Penn Street vs England & Wales Transplant CC

Penn Street CC 213-4 (C. Russell 125*)

beat

England & Wales Transplant CC 209-10 (S Smith 4-63)

by 6 Wickets

It was great to welcome back EWTCC to Penn Street in the build up to their crunch series with their Australian counterparts later in the summer. Big props to the lads from EWTCC who had come from far and wide for the fixture and proved themselves to be excellent guests once again! It was also great to see such a big gathering for the fixture with Ian Jones, Matt and Jane giving our guests a very warm welcome.

Our Glorious Leader, Lord Cossins, showed his continuing good judgment by winning the toss with his lucky two headed coin coming in handy once again - but then inexplicably decided to bowl despite a lack of frontline bowling options. 

E&WTCC started strongly with solid opening partnership despite the best efforts of Vish “Big Tuna” Gounder and Ben “The Strangler” Marlow with the new cherry. Ignoring the unnamed wicket keeper’s demands that he target the batters kidneys, Big Tuna finally got a well deserved wicket to break the opening partnership after a smart catch by Jimmy Sempill. 

The tables really turned though when the terrifying tandem of Jimmy Semps and Steve “Sensei” Smith were introduced. On a pitch drier than a ….. nun’s…expletive….something…[redacted], like a young Peter Such and Ian Salisbury, Penn Street’s spin twins ripped through EWTCC middle and lower order with a barrage of spinning jaffas (interspersed with occasional deadly long hop and full bunger). The captain flogged the lads for 10 over spells from each of them but was handsomely rewarded with an incredible over rate (Mr Lander was clearly delighted) and a 4-for from SDS and 3-for from the Bearded Wonder. Generally Excellent support in the field was exemplified by a wonder catch from Rocco Jupp on the boundary and an accomplished sliding catch from Jupp Sr. Alistair brought himself on for a very tidy spell and nabbed a wicket (and avoiding snapping his Achilles…..) with Vish mopping up the last wicket despite some very wild bowling and questionable umpiring leading to the innings only bye.

The highlight of the day came in the tea break with a sensational tea put on by Jane and the gang - tactical nous from the Chairbird to ensure the oppo massively over ate before taking the field.

PSCC’s batting response was emphatic and brutal - Rob Sutherland opening up like a crazed Highlander hacking away at poor yokel sassenachs with a rusty claymore as he assaulted the boundary early on. The star of the show (as so often is the case) was Chris Russell. Having his initials on every item of clothing obviously gives the lad batting superpowers as he once again proved very pro-village with a huge array of classy shots all around the dial (we won’t mention being dropped four times….). The Jupp twins garnered some useful runs in the middle order before newcomer Ravi strode to the crease - claiming not to have played cricket before, Ravi proceeded to unleash a sensational cover drive before playing around a straight one. Skip came in to nab the glory and claim the prize for being the only player to bat and bowl for PSCC on the day…….

Good Luck to EWTCC and hope to see them again next season.

PSCC: Rob Sutherland, Chris Russell, Pete Jupp, Rocco Jupp, Ravi Jaspal, Alistair Cossins (C), Sam Martin (WK), Ben Marlow, Steve Smith, James Sempill, Vishal Goundar

Scorer: Cally Sutherland

Umpires: Bobby Fryer and David Lander