Cumbria County Cricket Club batted out a draw in their second match of this year’s NCCA Cluberly Championship against Hertfordshire at Bishop’s Stortford, writes Roxine Beaumont-Sempill.
Sunday was dull with grey clouds and a cooling nip from the slight breeze down the ground. Herts won toss and elected to bat.
Cumbria’s opening bat, Reece Irving, was too ill to travel so 12th man Josh Brown (Cockermouth) was pressed into service.
Sam Sharp (Kendal) and Ed Moulton (Chorley) opened the bowling, putting down balls with good shape.
Coach Paul Hindmarch (Keswick) was first change for Sharp, but pulled up with a groin niggle half-way through his second over.
Back in the fray, Sharp broke the opening 63-run from 108 balls partnership when Hindmarch caught Dominic Chatfield (37 from 62) at gully. 63/1 from 18 overs.
Herts’ highest scorer so far this season, Archie Harrison (ex-Derbyshire, 24), was dismissed lbw by Brown in the 23rd over.
Four overs later Callum Taylor (ex-Glamorgan) was dropped at cover off Moulton, just before David Burnell (24 from 62) was caught behind by Drew Postlethwaite (Barrow CC) off Ben Walkden (Newton-le-Willows).
Taylor was dropped again by 2nd slip off Walkden. But in the 33rd over from Moults he slashed at a high, wide ball and was caught behind.
Six balls later Ben Clifford was caught by Hindmarch at second slip who dived to his right, grabbed the ball then calmly passed it into the hands of Freddie Fallows (Kendal) at first slip, so as to not lose his grip on the ball when landing.
Second ball of the 46th over, Max Lawrance (34) cut the second ball of Sharp’s third spell straight to point; the force of which rocked the crouching Hindmarch onto his back.
Eight overs later Nafis Shaikh (30 from 56) was Sharp’s next victim, caught behind to bring the hosts to 184/7 off 53.5. Then came the biggest partnership of the innings, 75 runs off 104 balls between Cole Seggery and Jack Plom (ex-Essex).
A 6 by Plom hit the open plastic skylight of the Sempill campervan, the ball was ripped and thus replaced.
Last ball 71st over Seggery (47) was caught off Fallows by Hindmarch at 1st slip, who flung himself low to his right, palming it up then catching the rebound.
Two overs later Rippington (5) was bowled by Siddall. The innings was concluded 21 balls later with Plom plumb lbw to Fallows. 279/All out (77).
When bad light bought an end of to play for the day, Cumbria were on 50/1 off 19 overs. Max Winskill (Kendal, 30 from 63) was out just 8 balls earlier, lbw to Ben Waring.
Day 2 dawned brighter with blue sky amongst the fluffy white clouds and a slight cross breeze.
5th ball of the day Moulton guided a delivery off pacy Plom into the hands of Harrison at 1st slip. 21 balls later Captain Matthew Sempill (Cockermouth) was out for a 9 ball duck, caught at point by captain Waring off Plom.
The double Bens (Walkden and Davidson, Carlisle) partnership of 46 was broken when a third Ben (Clifford) dismissed Walkden (46 off 123, 6 x 4s) lbw.
Ben Davidson (37 off 91, 4 x 4s, 2 x 6s) was bowled by Rippington just after the lunch break. Having scored an exact run a ball 43 (6 x 4s), Fallows fell next, lbw to Waring. 168/6 from 59.1 overs.
In the 75th over the final shot from Hindmarch (21 from 43, 4 x 4) gave Shaikh a catch at cow corner off Taylor. In the 79th and 89th overs Sharp and Postlethwaite (55 from 101) were also sewn up by Taylor, lbw.
Brown (0) was bowled by Waring leaving Sids (18 from 35, 2 X 4) as the not out batsman.
At 267/all out from 89.2 the sausages were not much in arrears and, encouragingly, had formed 5 partnerships of over 45.
By the end of day 2 the hosts were on 90/1 off 38 overs, with Chatfield (11 from 32) having been caught behind off Sharp in the 9th over.
Day 3 was a dull day, with high greyish clouds and a bit of a breeze end to end.
Second ball of the day, Burnell was caught behind off Sharp. Five overs later Sharp also dismissed Taylor, snaffled by Fallows at 1st slip. 118/3 off 44.3 overs.
Harrison amassed 113 from 185 balls (17 X 4s. 1 X 6) before firing a Brown delivery straight into the hands of Walky at cover.
With the score on 227/4 off 66.6 spinner Sempill sent down his first delivery of the match and trapped Lawrance (32) lbw. Exactly 8 overs later, at 2.18pm, Sempill also trapped Shaikh (23) leading the hosts to declare on 287/6. That set Cumbria a stretching target of 300 in a minimum of 60 overs.
Walkden anchored the innings, with a mature 90 from 153 in 189 minutes, 12 X 4s. He and Winskill llaid the foundation with a partnership of 44 off 87 balls. Moulton and Sempill came and went, after helping add 33.
In the 34th over paceman Clifford had one of his deliveries returned by Fallows with interest. He suffered a dislocated finger, had his hand wrapped in an icepack by the Cumbrian coach and was taken to hospital by his parents.
Fallows was the second highest scorer with 54 runs from 33 balls, 5 X 4s and 4 X 6s. When he was out, caught Plom off Taylor, the sausages were fairly on track on 163/4 off 35.6.
However, when potential big hitter Hindmarch was dismissed for just 1, Walkden, Davidson and Postlethwaite adopted a circumspect approach reaching 226/6 off 59.3 overs before the match was called to a halt by the captains shaking hands. 11 points to Herts, 10 to Cumbria.
The Super 12s of NCCA’s T20 competition are on Sunday, August 3, at Sawston and Babraham, Cambridgeshire.
Cumbria’s two matches start at 1pm and 4.30pm, against Cambridgeshire and Northumberland, with order to be decided in first match between those two counties.
Cumbria’s last two matches in the NCCA Cluberly Championship are at home:
- Sunday August 17 to Tuesday August 19 v Northumberland at Furness
- Sunday August 31 to Tuesday September 2 v Norfolk at Netherfield
