Penn Street vs Penn & Tylers Green CC

Penn Street CC 167-5 (J. Tollerfield 90*)

beat

Penn & Tylers Green CC 166 all out (M. Hewlett 4-27)

by 5 wickets

Conditions looked set to be hot throughout. Visiting skipper, Alistair Cossins, called tails and lost...again, so PSCC were asked to bowl first on a dry and dusty track.

Opening up for PSCC were the ever sprightly Matt Hewlett and Caitlin Macken.

In his first over, Matt dropped a relatively straightforward catch off his own bowling. Luckily for him that was his only drop of the day. Unfortunately his brother only managed to hold on to one of the 3 catches that came his way during the innings.

However this does not take a way from a superb opening spell for Matt and Caitlin, conceding only 10 runs in the first 4 overs before Matt struck first, trapping their cagey opener in front for a double digit nought.

Some wayward and swashbuckling shots followed, before Matt struck again, inducing the other opener into skying a shot to midwicket where skipper took a well judged catch.

Number 4 came and went, brilliantly bowled by Matt, before a bowling change saw Archie White snaffle batters 3 and 5, the latter departing first, caught by Phil Hewlett and the former falling to the safe hands of Rob Sutherland at gully.

At this stage P&TG had fallen to 43 for 5, and it was starting to look like the oppo actually were weak (something they mentioned at the toss but which was not taken too seriously) and we were scheduled for a very early finish.

However as the lower order batters came in it was clear they had somewhat reversed their order, so there was an inevitability the runs would start to flow, with bowlers tiring in the unseasonal heat and the field spreading to prevent boundaries.

Archie picked up his third wicket, a quality delivery beating and castling the batter. Archie finished his spell with an excellent 5 overs, 3 for 22.

Jeremy Knox replaced Archie from the "very short boundary" end and slowed his pace to accommodate their Bucks U15 batter (he was quick to express his gratitude to the skipper for both disadvantages). Knoxy eventually bowled the Bucks batter but guilt quickly dampened any possible celebrations.

Charlie Tollerfield toiled for 6 overs, bowling a wide variety of in-duckers and away swingers with little reward, and was eventually replaced by the returning Caitlin.

Caitlin's reward was not only to have been able to top up her arm tan but also to trap their number 6 (who had sped to 31 and was beginning to look very dangerous) bang in front. Judging by the vocal celebration, Caitlin rather enjoyed that wicket and finished her spell with 8 overs 1 for 41.

Matt switched ends to replace Caitlin and bagged his fourth wicket, another catch for the skipper at midwicket, straight out of the sun and much less creakily as reported in previous weeks. Matt finished with excellent figures of 8 overs, 3 maidens, 4 wickets for 27 runs.

Josh Tollerfield (a relative onlooker up to this point) came on to replace Knoxy (7 overs 1 for 37) and finished off the innings but not in conventional fashion. Josh managed to spill a tricky over the shoulder, running back, caught and bowled, but then had the awareness to throw to keeper Chris Russell as the batters went for a risky single. Never run on a misfield apparently and so it proved!

The oppo were all out for 165. A fantastic effort in the field given the conditions, led by the excellent Crusty behind the stumps - zero byes. Maybe a few more than we should have let them get at 43 for 5, but a feeling that this was a very gettable target given our batting lineup.

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The PSCC innings was led out by Rob Sutherland and Phil. Facing some good sharp away swing one end and tight bowling the other, they survived the opening few overs largely untroubled.

Rob played a sumptuous, dismissive cover drive one minute before driving at a wide one that moved away, edging to the keeper. PSCC were 10-1.

Josh came in at 3 shortly followed by Ady White, after Phil suffered the same fate as Rob in chasing a wide one, though Phil's delivery spat considerably from a length so he can feel a little unfortunate. Josh proceeded to hit 25 off his first sixteen balls (another dull watch!), while Ady's cameo was short lived, holing out to cover for 2.

Crusty coming at 5 was unfamiliar territory this season after scores of 48, 119* and 117 opening the innings, as was his 5 ball duck, chasing another wide one and edging to the keeper. Apologies to all fantasy managers out there (me included!).

Alistair came in at 6 and put on 69 in 9 overs with Josh, before the former pushed a back foot drive back to the bowlers ankles. The catch was greeted with incredulity around the ground (no need for me to explain on here why...!) and from the outgoing batter.

Knoxy and Josh got PSCC over the line comfortably with 5 wickets down, Josh scoring 90* to go with his 70+ for Chesham the day before.

Aside from variable catching and a distinctly unconventional but equally effective way to field the ball from Caitlin at mid-off (turning her back on an approaching ball and letting it hit her back instead...no run) this was a convincing win against a good side.

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PSCC are back at P&TG on Thursday 29th May as we begin our participation in the T20 Bucks Summer Bash. I suspect they might be looking for revenge so bring it on!

PSCC: Rob Sutherland, Phil Hewlett, Josh Tollerfield, Ady White, Chris Russell (wk), Alistair Cossins (c), Jeremy Knox, Charlie Tollerfield, Archie White, Matt Hewlett, Caitlin Macken

Scorer: Steve Smith