We have moved on to Eurovision weekend. This festival– love it or hate it– is a fixed milestone on Game Day 5 every season. By this point you’ll be hoping to take up a nice position in the league ready to start stringing some good results together. It is roughly a quarter of the way through the season although this year we have seen no action yet for obvious reasons. Today would have been Game Day 5 of the season. Scheduled fixtures were against Hale Barns and Neston. We first played Hale Barns in 1978 and 74 Saturday league games have followed since that time. It was at Hale Barns in September 1981 that we won the Cheshire Cricket League for the first time in a season-finale of high drama that finished in pouring rain– times were different then. Neston, our near-neighbours from up the A540, first provided the opposition in 2005 and we were to be cast in the role of visitors today. Sadly, there will be neither action nor ice-cream for our spectators today. We send our very best wishes to both clubs’ players and officials– we are sorry to have missed you. Current cricketing news can be found on page 2 of the newsletter. Here, we’ll continue with a browse through some exciting mid-May matches of the past.

1st XI v Bollington Mid-May 2012

On GD5 of the 2012 season we were again away at Bollington on the Recreation Ground. The hosts decided to ask us to bat first on this occasion, not surprising as there had been rain in the build up, so much so that the corresponding 2ndXI fixture at Little Heath was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
After losing Iftikhar Naseer for 28 and Iroshan for a very rare duck, the Little Heath men were finding the going tough. However, the innings was held together by a determined partnership between Matt Astbury 42 and Delhi all-rounder Varun Sood. Varun subsequently had a productive 53 run partnership with Jamie Creek. Skipper Guy Newell batting at number nine was in at the end scoring a rapid 18*. Varun was unfortunate to finish on 99*, his highest score for the club and a quality, battling knock in a tea time total of 231-7.
What happened next was spectacular. Firstly, Russ Butcher produced his second big performance in suc-cessive newsletters. Here, the radar was operating with military precision as he hit the perfect length time and time again, taking the first 6 wickets. He finished with a brilliant 6-20 to demoralize the home batters. Varun then stepped in to clean up the tail finishing with 4-1 in a total of 41 all out. Varun was and is a bowler of astonishing accuracy. He gives batsmen nothing so that they have to eventually take a chance against him. His finest cricketing moment must be when dismissing Ian Bell, Joe Root and Samit Patel in 2013. Scorecard here: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/12286/scorecard/565805/delhi-vs-england-xi-tour-match-england-tour-of-india-2012-13

1st XI v Timperley Mid-May 2015

Meanwhile, fast forward to GD5 of the 2015 season and and our 1stXI were away to Timperley. Skipper Mike Gaynon decided that he wanted to chase that day. The Timperley batters were happy to set a substantial target with the 244-6 amassed at the half-way point always likely to prove a challenging quest. Dave Mumford was the most successful bowler with three hard-earned wickets. The 6 wickets was 1 more than the 5 point haul of Electro Velvet that year. Thanks to San Marino for those 3 points.
In the 2015 season we had a very formidable batsman in our ranks. Kiwi Mitch Renwick scored well over 800 runs in 15 league games that season at an average of over 92. His severe hamstring tear ruled him out at that point when he was on course for something like 1350 runs. We will never know what might have been but this was a day when he impressed all who were present, making 136* at a run-a-ball with 18 fours and 5 sixes, over a century in boundaries. Turfail Talha provided great support at the start of the innings with a rapid 65, before supporting contributions from Matt Astbury and Josh Morgan-Jones got us over the line at 246-3 in 43.4 overs and 25 points.

Read about Mitch’s maiden first class hundred here: https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/cricket/renwick-century-anchors-otago-innings. 

Mitch currently plays for Ota-go Volts. Based in Dunedin, their beautiful home ground is the world’s southernmost test venue. Mitch has shots all round the wicket but you can-not bowl short to him or he’ll rock back and dispatch over mid-wicket as he’s doing here.

2nd XI enjoy success at Mobberley mid-May 2006

The 2ndXI travelled to Mobberley for this Eurovision weekend fixture in 2006. After a wet week, captain Brian Wareing had no difficulty making his mind up to ask the hosts to have first knock. 31 overs later, congratulations were due to the Swans’ bowling attack, and in particular to Dave Graham. Dave is a tall chap bowling a brisk medium pace slightly off the wrong foot and with a high action. When he was on song, Dave could cause teams to fumble in haste at those pad straps in the expectation of being in soon. Dave has 3 of the top 5 best-ever 2ndXI post 1978 bowling analyses to his name. At the lovely Church Lane ground in 2006, Dave had the remarkable fig-ures of 15.2-9-14-9, with the ever-dependable Richard Morgan-Jones ruining Dave’s chance of all 10, although his wicket was the second man out, so he is excused.
A total of 48 was always going to be hard to defend but the hosts made a good fist of it knocking over 5 wickets before the target was reached. Chris Brooks was top scorer in the match with 18*, an innings worth a lot more and almost twice as many as anyone else managed. Fittingly, Dave Graham was in with the battling Brooksy at the end as the win was secured. For the record, UK entry in 2006 was the rap meets St Trinians ’Teenage Life’ which wasn’t disgraced in 19th place.

Look back to last year

Going back in time to the 2019 season, we all remember the success of the 2ndXI and the magnificent run of wins that unfolded. GD5 was a trip to our local neighbours and good friends at CCO. The team knew that this would be a good test. Skip Pete Roberts won the toss and elected to bat: there was not much option last season if you wanted a 25 point win. When the wickets started to tumble on the old Brookhirst ground, we were not in robust batting health. Fahad Dar’s patient 29 was the start of the recovery. The stand for the 7th wicket between Jack Harding 42 and Nick O’Connell 27 was studious and responsible, and one of many times last year when the lower order produced the goods. Quick-fire runs from Adam Bayley and Louis Mullineux boosted the total to 179-9 at tea. Our square-keeper Alen Roberts bowled with his usual accuracy for CCO taking 2 wickets.
After tea wily batsman Ian Barlow made a doughty 39 for CCO but wickets were falling at the other end as the spin of Jack Harding and Dave Phillips claimed 3 victims each. There were wickets also for Louis and Nick as CCO closed on 121-9, with Alen having a good all round game defiantly 24* at the end. The points were 25 to 13 in favour of the Swans whose battling win against good opposition gave them the confidence to kick on for the rest of the season.

Some of our Sunday contingent are of the opinion that the Iceland entry this year is brilliant. What do you think?

Staying alert – thanks to the County Board staff who are keeping us informed

This week’s edition of the ECB newsletter focuses primarily on the new guidelines for the safe use of outdoor facilities, published yesterday by ECB. This has been produced to support the advice of government and medical experts, and to offer practical guidance to players and clubs on the steps they must take to remain safe whilst undertaking exercise in an outdoor cricket club environment.

PLEASE NOTE: No decision has yet been made by the club as to whether we believe these stringent requirements allow for the resumption of some very limited cricket activity. We will discuss on Tuesday to try to decide whether such cricket activity is feasible, manageable and safe. We will let you know what we decide but until you hear otherwise… THE NETS REMAIN CLOSED.

This week’s ECB update is a bumper edition with lots of excellent content, including:

• Dynamos Cricket App – download brilliant games for 8-11 year olds
• Free coach development webinars accessed via iCoachCricket
• Nominate your NHS heroes (deadline Monday)
• Natwest Moneysense featuring Michael Vaughn (Monday 18th May)
• Play-cricket updates

The communications from the ECB are required reading if you want to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the recreational game. This week’s can be found here:

https://ecb-comms.co.uk/1FT6-6VE30-D6SSQJ4NB2/cr.aspx

https://ecb-comms.co.uk/1FT6-6VEJU-757G090DCD/cr.aspx

Brian Wareing has kindly provided a couple of photos from the archive which I think will be of interest to a lot of people.
In both cases were going back around 20 years. To the left we have the absolute beast of a roller that was in use throughout the 80’s and 90’s. This device was very slow and lurched quite a lot. Parking it in the garage was a nerve-racking experience I remember only too well. Local Mercedes specialist Tony Forbes was amongst many keeping this monster working. You will notice too how open the surrounds are and how much the trees and hedges have grown in the intervening years.
A kind and generous donation from a club member allowed us to purchase the comparatively svelte roller that we use today. Thank you

Heading back to the same era, we have the start of the new net area.
For many years the net area was in the corner that now houses the scoreboard. This gradually fell into disrepair and was replaced by the facility you see. Steve Johnson, a true master of many trades, provided the skills to lay the concrete and build the brickwork. Steve is a remarkable man when it comes to ability to apply practical skills.
Standing on the concrete you can see the smiling figure of our much-missed former President Jim Partington. Respected throughout the area, Swans’ President for 20 years and 2nd XI captain for 10 years was always a man with a smile and some kind words. The ‘Partington Oak’ in the village centre still stands proudly as a tribute to the man.

…and finally

Cricket knowledge question – Level: Very Hard

Earlier, we reminisced about Dave Graham’s amazing bowling performance. You can see from the table above that this was no fluke. When he was on song, he was deadly, recording 3 of the best 5 2ndXI bowling analyses in league cricket from 1978.
My question for you today is, who else has recorded a 2ndXI 9-for?

Last weeks answer: Terry Dandy, the original safe hands. Well done Pete Roberts and Chris Spencer for getting that one