31st May 2025 - HBCC 1st XI vs St Chads Broomfield CC (A)

Unfortunately HBCC suffered their first loss of the season in the top of the clash.

First innings:

Nicholson was back to his usual ways and lost the toss (1 win/4 losses), the home side elected to bat first. Shahid and Waring, the dynamic duo (we didn’t get many advances on the deadly duo, so we will have to go with this), took on new ball responsibilities. After an uneventful first over from Shahid, Waring, who has had a knack of taking wickets in his very first over this season, decided to break his streak in epic fashion. Waring arrived 5 mins before the start of the match and compounded this by bowling the worst over I’ve ever seen him bowl, going for 15 runs in the process. Needless to say there was plenty of chatter at the end of Waring’s over, between some of the senior players, along the lines of “we will give him one more over but if he bowls owt’ like that he’s coming off”. The true fighter Waring is, he returned with a vengeance and settled into his work. Waring showed unerring accuracy for the remainder of his spell and had the ball on a string, bowling particularly well to a few of SCBCC’s left handed batters in their top order. Waring finished with figures of 4-37 from his 14 overs straight through, in what was a terrific spell. Within this spell, we should not forget the one handed worldie which Baig took behind the stumps diving to his left (unfortunately the authors vision was obstructed by the non-striker, but I’ll take everyone else’s word for it!). Shahid toiled away at the other end bowling great areas as always, unfortunately it was not Shahid’s day as a couple of catches were not taken off his bowling and a few streaky edges found their way to the boundary. HBCC were well on top 18 overs into SCBCC’s innings, sitting at around 61-5. Terry then came on to spin his web and bowled a tidy spell without really threatening. Womersley and Waterson then entered the attack, just as SCBCC has started to rebuild and counterattack with overs starting to tick by and wickets still in hand. SCBCC are unlike any of the other opposition in the league, as they have real strength in depth throughout the team, which started to show. Womersley was then taken off after having had a good LBW turned down and a couple of Terry drops off his bowling, as SCBCC’s set batters started to target him. Shahid then returned to bowl the death overs with Waterson, which turned out to be an unenviable task. Following an upsetting event, where set batter Howard bludgeoned the ball off Shahid straight back down the ground, the umpire was walloped in the head which led to a long pause in play as an ambulance had to be called and the umpire taken care of. In true Yorkshire stiff upper lip fashion, the umpire didn’t milk it and walked off the pitch with a little bit of help and maintained his good humour, asking for his match fees before the ambulance took him away and demanding that he be allowed to finish his chocolate cake before he be taken away! I’m glad to confirm the umpire was discharged on Saturday evening from the hospital, albeit I’m sure he had a very sore head on Sunday morning! After the lengthy delay, Shahid then took Howard’s wicket, who had made a valuable 61 for the home side. With Howard gone, this unfortunately (for HBCC and Waterson in particular) brought Boom Boom Afridi (Sachdeva) to the middle for SCBCC. After a quiet first 10 balls where Sachdeva didn’t score a run, he then started to launch into Waterson, hitting him to all parts, including 3 consecutive sixes which sailed well over the surrounding trees but unfortunately not over Nicholson’s car which now has a healthy dint in the bonnet! It was an absolute masterclass in ball striking which Waterson and Shahid couldn’t live with on the day, as Sachdeva blasted 58 off 26 balls in total, eventually being dismissed by his bunny rabbit, Waterson. Shahid stuck at it and did pick up the wicket of Cooley, who made a sublime 95 off 78, coming up ever so short of a deserved century. Shahid finished with figures 3-92 from his spell, which wasn’t representative of how well he’d bowled especially in the first spell and Waterson finished with 1-89 from his 9 overs (which included a maiden) in what was a day to forget for the poor lad. SCBCC battled bat to finish with 281-8 from their 46 overs, with HBCC coming away with 2 bowling points.

Second innings: 

Following a rain delay, Waterson and Womersley opened the mammoth chase for HBCC. The pitch was extremely lively early on, jagging around off the seam, popping up at times and staying low at others. Eventually the pressure told as Womersley was dismissed. Shortly after, Waterson was dismissed following the exact same brain fart moment as the previous week as he pushed one straight to mid off and was run out via a direct hit for successive weeks. The dependable Baig and Shahid then went about rebuilding for HBCC as the pitch settled down. Both played with intent as they steered HBCC to 83-2. Baig was then dismissed trying to up the ante for a valiant 35 which included 3 lusty sixes. The out of form Terry then joined Shahid looking to buck the trend. However, this would not be the day as Terry steered a drive to point and was dismissed for a breadstick. The ever entertaining Terry did at least manage to middle something on the day as he hit his pad in anger with his bat. We all know what Terry can do, it’s just a matter of when he returns to form, not if. Saleem the dream and Groganzola offered some resistance alongside Shahid hitting some lovely boundaries in the process before being dismissed for 16 and 17 respectively. Shahid continued to give the rest of the team hope as he relentlessly hit SCBCC’s bowlers to all parts. Fortunately for those embarking on the Otley Run, Woodies is the starting point so there wasn’t anyone in the firing line as he clobbered two massive sixes into the beer garden. Shahid went on to make 90 off 75 balls, including 6 sixes and 8 fours before eventually departing. 

HBCC finished 208 all out from 39.4 overs, securing maximum batting points but lost to SCBCC by 73-runs. There is no shame losing to such a strong SCBCC side, there were plenty of positives to take from the game and obviously some areas for improvement particularly with the death bowling. 

Thanks to Lonsdale for helping out and playing his first game in 18-months, he brought energy in the field as always and showed a glimpse of the batting which we’ve been missing in his 4 not out!

Player of the match:

The captain POTM was awarded to Shahid for his heroic knock, on another day it might have been enough to lead HBCC to victory. Waring should also be mentioned for his excellent spell with the ball.

Tool of today:

A new award which will be selected by the author, the first lucky winner of the coveted TOT award goes to the author himself - Mr Waterson for his exploits with the ball and for the carbon copy run out the previous week. Waterson was pressed closely by Terry on the day for his couple of drops and batting woes (5 runs in 4 innings to start the season).

We wish SCBCC good luck for the season, they’re a quality team that will take some beating this season, we look forward to trying to avenge the loss back at Squirrel Park later in the year.

At this juncture, I will be hanging up my typewriter as I move over to submitting the online scorecards on PlayCricket, a new author will be appointed for the match reports shortly, I hope you will offer them the same support I have received. Thank you to all the followers that have read my reports in my short tenure and enjoyed them - best regards, Waterson