one of the best players ever to play for Coal Aston. He was replaced by Simmo.

            Just when captain Kevin thought things couldn’t get any worse he arrived at the ground to find out that his second ace in the pack Julian Bradwell was nowhere to be seen. This was in the days before mobile phones. A laid back character, Julian was reminiscent of David Gower in his approach to cricket and life in general. Turning up late was nothing new for Julian but when he eventually arrived five minutes before the start of play, even he was cutting things a bit fine. He rushed across the boundary, got changed and padded up and went out to open the innings with Dillon. He was out first ball. The gentlemanly Dillon was dismissed soon after, walking to a nick behind that nobody else had heard.

An increasingly agitated Kevin’s options were slowly running out. Kevin was a very committed first team captain who wore his heart on his sleeve. So committed in fact, that I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if he had complained to John Muncey about a lack of commitment. So he was feeling the pressure.

He needn’t have worried. Up stepped a young Andrew Watson to save the day with a timely fifty, spurred on no doubt by the fact that he had gone to school with half the Dronfield side and was a particularly close mate of Roger Bird. Butcher Cup specialist Peter Havenhand bludgeoned a quick twenty or thirty, and myself and Tony Cookson scampered a few singles at the back end of the innings. This left us with a score of around 100 to 110. Respectable, but with leading bowler Muncey missing and with Dronfield’s star-studded batting line-up we were still massively second favourites.

            Up stepped the next heroes of the night. Brian Hemstalk, by now the second team captain and at the veteran stage of his cricketing career, bowled a miserly spell of 10 overs with hardly a bad ball sent down. A very accomplished local footballer and a regular bowler of 23 overs a game on a Saturday, this was no problem to Brian. While at the other end Julian atoned for his earlier misdemeanours with 10 overs of masterful slow to medium paced leg-spin. Despite his calm appearance, there was a competitive edge to Julian.

            Backed up by a faultless fielding performance, Dronfield were bowled out short of their target. Two particularly memorable catches were taken off the highest ‘skiers’ ever seen at Stonelow. One by Tony Cookson who hilariously danced a jig of relief rather than delight. The other by the magnificent cricketing character Chris Holloway. Before the days of Play Cricket, Chris had two cricket clubs, one in his native Cornwall as well as Coal Aston. Once after playing for his Cornwall club on the Saturday he drove up to Aston Hall to play for us in a first team cup match the very next day as we were short. In the bar afterwards he was complaining that he had driven all the way up, got caught at first slip first ball, and now had to drive all the way back to Cornwall. Alan Beecroft consoled him with the words ‘at least you hit it’.

            I don’t know who took the wickets and I doubt if Brian or Julian could tell you either, statistics weren’t as important as they seem to be nowadays. I have mentioned ten players but unfortunately do not know the other one, my apologies to you as all 11 players played their part. I suspect it could have been Peter Millington or more likely his brother James. As you may have noticed I have also added approximate scores as there is no record of this game, only memories. Neither do I know who the man of the match award went to, although I always found this to be a bit of a lottery at Butcher Cup Finals.

            With the cup lifted by Kevin, it was off to the Daggers for hand-pulled Tetleys and bread and dripping to share our achievement with our delighted supporters and the rest of the village. The cricket club supported the local pub and the locals supported the cricket club, indeed the annual race-night was created as a thank you to the regulars for their moral and financial support throughout the season. Beeky’s mates were unimpressed. Monday night was darts night and he was late. Brian’s work wasn’t finished as he negotiated a lock-in with landlord Chris Laver, a rare occurrence in those days. I liked Chris as a landlord. A farmer in his spare time, a lot of the locals used to complain that he was more interested in his cows than the pub, but overlooked the fact that his hobby had the added bonus of being able to buy fresh eggs from behind the bar. And anyway, the bar was always looked after by his more than capable wife Rachael. As news of Brian’s lock-in spread, Beeky was back from the tap room. So were the other usual suspects Gerry, Cooky,Dillon, Simmo and myself amongst others. A club needs people like Simmo and he deserved his winner’s medal for his impeccable availability although, like the statistics, the experience was more important than the medal. I suspect the bread and dripping was more important than the experience for Simmo. We were right to make the most of our victory as it was to be 11 years before we would be here celebrating another Butcher Cup victory. Or rather in the Royal Oak after a controversial move of headquarters.

Cricketing Memories Part 3 - Pete Millington

This week's memories are from Calypso Pete Millington who will have been keen to play this year, following on from the 2019 season in which he achieved his career best batting average of 39.56. Wicket-keeper/batsman Pete has played for the club since records began and has been a captain and committee member in this time. Millman has 15 half-centuries to his name on Play Cricket, but he is serial ton-avoider as previously covered in the blog.

I'm not sure what's going on with the formatting towards the end of the article, you'll just have to put up with it.

Worth noting that Pete did submit a different funniest memory for this, but I have banned it as I am saving it for when it comes up in the weekend scorecards! Here we go:

Earliest cricketing memory

As a junior I played for a local side called Oxcroft Barbarians.  It’s fair to say I wasn’t very good and retired age 13, ending a promising career as a middle-order batsman/leg-spinning all-rounder – only coming out of bowling retirement at Perkins a few years ago to take the key wicket of their captain with a deceptive, slow half-tracker that he could only lob up to mid-wicket!  He knew he’d met his match as he trudged off.

My first game for CACC was in 1995 (I think).  There’d been an EGM to discuss dropping the 3^rd team before it was decided that members would try and get friends, relatives, anyone to join the club.  I found myself playing on Henry Fanshawe playing fields (it wasn’t a cricket ground), scoring 43.  We lost every game that year, except one late on when I scored 99 no against Newbould, starting my career of ton avoidance (I hit a 4 to win it but nobody bothered to tell me I was approaching a hundred).

Favourite Ground

All of the tour grounds are great, for different reasons, but my favourite is Perkins.  It’s very similar to Stonelow as it’s in an urban area and quite compact.  The track is normally great too.  In the early days of my touring it used to be a 55 over game so we had lunch and tea (which were both amazing).  Some personal memories too: taking “Speaky” for 18 runs off an over (great); being presented with the shattered bail at fines, having shouldered arms to a straight one (less so).

Best teammate

Sir Gerald of Bradwell.  Gerry was my first captain when I joined and he helped me acclimatise to senior cricket, both on the pitch and in the pub.  Probably more the latter, where we would spend Saturday and Sunday evenings drinking in The Daggers and latterly The Pond, revisiting the days events, getting “locked in” and then staggering home for a whisky (Gerry must have had 50+ bottles, and he never seemed to like finishing them off).  His cricketing feats got more impressive as the evenings progressed.

From a purely cricketing perspective we’ve had some great players at the club so it’s difficult to pick one.  Best performance I’ve seen was probably Locky at Barnsley, where he released the handbrake and hit a big ton, most of the runs coming in the latter part of the innings (I can’t find the scorecard but Andy probably remembers it).

Best opponent

Sadly, I didn’t get to play against Ian Bishop or Kenny Benjamin but I think I strode out to bat against Norton Oakes in the Irwin Mitchell Mid-week league to find Moin Khan (Pakistan captain) behind the stumps and a test bowler at the other end.  I didn’t last long.

I’m not great at remembering opponents but I didn’t like facing Rob Ward when he came down the hill at Bradfield. Pretty imposing as he ran in.

Best/proudest cricketing memory

From a personal perspective I’ve scored one ton, which was against Frecheville – 107 no.  I also scored an enjoyable 75 no against Dronfield Contact to win a cup game, hitting Coops for 4 off his first ball and being carried off the field by the Havenhands at the end.

The second team had this amazing season in 2013, where we started poorly and then went on a run, led by Timmsy, ending with promotion (just behind Thorncliffe): http://sycl.play-cricket.com/website/league_table/6390

In a similar vein, we had another great 2^nd team run way back in 2001, when we battled Collegiate for the title.  We had a strong team with John and James Harrison, Roedog, Simmo (the less talented one), Coleshill, Dylan (P Steele), Sweety, the Ekester, Phil Mintoft and captained by Cookie (not The Bastard).  So many epic games but with two games left for us and three for Collegiate, we faced off at Stonelow (we'd won the first game).  They were an arrogant bunch and thought that if they beat us they would win the league.  Unfortunately, we’d worked out that the online table was wrong and they had one point fewer than they thought.  We knew that if we didn’t give them 7 points we could still win it the next week at Darfield.  We were put in and were going well until a collapse, at which point Simmo (the less talented one) blocked for the rest of the innings.  I managed to find a match report on the Collegiate website (it's a great read) – some of my favourite quotes:

“a good top of the table clash ruined by dismal negative Coal Aston”

"Coal Aston amassed 93-7 from 46 overs in a shameful effort."

“it is a travesty that this side are moving up to Division 3”

http://www.sheffield-collegiate-cc.org.uk/2001/09/09/butler-burns-coal-aston/

They only got 5 points.  There’s even a match report celebrating taking the title at Rockingham the next day (quote: “It was of course an honour and a privilege to take part in the clincher”).  We beat Darfield the following week and took the title.

Worst/lowest cricket memory

I once got a platinum (??) first baller i.e. after a long off-season, looking forward to the resumption of cricket I confidently strode out to take strike, went back to a loosener, edged it onto my pad and watched as it trickled onto the stumps.  As I took my contemplative walk round the boundary, one of their fielders asked me to clear some dogshit off the ground, which I dutifully shovelled up.  I must have done a great job and word of my shit clearing skills had travelled – I was asked to clear up a turd following week.

More humiliating (yes, it’s possible) was a game of two drops for the first team at Bradfield. The first, whilst at fine leg, was a top edge hurtling towards me that went through my hands and hit me squarely in the nutsack, pole-axing me.  The rest of the team didn’t realise as I lay prostrate on the floor, with them screaming for me to get the ball in.  And then, to add insult to (actual) injury, towards the end of the game I was under a skier at long-on and tried to catch it… …with my chest.  The thud rang round the ground and was witnessed by the large crowd. The humiliation was delayed by the thought that I was having a heart attack.  Suffice to say it cost us the game and I legged it home without changing, to drown my sorrows.

Funniest cricket memory on or off the field

Not so funny at the time but it also comes from the 2001 season.  Jono was a mere 21 year old and was celebrating his birthday at The Casbah in town.  I’d recently been to Mexico so was in a tequila phase, so I suggested we do shots.  Unbeknownst to me, Jono knew the guy behind the bar, so for every shot I was doing he was having a shot of water.  Fast-forward to the end of the evening and I’m absolutely hammered, being put into a taxi only to drunkenly crawl straight out the other side.

My next memory is of being woken up in a doorway, at 5am.  A taxi home and a few hours sleep before I wake up thinking, shit, where’s my wallet (found it), where’s my phone (found it), shit that journey home was a bit blurry…  …I’d lost my glasses!!  Contacts in, I went into town for a search round places that I’d no idea whether I’d been to or not (pretty pointless in retrospect) and then back home for a bit more kip before captaining the Sunday 1sts and keeping-wicket against Alfreton.  It was always a shit, low wicket there so I can’t imagine it went well batting or behind the stumps (it was a haze so I can’t recall).  Home and in bed by 9pm.

Thanks to Millman for a sterling job, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at Collegiate's not-winning the league celebrations!

Back at the weekend with some more past scorecards.

South Yorkshire T20 Champions!

We were up early on Father's Day 3 years ago travelling to Whiston for the T20 finals day, so I thought I'd publish early this morning for maximum nostalgia.

But before we get onto that, let's take a look at a few past Sunday games.

19 June 2005

Starting with the Sunday 1sts away at Olive Grove against SWD. CACC batted first and Rich led the way, top scoring with 85. Hilly chipped in with a good 45 before some late runs down the order from Dave Hughes finishing 20* took us up to a decent first innings score of 219/8. SWD didn't threaten victory at any stage but batted out their 40 overs, finishing 84/9. 3 wickets each for the young spin-twins Barry Eke and Locky.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1454272

21 June 2009 

This game involves the Sunday 2nds versus Pheasant Hill CC and another fine performance for the Ekester. Pheasant Hill batted first and got off to a very strong start until Barry came on with figures of 6/20 from 6 overs, putting a quick end to the innings at 150 all out. In reply all 5 batsmen called upon contributed but Barry ensured that he was going to see us home, finishing on 54* to see us home to victory.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1132765

21 June 2015 

A tough day out for the Sunday 2nd team on a day which we had to put 3 sides out. As Stephen Foster was getting 140* against the 1sts in a cup match, the Sunday 2nds were at Kirkby Portland where the home team racked up a first innings score of 417/1. Their opener finished on 273* and the only wicket taken was a stumping by Gramps, who I assume took shelter behind the stumps out of fear for his economy rate! Despite being faced with that ridiculous total, CACC weren't there to throw their wickets away, and batted out their 40 overs, finishing 135/3. Fair play to Matt Boreman with 74* making the 2nd highest score of the match.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/2438812

18 June 2017 

The Saturday 1sts travelled to Whiston for the South Yorkshire T20s finals day. An enjoyable but daunting prospect for a Division 1 side in competition with 3 Championship sides, I think captain Dan had told his folks not to bother coming to watch as we would be home in a couple of hours. We were drawn against Rotherham Town in the semi and having won the toss, chose to bat first. There were decent partnerships all the way down forcing Rotherham to try 8 different bowling options. Huss ended with a late flourish to top score with 50* and lead CACC to a first innings score of 154.  

In reply a couple of early wickets put Rotherham behind the rate and they struggled to catch up again at any stage. Wickets were shared out including 3 for the skipper as Rotherham were bowled out for 121 and CACC unexpectedly moved onto the final, probably to the delight of Wath who won the other semi. Hussnain's economy rate of 3.4 topped off an all round performance that was good enough for Rotherham to sign him for the 2018 season!

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/3174471

Meanwhile at Stonelow the Sunday team batted first against Cutthorpe and would have been feeling happy at half time, with a first innings score of 247/4. Young Crabbers carrying his bat 127* and keeping the ball on the floor with 21 fours. The confidence will have been short-lived as Cutthorpe knocked the runs off just 1 wicket down within 27 overs, and CACC left glad that they won the toss at least.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/3019525

Back to Whiston where the 1sts were ready for the T20 final against Wath. They chose to stick us in and with 3 early wickets, at 21/3 they will have been feeling fairly confident. But what followed was one the great captain's innings that I've ever seen. Dan batted through all 20 overs and finished on 95* including 7 fours and 7 sixes. Wath's captain and premier leg spinner had left himself to bowl the last 4 overs from one end, but ended up taking himself off after 3 overs at Dan, with figures of 0/35. Along with support from Huss and Jack Hall, CACC finished 176/4 with the last partnership between Dan and Jack worth 104.

176 is a good T20 score but we were up against a strong side so I still don't think there was too much thought of winning as of yet, but an unbelievable first over from Loz knocked over Wath's top 3 and the scoreboard showed 3 for 3 at the end of the first over. Some people were celebrating as if we had already won (Chips!). Dan was slightly fatigued after his innings so was captaining from deep square leg, but opened the bowling from the other end and picked up a wicket to put Wath 7/4. They never recovered well enough to threaten victory as El also picked up 3 wickets to bowl them out for 131. Against the odds CACC were crowned the South Yorkshire T20 champions!

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/3181312

There are many pictures knocking around from that day, so I will finish this weekend with a selection of my favourites.

The Day Before Tomorrow

Looks like we're back to some nice weather for the weekend today, would have been a tricky day for captains winning the toss I think, what to do first on a drying wicket?

19 June 2004 

Starting way back in 2004 when the 1sts won the toss at Stonelow and elected to bat first against Rockingham. There was a handful of contributions throughout the order as CACC struggled to 150 all out, Locky top scoring with 39. Not a great score but it turned out to be enough on this occasion, as Rockingham were bowled out for 121 in reply. Johnno clearly fired up by being made to bowl first change ended with figures of 6/25, and getting the winning run out. A couple of catches and a stumping for the Dronfield Town FC manager Chris Millington to dismiss the top 3.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/375126

17 June 2006 

An absolute thriller at Woodseats for the 3rd team against Sheffield Zingari. CACC won the toss and elected to bat, and after a couple of early wickets there were good contributions all the way down as we reached an impressive first innings total of 241/5. Paul Robinson (I don't know which one) top scoring with 64, and Beejal not far behind with 61*.

Unfortunately CACC seemed to suffer from a lack of bowling options other than Woody and Knowlsey who took 3 wickets each. Zingari's number 4 stood strong and finished 82* as they knocked off the winning runs off the last ball of the match, and 9 wickets down with their number 11 managing to finish 5* to get the win. If anyone has any memories of the final moments of the match I would be keen to hear them!

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/728994

20 June 2009 

Couple of games here starting with the 1sts at home to Whitley Hall. Asked to bat first Locky led the way with 58 as CACC scraped to 176/9 from their 46 overs, some important contributions at the end from Coley, Jase and Jimbo to help boost the total. In reply Johnno opened the bowling this time and took 5/36 as part of CACC's formidable attack at that time, which also included Nick and Jimbo, with Coley as the spin option. Whitley could only manage 113 in reply.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1122205

Meanwhile the 2nds were away at Frechville in another close run match. Batting first CACC made it to 198/6 with contributions all the way down but 55 from Phil "The Bastard" Cookson being the stand out. In reply Frechville were always in with a shout and were 136/1 at one point. A flurry of middle order wickets and a couple of crucial run outs meant that despite going down to the last over, Frechville eventually fell 5 runs short of victory, I managed to pick up 4/48.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1122461

19 June 2010 

Now Parkhead is a small ground, but you don't see many T20 scores like this one. A bit of a mismatch in the T20 cup for the thirds who faced Div 1 Parkhead. Just take this in for a moment.....CACC won the toss and elected to field first.......Parkhead reached 271/3 in their 20 overs and obviously there are some stunning bowling figures in there but for me, Simmo's spell of 1 over 0/29 is comedy gold.

In reply an opening partnership of 73 between Ryan and Finn "Boom Boom" Macnamara restored a bit of pride, but there was not much else to follow. Grant went into automatic pilot to finish 1* to ensure that CACC weren't bowled out and could take the losing draw points, but as this was a cup game there were none available and we were just knocked out.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1388637

18 June 2011 

The first team away at Kexborough and always a stand out scorecard for me because of two great individual performances. Kexborough stuck us in and although Rich got cleaned up first ball, they ended up regretting it as we ended up with 293/7. The main contribution by far was from Nick who finished with 148* including 19 fours and 3 sixes. In reply Kexborough got off to a decent start and were up to 147/2 at one point, before a spell of 8/17 from 7.2 overs by Gramps put a quick end to that chase!

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/1700974

17 June 2017 

A big first innings batting performance for the 1sts at home to Barnsley. CACC won the toss and after a couple of early wickets a partnership of 119 between Locky and Parky set the platform for a total score of 318/8 from our 50 overs. Chris top scored with 71 but there was also some impressive late hitting from Dan with 46 from 34 balls, and Huss with 41 off just 19 balls, the pair of them finding some useful form in time for the T20 finals day the next day.

Barnsley put in a good effort in the second innings, but CACC's total was too much and they eventually feel short on 264/7, with the wickets shared around. A good 5-point win for the 1sts and some confidence to take into the big day tomorrow.

https://coalaston.play-cricket.com/website/results/2914936

And we will be back tomorrow with some more historic Sunday results as well as a look at how the finals day panned out.