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Match Report
Date	04-08-07
Home Team	Penn Street
Home Runs		Home Wickets
Away Team	Twenty20 Teams
Away Runs		Away Wickets
Result
Comments
The first ever Penn Street Twenty20 Day got under way shortly after 10am on Saturday August 4th to surprisingly glorious weather, as befitting such an occasion. The tournament would feature 3 teams in all. PSCC, Old Manorians CC and Gaylords CC, a side assembled and part-lead by Mark Lander with a little help from Pete "Tevez" Lofty who'd been coaxed into defecting for the day!! Agreed format for games was 15 overs per side throughout. A round robin group, playing each other once, followed by the top 2 teams on points meeting in the final at the end of the day. All batsmen had been asked in advance to prepare a piece of music to accompany their arrival at the crease, and for one day only, residents of Penn Wood View were treated to such sounds as diverse as US rapper Mims, Sham 69, ACDC, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, The Oompa Loompa Theme and even Five Little Ducks pumping across the common thanks to resident DJ Sassy B !! GAME 1: First up were Old Manorians and Penn Street. Pitted together first, through necessity by Gaylord's dislike of the early start time, Old Manorians chose to bat first and the early part of the innings proved relatively even as both sides found their feet in adjusting to the format. Penn Street looked in a reasonable position having reduced Old Manorians to 42 for 3, but the visitors were still scoring at a good rate. The arrival of Peter Jenner changed all that. He manoeuvred the ball around the outfield at will, launching sixes into the trees whilst complaining that his knees were restricting his movement!! If this was the case, there was little evidence in his performance with the bat!! By the end of the innings, he'd reached 48 not out and taken his team to 128 for 5, a more than competitive total first up! Penn Street had bowled well enough, Cherriott 2 for 20 and Hennell 1 for 11 probably being the pick. In reply, Penn Street always struggled to keep up with the rate and although Coombes, Bannister and Smart made useful contributions, we collapsed and found ourselves at 71 for 7, requiring 58 from under 5 overs. Enter Matt Reavey and Fletch batting down the order. Matt in particular began to play his strokes, launching Michael Butcher into the trees and picking up boundaries where he could. Fletch also opened his arms until he eventually fell with 27 needed. In the end the total proved just too much for Matt and Nick Loftus, with PSCC falling just 15 short of the Old Manorians total, Matt ending on a quickfire 32 not out. Old Manorians had drawn first blood, worthy winners of the points. Penn Street had at least picked up a bonus batting point for their troubles in amassing over 100. Notable bowling performances for Old Manorians were skipper Jatin Patel 2 for 21 and A Patel 1 for 6. LEAGUE TABLE: OLD MANORIANS - 5 POINTS PSCC - 1 POINT GAYLORDS - 0 POINTS GAME 2: The Gaylords, now fully assembled and raring to go, were next up against Penn Street. Penn Street batted first and started as they meant to go on by blasting Pete Lofty to all corners of Penn Wood in his first over. Pete soon found out the penalty for defection - 17 runs off your first over!!!! "Bowlin buffet snacks to The Fletch? What an ardea!!" remarked Tony Brier as he burnt to a drunken crisp in the Squirrel garden!! Lofty got his revenge however, bowling Rob Sutherland with the first ball of his 2nd over. It was down to PSCC legend Tim Coombes, returning to the side for his first day's cricket of the year, (welcome back Tim!) to give the innings real impetus. He smashed a glorious 48 before being cruelly denied a well deserved fifty. Cherriott and Hennell also chipped in with useful runs. The final total of 139 set things up nicely for Penn Street and also ensured 2 bonus batting points were gained, whatever the result! Laker and Halley had been the pick of the Gaylords bowling with 1 for 18 and 0 for 15 respectively off their 3 overs. In reply, The Gaylords battled hard from the start to keep up with a run rate of just over 9 an over. Some tight bowling from Penn Street ensured that at the 10 over mark, Gaylords required an unlikely 82 from the remaining 5 overs. They eventually ended their innings on a gutsy 107 for 5, Richard Cawley having been the pick of the batting with a fluent 36 at the top of the innings. Shame he only dusts off his whites every 10 years to show us what he can do!!!! LEAGUE TABLE: PSCC - 6 POINTS OLD MANORIANS - 5 POINTS GAYLORDS - 1 POINT GAME 3: In the final game of the group stages, The Gaylords uncharacteristically had their backs against the wall!! In a must win situation for them they batted first and must have been aware that a total well in excess of 100 would be needed against an impressive looking Old Manorians side. Once again, Cawley looked in good touch opening up and Gaylords had progressed nicely to 19 for 0 off 2.4 overs. Then came a collapse of epic proportions! Crucial wickets of Dean Munday (guesting, not defecting!!) and Cawley were gained and Gaylords never straightened themselves out from that position! In the end they were all out for 67 despite some fine lower order strokeplay from Mark Lander - another stranger to the cricket pitch that really shouldn't be!! At Patel and M Butcher both bowled well to pick up 2 wickets apiece. At the change over, this total didn't look like it would pose any problems to Old Manorians, but after some more inspired bowling from Lander and again Laker, who must go down as the pick of the Gaylords bowlers, Old Manorians found themselves teetering on the brink of a collapse at 28 for 3. Enter that man with the dodgy knees again to come to his sides rescue!! Peter Jenner once again played with total authority to take his side to victory alongside Jitesh Patel (11*) with 7 wickets in hand and just under 5 overs to spare. Old Manorians had cruised through to the final with a second successive victory which ensured a meeting with the hosts PSCC in the final and the sad departure of The Gaylords who were now free to gain a headstart in the evening's drinking stakes!! FINAL LEAGUE TABLE: OLD MANORIANS - 9 POINTS PSCC - 6 POINTS GAYLORDS - 1 POINT THE FINAL: And so to the fixture that started off the day's proceedings - Penn Street vs Old Manorians for the honour of being first to lift The PSCC Twenty20 Trophy. Old Manorians opted for the tactic that stood them in good stead for the first game - namely win the toss and post a good score to put the onus on the side batting second. In the end it was remarkable how similar a path the game took to the first meeting. Penn Street bowled exceptionally at the beginning, gaining 2 quick wickets and keeping the scoring rate right down. Then, just for a change, a man called Jenner hobbled to the crease to the sound of his circus theme music, a choice that further added to his hustler status, and proceeded to steer the game in Old Manorians'direction!!!! By the time he'd retired on 51, not only had he ensured his team posted almost the same total for Penn Street as before - 127 to win - he'd also made a fairly good attempt at removing wicketkeeper Matt Reavey from proceedings!!!! In a farcical collision attempting a quick single, the only thing missing was surely the lightning skills of DJ Sassy B to cue up a re-run of the circus music!!!! Tim Coombes deserved a mention as being the pick of Penn Street's bowling attack with a miserly 2 for 12 off his 3 overs! In reply, Penn Street found the going tough early on to stay up with the rate. At 18 for 0 off 4 overs, the only consolation was that wickets column! It was once again Tim Coombes that got the innings going with 4 huge sixes in a sparkling 52 that topped off a fine all-round effort after his bowling. The problem for Penn Street was that under the rules, upon reaching 50 he had to retire!! In the end, too much was left to do off the last 3rd off the innings. With 64 needed off 5, Old Manorians could sniff victory just round the corner. As ever they bowled tightly, allowing little width and big scoring opportunities in a pressure situation. Samir Patel 3 for 9 , A Patel 2 for 10 and skipper Jatin Patel 1 for 16 deserve special mention for great bowling under pressure. Old Manorians eventually ran out worthy winners by 29 runs and skipper Jatin Patel collected the Twenty20 Trophy from Chairman Dave Lander in front of The Squirrel pub to rapturous applause from all present. Congratulations to Old Manorians for their consistently superb performances in running out winners. If there was a man of the tournament, it must surely have been Peter Jenner. No team could remove him all day and his scores of 48*, 30* and 51* were crucial to his teams' success. God help us if he ever returns to Penn Street fully fit!!!! Thanks must go to both visiting teams Old Manorians and The Gaylords for helping make the day such a success. To all those who supported the cricket and attended the evening's celebrations with us in the garden of of The Squirrel and supported the fundraising. Also to the villagers for putting up with some strange musical sounds all afternoon!! The following people deserve special thanks: Mike and Mary Macken at The Squirrel - For being such great hosts Steve Macken Lighting arrangements Sarah Bonnett - DJing all day!! (Forgiven for the Barbara Streisand moments during the final!!) Cally Sutherland - Scoring all day!! Brian Lock - Webmaster and Official Photographer of the day - (See site for pics) Chris Fletcher - use of sound equipment. Mike Crow - Master Of Ceremonies, Teller of tasteful gags!! Seller of rare antiques!!!! The friday evening marquee crew - You know who you are!! The raffle ticket ladies - ditto!! SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR!!!!