TCL 1st XI Match Reports

Saturday 12 September (TCL Div 1)

Skipper Shaun Calladine's final game before retirement ended in a disappointing 64 run defeat to league runners-up Exning at The Brow after the visitors had run up 253-9 from their fifty over allocation.

Starting with onlt ten fielders, Abberton were always on the back foot and the top six in the Exning batting order all scored 25 or more, although none of them went on to make fifty. Part-time bowler Calladine grabbed 6-71 from sixteen overs with Tom Pike continuing his fine season behind the timbers with two more dismissals.

It was not to be a happy swansong with the bat for Calladine who quickly departed for a single and the home side lost wickets too regularly to pose a serious threat to their Suffolk opponents. Kemsley Robb (23), Keith Hammond (25), Steve Snell (35), Matt Cansdale (24) and Matt Gilray (42) all made useful contributiuons but it was never going to be enough as off-spinner Chris Estlea helped himself to figures of 6-32.

With Ipswich & East Ham surpringly overcoming crowned champions Copdock & OIs, Abberton fall a place to ninth position in the year end tables.  NT

Saturday 22 August (TCL Div 1)

Woodbridge – an historic market town, full of quaint backstreets and alleyways. En-route to Saturday’s TCL encounter, several of the team discovered the delights of this sleepy Suffolk town. Nothing to do with sightseeing, everything to do with the Director of Cricket’s navigational ineptitude. No matter, we still arrived at the ground before our hosts.

Their lethargy continued onto the field of play, and it was clear from the outset that 20 points were there for the taking. Our hosts turned up with ten men (for the fourth game running apparently), are into their third skipper of the season, and seemed more intent on arguing with themselves (on one occasion physically) than with playing the game itself. Further, some of the bigoted comments from our hosts regarding the make-up of our side suggested it was not often they have experienced people from outside the UK.

All of the top five had a decent net, scoring between 22 and 39, without ever really looking in trouble. So straightforward was the batting, that the watching Abberton contingent tried to entertain themselves to pass the time. Skipper Calladine and Ryan Savill were the main instigators, amusing themselves with silly games that would not have looked out of place in a Primary school yard. Somewhat disturbingly, Ryan took pride in regularly revealing his genitalia to the captain, and perhaps more worryingly, Shaun seemed to be particularly interested in the contents of Ryan’s boxers.

At 180 for 5, there was still a bit of work to do. Enter the two Matts, Cansdale and Gilray, both of whom registered half-centuries of differing styles. Dan Stumbles provided a late flurry to take us over the 300 mark and we closed on 315-8.

At the interval, we found ourselves acting as impromptu tea ladies, having to open the nosebag ourselves, with little sign of help or indeed any sort of hospitality. When the Woodbridge skipper did appear from the dressing room, he made an elaborate show of throwing his drink bottle into a nearby bin (embarrassingly for him it bounced straight out) and kicking the pavilion chairs around in a completely over-the-top display of anger.

Unfortunately, his rage did not subside (in fact appeared to increase) when he came out to bat, as he looked to sledge the fielding side at every opportunity. Kemsley responded by suggesting the skipper might try batting on the prepared strip whilst facing Gilly, rather than the adjacent leg side one.

Gilly and Gregan put the game beyond doubt (if there had been any in the first place) with their opening spells. Contrasting styles from our opening bowlers – Gregan refused to smile throughout the day, even when he took an incredible running, diving catch at deep backward square. Gilly smiled every time he beat the outside edge – which by my reckoning meant he smiled on over 50 occasions.

The two nicest men on the planet, Moxon and Hammond, both took comfortable catches with safe hands and skipper Calladine held onto a stinger at first slip when Gilly finally lowered himself to brush the outside edge. Kemsley dropped arguably the easiest catch in the history of the game, admitting afterwards that "my Granny could have caught that one handed whilst doing her knitting". But the game was already won by then, so much so that skipper Calladine called upon the slip cordon, by this stage numbering seven, to enter into a flatulence competition. The Chairman won the sonic boom award for volume, but Dan Stumbles laid claim to the artistic impression category for his stylish squeak. Moxon and Hammond, the two nicest men on the planet, refused to participate.

All that was left was for Woodbridge to shame themselves further after the game when a spectator began to argue a point over a lack of no balls being called during the game. The Abberton contingent decided to leave at this stage (if we’d stayed any later we’d have had to lock up) and headed back up the A12 to the relative sanity of Essex.  SS