Dartington & Totnes Cricket Club

We’re delighted that Dave Griffiths has agreed to take on the vacant Treasurer post, so ably held until recently by Penny.  Dave did a great job captaining the IIIs and we’re sure he’ll be just as effective as Club Treasurer, bringing his enthusiasm and energy.

For the period of the interregnum (some of you may need a dictionary) Harold has been holding the books and as he doesn’t own a calculator or even an abacus has found it a bit tricky adding up our funds.  He’s tried using chickens but the blighters won’t keep still whilst he counts them. (Older members may recall and episode of ‘Dad’s Army’ here.)

Happy New Year to one and  all.  Mick

The photo speaks for itself

Ryan Stevenson swept the board at the Dartington & Totnes Cricket Club’s recent  Presentation Evening.  Ryan took 35 wickets and scored 450 runs, including one century, over the season and deservedly won the first team batsman, first team bowler and Club Player of the Year awards.

First team captain, Harold Stevenson, who has decided to step down as skipper, praised the young players in the Club and made a moving speech about his time as skipper.  Harold has given sterling service to local cricket, having been captain of Totnes Cricket Club and then the merged Dartington & Totnes Cricket Club for over 20 seasons in total.  He spoke about some of the fine players he’d skippered over the years and described the newly married Bertus Loots as the best. Harold mentioned that some of the current first team players had not been born when he had begun captaining Totnes.  The first team had maintained their B division status which had been a fine achievement, particularly as several top players had had limited availability over the season.

Chairman, Mick Rusling, thanked Harold for his contribution over the years and described him as a ‘local legend’.   Running the Club took a lot of work and Mick thanked all who had contributed and particularly groundsman Cliff Lowe.  In addition to his usual irreverent take on the season Mick presented special awards to 14 year old Andrew Bligh for taking his first ‘fivefor’ in adult cricket, Richard Sugden for his maiden century, Kalon Veale for his maiden first team century and Josh Thomas for his remarkable and extremely rare feat of taking two hat tricks in one match.  Mick was saddened that the Club are no longer able to play cricket in Totnes due to Borough Park no longer being fit for cricket and expressed gratitude that Harberton CC have come to the Club’s assistance.

Thirds skipper, David Grifffiths, won the third team bowling award, taking 30 wickets over the season.  Third team Batsman of the Year was Chris Life.

Second team Bowler of the Year was again David Carter and Batsman of the Year was Liam Bligh. Liam had hit three fifties and scored over 250 runs.  Liam also won the Most Improved Player award.  Young Player of the Year was Harry Baxendale and Mick Rusling was voted Clubman of the Year.

Several juniors blotted their copybook ordering take out food and insulting the chef and can rest assured the chairman has noted who they were!

Kalon Veale will captain the first XI in 2012 after Harold stood down after many sterling years of service. 

Kalon has impressed us with his cricket skills, attitude and excellent temprament and will bring a lot of positive energy.

H was hoping to play 2s next year to work on his bowling.  Kalon reckons there’s life in the Old Dog yet and has pencilled him into his batting line up.

Mike Jarvis will skipper the 2s and will bring a lot of experience and energy into the job.

Josh Thomas will skipper the 3s and will make up for in enthusiasm what he lacks in experience. 

We need a treasurer and anyone interested should contact me.  Mick

Dartington and Totnes II 172 all out, Chagford II 134 all out

Put in to bat on a hard dry pitch Dartington  & Totnes never got on top of Chagford’ s bowlers but after Chagford lost early wickets in reply the result was never really in doubt.

D&T had an early shock when top batsman, Mike Jarvis, played on to a delivery from Steve Sizmur, not long after he’d hit the same bowler for a straight driven six.  Gavin Colegate and Liam Bligh consolidated, adding 64 for the second wicket before Bligh (21) played a delivery from Brijnath onto his stumps. Colegate’s fifty seemed a formality when he missed an innocuous looking delivery from Letheren  to be bowled for 46.  Sugden, who had only discovered he was meant to be playing at the scheduled start time struggled to find his customary fluency, whilst Nikheel  Jina hit a breezy16 before being bowled by a delivery from the seemingly  benign Letheren.  Dan Goord lasted for one ball which he flashed high towards point where Brijnath stuck up a hand and held the ball as D&T crashed from 93 for 2 to 113 for 5.

Sugden began timing the ball well and played some wristy shots but Niall Mulhall was run out for 3.   Christian Buckner is a hard hitting batsman but did not manage to cause too much trouble for the scorers since Brijnath bowled him.  Letheren struck again when Brijnath caught Sugden for 26.  Letheren (5 for 44) picked up his fifth wicket bowling Dave Griffiths.  Brijnath (3 for 55) was having a good day and bowled Jono Colegate for 16 in the final over with D&T disappointed not to have reached 200.

Both of Chagford’s openers were dismissed by Jono Colgate (2 for 34) without scoring and when  Griffiths bowled Rogers for 10 Chagford were 16 for 3.  14 year old Freddie Filor batted wit great maturity and helped to steady the ship for Chagford along with skipper Simon Snell.  Filor was fortunate that an outside edge off Griffiths was not held by the keeper but kept his head and top scored with 26 before falling when Buckner came into the attack.

The spirit the match was played in was epitomised by the following incident.  Taking a quick single Snell was given run out by the Chagford umpire following a direct hit on the stumps.  Jarvis had a clear view of the incident and seeing the clearly disgruntled batsman had made his ground called him back as he sloped off the field, earning a round of applause from the Chagford team for his sportsmanship.

Buckner was the pick of D&T’s bowlers and took 3 for 18 as wickets continued to fall with regularity.  Niall Mulhall had four eventful overs at the end taking 3 for 19, including a wicket with his first delivery.

An undefeated century from Kalon Veale and fifty from Kyle Blanchard enabled the firsts to make a  cunning declaration which ensured that even if Chagford won they would have been unable to overhaul our brave lads in the League table.  Scoring 175 for 1 made a tactical declaration with 6 overs remaining preventing Chagford gaining any bonus points for bowling.  A fine display by the bowlers then put the game beyond doubt as Chagford were bowled out for 133. Raz took 3 for 10, baxi 2 for 54 and even DC took a couple of wickets as Chagford folded.

Whitchurch II 113 fo 9,  Dartington & Totnes II 117 for 7

D&T won by 3 wickets.

After bowling Whitchurch out for just 113, Dartington & Totnes were reduced to 57 for 7 in reply before an unbeaten eighth wicket stand of 60 between Will Gornall 38 not out and skipper Mike Jarvis 19 not out, saw them safely home.

Jarvis maintained his 100% record winning the toss and put the home side in to bat on a saturated pitch.  With the footholds treacherous, paceman Will Gornall,  opening the bowling for D&T soon cut his run down to a few paces but managed to generate plenty of speed.  Jono Colegate at the other end struck first bowling Andy Alford for 3 and Gornall trapped Powell lbw for 15.

Third team skipper, Dave Griffiths, making his first second team start of the season, was the pick of D&T’s bowlers.  Griffiths’ bowling was metronomic, with each delivery on yorker length.  He bowled Freeman for 3 at which point luck deserted him as three catches went down off his bowling and keeper Taylor missed a stumping opportunity.  Mick Rusling bowled Sherill and then had Charlie Barraball caught by Bligh at square leg.  Griiffiths continued to bowl outstandingly at the other end and finally gained some reward when Gavin Colegate caught Hodge for 33 at mid-on.

Bone was run out for 13, Griffiths (3 for 23 off 13 overs) bowled R Powell and Gornall ( 2 for 29) returned to have Towl caught behind.  Whitchurch skipper Neil Tamlin and Dunne held out to close on 113.

Knocking the runs off should have been a formality but the seconds don’t do formalities.  Young spinner Barraball opened the bowling for Whitchurch and was extremely impressive, spinning the ball both ways with a consistent line and length.  However, his opening partner Towl struck first blood, trapping Nikheel Jina lbw for 8.  Gavin Colegate was in good form and despatched any loose delivery to the boundary.  Liam Bligh95) was caught off Barraball with 34 on the board.  Simon Hayes put in only a cursory appearance at the crease before being bamboozled by a ball from Barraball lbw for 2.

A turning point was the dismissal of Gavin Colegate in controversial fashion for 29.  Colegate passed the stumps at the bowler’s end before a direct thow hit the stumps.  The umpire had his back to Colegate but gave him out, much to the disbelief of the whole team. Paul Taylor, in a wretched run of form, got a top edge shortly afterwards and Ollie Perkins was bowled by the wily Barraball (3 for 26).  Gornall joined Jono Colegate and after a horrendous mix-up Colegate was run out for 2 with D&T in deep trouble.  Enter Captain Marvel, Mike Jarvis who changed the complexion of the game by bashing Barraball for a straight driven six.  Gornall’s first scoring shots were a 4 and a 6 and he added another three fours and a further six as he and Jarvis saw the team home.

Golden Arm

Josh celebrating his two hat tricks.

Dartington & Totnes 3^rd XI cruise to 20 points courtesy of landmark bowling from Josh Thomas

On a sticky wicket and a good forecast for the latter part of the day, both captains Kevin Watling (Chelston) and Dave Griffiths were keen to win the toss. Griffiths won the first little victory and elected to stick the Chelston batsman in as soon as the coin had landed. After some tight bowling from Liam Cotton (10 overs for 14 runs), Griffiths made an early impact by clean bowling their skipper with his third ball (after bowling a bit of leg side dross to lead him into a false sense of security of course).

With the score on 2 – 1 openers Cotton and Griffiths toiled away without giving away many runs but not getting the batsman to commit to their shots or make a mistake. After a short spell, Dave brought himself off and brought on Darren Rowe and as Liam began to tire, Josh Thomas. Dave realised (after comments from some of the team) that they were both bowling from the wrong end and after drinks made no hesitation in changing them.

After a few looseners, Rowe took the all important wicket of C. Harrison (35) with deceiving swing and seam movement that rearranged his furniture. This is when something incredible happened.

Josh Thomas had also bowled a few looseners and because he had not played in a couple of weeks did not find his rhythm inside the first four overs. In his fifth is when the magic started to happen. After offering up a juicy full toss with his first ball of the over that was dispatched to the boundary for four runs he then trapped M. Bellamy (25) LBW with a well pitched, swinging delivery. What happened next can only be described as awesome. With the final ball of his over, Josh cleaned up his next victim with another perfect ball (the off stump got more action than the bat after the 28^th over).

With the field in close for his first of the over and the hat trick ball, Josh sent down an absolute pearler to knock back the pegs once again. After being mobbed by his team mates and instructed to deliver more of the same, he did not disappoint and in his final over achieved another hat trick by bowling their seven, eight and nine with similar movement and precision. Knowing his bowling was coming to an end, he saved the best for last as those were his final three deliveries and during that period of excellence achieved six wickets for three runs off 14 deliveries (are you watching, Stuart Broad?).

Chelston were reduced from 57 for 1 to 80 all out and Dave took over from Josh to clean up the tail and finished with figures of 10.2 overs, 16 for 3. One wicket fell lbw and the other nine were clean bowled – it just goes to show that if you aim for the stumps at this level of cricket, you will most certainly get wickets.

After a quick tea, D&T suffered an early scare when Quentin was caught out trying to drive a good delivery from C Harrison (1 – 18) and was bowled for one but Chris Life and Sam Gornall batted aggressively and intelligently to knock off the runs against a lacklustre bowling attack in 17.3 overs (Life – 37 not out and Gornall – 31 not out).

My research shows that earlier this year that an under 13s cricketer (also by the name of Josh!) and an under 15s cricketer achieved similar feats to our Josh and that it was the first time it had happened since 1907.

Result – Dartington & Totnes 3^rd XI beat Chelson 2^nd XI by nine wickets

Andy looking modest after taking his fivefor

DoE 195 for 7, D&T 200 for 7.

After Jono Colegate struck to take 2 early wickets we had to wait along time for another one.  DoE struggled to score against good accurate bowling but any loose delivery was punished.  The score slowly mounted up.  109 runs had been added for the 3rd wicket when Andrew Bligh came on to bowl.  His first delivery was very short, in fact Andy almost hit his own toes with it.  The batter, on 64, took a big swipe and only succeeded in getting height whereupon someone, I don’t recall who, took a good catch.  Andy continued with short pitched stuff for the rest of his over but there was no repeat.  He changed his tack for his second over and began pitching the ball up more.  He was rewarded with 2 further wickets in successive balls for his trouble.  He might have had a third had the sun not been in Jarvs’ eyes at square leg when a straightforward catch came his way.  Andy was hopping mad about this.  He was even madder when brother, Liam, dropped a tricky chance when the batsman launched the ball to the mid wicket boundary.  Andy soon got his ’4 for’ when another chance was held before Liam finally atoned by taking  a similar catch to the one he dropped- much to Liam’s relief- to make it 5, whereupon Andy began an extravagant celebratory dance which was enjoyed by all. The young man led us off the field and began negotiations for the match ball.

Special mention for the Veale’s and particularly Kate who worked really hard all day not only doing an excellent tea but also cleaning up a treat.

The seconds struggled against Torquay and the first innings bore a close resemblance to the home fixture for he first halfof the match.  Once again we were put in to bat and once again collapsed.  From 10 for 3  Suggy and Gavlar rallied things.  Gav was hit on the thumb first ball from Nadar which didn’t help.  Suggy looked set but holed out to mid on upon the introduction of the wily campaigner, Terry King.  At Dartington Chris Worth and Mick batted through 12 overs to get us to a reasonably competitive total.  The score was just over 100 when Mick joined Chris with 12 overs to go once more.  Surely they couldn’t repeat their heroics, could they?  The pair saw off Nadar who’d collared 6 wickets and were half way there when Mick was trapped in front of his stumps, much to his chagrin.  Worthy again finished not out and looks well worth being elevated in the batting order.

We were never really in it when TQ batted.  Their opener was dropped at slip off Carter’s first over and good batting took them home by 7 wickets.  Jono bowled one opener.  DC finally nabbed the other one, Hunt,  and got a  telling off from the umpire (who happened to be the batsmen’s dad) for over-celebrating.  Western ran well between the wickets, though Goordy ran out his partner with a smart piece of work.