After the first two games were rained off, (against TASC and Newcastle 2nd XI) HUCC 2ndXI started their quest for promotion from the North 4B division against a very weak York 3rds. On a fine day for cricket, out performance matched. Having lost the toss, we were asked to field first on a road (York had 3 roads!). Tight bowling from Richard 'Priscilla' Jackson did not allow York to get away, and he picked up two wickets in his opening spell. Guy 'Chappers' Chapman replaced Jav Mashood after a few overs and also bowled tightly, picking up 4-11 off 7 overs. With Ravi 'Hockey' Mahendra bowling tightly from the other end, he picked up the American baseball player, as wickets continually tumbled, eventually bowling them out for 87. The fielding was good, no byes, 1 misfield and no dropped catches meant spirits were high, as we headed to tea before all the other games had reached the half way stage of the 1st innings! After tea Doug 'Hero' Crowley and Alex 'De' Lyon set about chasing down the target in style, only losing two wickets, we chased the score down in 16 overs. Daniel 'Syko' Sykes made a contribution with bat (19) and ball (2-0), Crowley ended up 31* and Alex with a good 29, unfortunately hitting the ball straight down the throat of the only bloke who could catch! Ravi ended up with a very scratchy 1*!
Next up were York 2s, at home at Fortress Inglemire. With a very depleted team (just 4 of the team from the original team for the previous game, after Crowley broke his finger with the last catch of the training session the night before!) Chappers once again lost the toss and we were asked to bowl on a very hot day! Tight bowling from Chappers and Jav meant York couldn’t get away, and the good bowling continued from Martin 'Guess Who' Strawson, Ashish 'Hotrod' Dudeja and Ashley 'Ash' Armitage, despite some lower order 'hitting' we restricted them to 174 off their full allotment of 50 overs (Jav 2-18, Hotrod 1-27, Chappers 1-32, Ash A 1-40 and Guess Who 2-41) – a decent score on the Hull 'pitch'. Tom 'Teflon' Harlow and Jav (promoted from 7 and 10 respectively) opened the batting and put on 80 odd for the first wicket, victory over York 2s was in sight for the first time in at least three years. We then had a collapse and it was left to Chappers and Nick 'You're Barred' Hodgson to put on a stand of 30 to win the game. Previously, Tennis 'Mike' Williams had hit a good 19, and in 2 overs with Chappers put on 30 which a) tilted the game in our favour and b) ruined some good bowling figures! We reached the total 6 down and with over 6 overs to spare. It was a brilliant all round performance and meant a win in the last game would keep us in the hunt for promotion. With TASC and Newcastle playing each other, the winner of that and us (if we won) would be tied on points.
After losing even more players to exams, injuries and the 1st XI (totalling 26 players to represent us in 3 games) we made the long journey up to Northumbria. After going to the wrong ground, we turned up an hour late and had the game reduced to 35 overs. . . not that it made much difference, as for the third time in a row, Chappers lost the toss. . . and we bowled (despite the fact that it was a damp day, we hadn’t warmed up and it was over cast, but hey, thanks skip!). Karl 'Karl' Nazareth got the early break through, and once again wickets tumbled, Chappers 4-11, Karl 3-17, Guess Who 2-21, Charles 'Deep throat' Wright 1-25 and Chris 'injured' Ninham 0-10 of various amounts of overs. We bowled them out for 95 with once another great performance in the field, and some interesting banter! Nikesh 'Crackhead' Patel and Steve 'Ringer' Wiggins opened the batting, and put on a decent stand of 50 odd, the highlight of which was Crackhead (after being given a lot of banter) ran down the track, slogged the opening bowler over cow for 4 and then chased him all the way back to his mark! Daniel 'Morph' Dalton went in at 3 and looked good for his 9 until getting out. After another collapse it was left to Chappers and Guess Who to knock off the final 4 runs needed to win, as once again we won, by 5 wickets and in plenty of time.
A very good season, doing all we could do to win all our games. Unfortunately our Net Run Rate was not as good as Newcastle’s so we lost out on the play-offs and promotion. But considering our circumstances, we did exceptionally well, and it was one of the best seasons ever for an HUCC team. Those who represented the team were (no. of games in brackets): Guy Chapman (C,3) Martin Strawson (VC,3) Mathew Rooke (3) Jav Mahsood (2) Tom Harlow (2) Seb Hayes (2) Mike Williams (1) Alex De Lyon (1) Doug Crowley (1) Nikesh Patel (1) Steve Wiggins (1) Ravi Mahendra (1) Karl Nazareth (1) Richard Jackson (1) Chris Ninham (1) Charles Wright (1) Ashish Dudeja (1) Nick Hodgeson (1) Dan Dalton (1) Ash Armitage (1) Ash Lord (1) Dan Sykes (1) Will Darby (1) Dan Murphy (1)
Guy Chapman
2nd XI Captain 2007-08
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