World Cup Fever

On the day England's World Cup Campaign started Ashfield played host to Nuneaton. With the sun shining Bromhall turned up complaining of pains in his neck and Mo Azam turning up at 1:00pm with the words "come on skip I,ve made an effort I,m early" the ashfield players looked in good condition.

After a great deal of agonizing over the toss and what to do, given the pitch looked as if it would crack up in the second half of the game. The decision was taken out of our hands as Nuneaton won the toss and and chose to field. The boys in the majority (Tompkins apart) ignoring the football and choosing to support their teammates whilst batting, which was good to see. We got off to a very solid start with Olly Thomas timing the ball all around the wicket and looking as if he was going to register the fastest 50 of the year, he unfortunately fell to a inside edge onto his stumps with his score on 44.

This brought Zubair and Tommo together, with Tommo playing steadily, ZuZu took his time to play himself in but it wasn't before long that Zu was looking too good for the Nuneaton attack that rarely threatened the batsmans stay at the crease. Tommo dismissal brought to the game Ashfields answer to Don Bradman !!!! PJ, who together with Lord Zu took us through the overs scoring at an excellent rate, both made half centuries and both looked set for 100's, Zu fell just 22 runs short with 78, whilst PJ registered his maiden league hundred in typical fashion with a boundary. He can now answer back when tormented by Thomas and Carey about number of league hundreds scored!!! It was a great knock and is further evidence of how PJ has improved his game since his time in Perth. He now sits on 350 runs for the year, which given the state of the weather this year is excellent. That's the last mention PJ getting for a while seeing as he has had his fair share!!! Lord Zu Zu is not far behind in the run totals with another 70 to add to the 2 he has already. Some good batting and running between the wickets from Guy Shears and Mo Azam !!! (cant believe that) saw us to an excellent total of 287-4.

The Nuneaton innings began and some slightly wayward bowling in the first few overs saw Nuneaton get off to a solid start. Their opening Batsman Johnny Allen played well and being rewarded for his positive attitude. Sooty came into the attack in the 6th over and Ashfield regained control and were restricting Nuneaton well. Several balls fell just out of reach of our fielders and a fair bit of playing and missing and a loud shout for caught behind. Sooty got the break through and Ashfield continued to restrict and Nuneaton needed just under 200 runs from the final 30 overs. It seemed as though Nuneaton were settling for a draw, it was at this same point Ashfields fielding took a breather, despite continued good bowling by Kazim Zaidi who replaced the skipper in the 21st over, Phil Jeffries who claimed 3 wickets and Zubair Khan the rest of the boys let them down badly, with misfields and dropped catches including opener Allen who had batted well for his hundred at this stage.

It proved to be Nuneatons day as the game went away from us due to our poor show in the field. All of the boys were under no illusion's as to why we lost the game which makes it easier to rectify but no easier to stomach. Nuneaton especially Johnny Allen, 157, batted well but we are bitterly disappointed to loose control of a game which we had control of for all but 20/25 overs.

After a chat on Saturday after the game to get result out of system we now go to Atherstone on Saturday determined to get a result and continue with our challenge after only a minor blip that we can all learn from and take great heart from our batting and bowling efforts.

Good weather

The weekend sunshine saw us all travel to Marston Green, A combination of Bromhall and Zubairs directions eventually saw PJ get us to Marston Green, We won the toss and chose to field turning in a good bowling and fielding display on a very slow low track to knock the "green" over for 104.

In our innings the only batsman failing to take note of Skipper carey's advice of "we,ve all seen how the wicket has played, be positive but stay on the front foot" Was the skipper himself who was dismissed playing back to a short ball that kept low!!!! The only other wickets we lost were Tompkins, needing only 10 runs to win he tried to end the game quickly by hitting in out over cover only to spoon the ball to cover and Zubair who fell to a dubious decision with only 6 runs needed. Both wickets that probably would not have fallen had the game situation been different. Batting second no one in top 4 failed with good performances from, Zubair khan with 35, who showed a lot of restraint and paitence on a difficult wicket to bat on, Phil tompkins with 32 and Phil Jeffries who scored an unbeaten 17 hitting the winning runs. In the bowling department the whole team was delighted for Arslan Mahmood who claimed his first 1st XI League wicket, of which I am sure there will be many more to come and Zubair who bowled well with little luck , PJ Picked up two wickets to keep his points tally on the players ladder ticking over.

It has been the introduction of the players ladder that caused some interesting discussions amongst the boys, with wicket keepers being well rewarded for their efforts with the gloves, which sees two of the leading players on the ladder being the two main keepers at the club(dunno how long we can let bromhall stay near the top for)! Points are rewarded for performance thoughout all three senior sides at the club and the leading 3 players will win prizes at the end of the season. With points being awarded double for points earned in a winnning game all boys were happy at the weekends results.

The evening saw quite a few people attend the world cup sweep stake and first presentation night. Phil Jeffries collected the first award for his excellent perfomances with Bat and Ball and just shading out Zubair Khan. The partnership that these two have formed in the heart of the batting order is excellent and both have deservedly been nominated for one man of the match award each so far this season by league umpries. Buphinder Chana and Richard Buttle collected their awards for 2nd and 3rd team respectivley. No junior awards were possible this month due to the poor weather but next month we look forward to Juniors being awarded too.

Nigel Udoh and Lizzie Haynes look in strong positions with their picks out of the world cup sweepstake with Nigel picking holders Brazil and Lizzie taking England, outside chance includes Phil Jeffries who took France among the bad picks were an un-named Captain who managed to pull out Angola, Ecaudour and USA !!! Better get down to william Hill.

On another note well done to Ashfield Batsman Ollie Thomas who completed his second appearance for England Counties XV this season, turning in a solid perfomance converting all of his sides tries.