Find below the most recently received match report : -  

Team	Saturday 4th XI	Date	5th July 2008
Opponents	Burgh Heath C.C	Venue	Away
Toss Won By	Chessington	Result	Lost
Man of Match	John Oakley	Report Author	Stephen Walter

Match Report

A break from the regular league fixtures saw the mighty fours travel to Burgh Heath for a friendly. John Oakley decided to hand the captaincy to Big Paul Legg for this game.

Chessington arrived a good hour before kick off so we used the time wisely and had a chat about pretty much anything, this was  a vital morale boosting talk which has helped us become a tight unit. I recommend that other teams forget about warming up and just have a good chat, maybe then they will be as successful has we have been!  Paul won the toss and elected to bowl.

Peter Quinn opened with some impressive bowling and an early wicket and run out saw Chessington in a reasonably good position. Oli Hodgeson was next to impress with the ball, picking up 1 wicket in his decent six overs.

James Croach bowled as tidily as usual and successfully claimed 2 wickets. However with out the pressure of captaincy, John Oakley led the bowling attack using all his quality and experience to bowl 2 maidens and claim a wicket, in a vital 7 over spell. However like in virtually every game this season Chessington were not aggressive enough in the field, this matched by some experienced batting meant Burgh Heath scored some easy and unnecessary runs.

After tea Chessington were presented with the task of chasing down 204 in 40 overs to secure our first victory of the season. Sadly early wickets meant Chessington were under the cosh. Paul Legg was at the crease earlier than he would have hoped for, but this didn’t faze him and he scored an important 25 before being bowled.

A steady innings from the youngest Robinson (Oli) kept us on track, unfortunately he was out, bowled by a yorker for 21. Stephen Walter was joined at the crease by “the oracle” John Oakley who needed an over or two to loosen his muscles after a long spell scoring. But once the veteran got going there was no stopping him.

Walter and Oakley had a successful 50 run partnership which was abruptly ended by a poor umpiring decision, Walter out for 14. This partnership had left Chessington needing roughly 8 an over for nine overs to secure victory. Sadly it was not to be, Oakley went on to score a quality unbeaten forty whilst Quinn was unbeaten at the other end for 15.

Chessington succumbed to defeat ending on 150 for 8. We have been making slow but definite improvements, individually and as a team as the season has progressed; I feel our fortunes will be changing shortly. That long overdue victory is on the horizon, we just need to up our performance levels slightly. 

Team	Saturday 4th X1	Date	21st June 2008
Opponents	Spencer C.C	Venue	Home
Toss Won By	Chessington	Result	Lost
Man of Match	Paul Legg	Report Author	Stephen Walter

Match Report

4^th XI Skipper, John Oakley won the toss for the second week in a row and decided to bowl on a very wet and slow track. Stuart Hill and Stephen Walter opened the bowling and Walter gave Chessington 2 early wickets thanks to catches from Matt Hogdeson and Martin Power.  However, it took a while for Chessington to make a further breakthrough. Some poor fielding from the majority of the Chessington team gifted Spencer some easy runs. James Croach tried to keep Spencer’s total down with some tight spin bowling. He picked up 3 wickets in 14 overs. At the other end Oakley used his experience and quality to produce a spell of  1 wicket in 6 overs for a respectable 21 runs. After 43 overs Spencer declared having reached a total of 205; A score Chessington would able to reach if our batsmen applied themselves and maximised their abilities. 

Sadly it was not to be Chessington’s day. The Spencer bowlers had a wealth of experience in slow or spin bowling, which Chessington could not handle. Opener Matt Aldis hit 17 before losing his wicket. Martin Power hit two classy sixes before being dismissed for 26. After Matt’s and Martin’s efforts Chessington had a batting collapse, which resulted  in Chessington only scoring 69 runs in twenty overs and were 6 wickets down. All was not lost however as Chessington had the experience and dogged determination of Paul Legg at the crease.  He was still very fresh after an extremely light session in the field which saw the “specialist” slip fielder touch the ball twice in 29 overs! Paul was joined at the crease by Stephen Walter, together the two steadied the ship before slowly putting Chessington in a position where they could steal a victory from the jaws of defeat. A 64 run partnership followed, which saw a Spencer team - who had earlier assumed victory would be a forgone conclusion - start to panic. Unfortunately the fightback was halted when Walter was caught behind for 15 and Spencer were relieved to end an impressive partnership. With Paul Legg at the crease Chessington still had hope, As Legg reached his 50 he was joined by Adam Legg (no relation) who hit a notable 25 before being out L.B.W. Shortly afterwards Paul Legg failed to connect cleanly and skied the ball to the grateful hands of the Spencer fielder, Legg’s innings ending for an elegant 58.  Oli Hodgeson and James Croach did not last long at the crease and Chessington fell frustratingly short of the required total.

Chessington need to be more disciplined in the field and learn how to handle experienced slow bowlers if they are to progress further as a team. Despite these negatives the Chessington bowlers bowled well and deserve a lot of credit as they had to bowl in difficult conditions with an extremely wet ball.

A quick reminder to Stuart Hill to bring a towel and some shower gel next week as he will not be using mine again unless his fielding drastically improves!

Team	Saturday 4th X1	Date	14th June 2008
Opponents	Wimbledon C.C	Venue	Away
Toss Won By	Chessington	Result	Lost by 10 Wickets
Man of Match	Paul Legg	Report Author	Stephen Walter

 Match Report

The day started well, we arrived at the London School of Economics ground and the sun was shining. We had a look at the wicket and realised it may well be the hardest and fastest track that we play on all season. We had the perfect setting for a game of cricket.

Our good fortune continued for a little longer as John Oakley won the toss and elected to bat. This was a brilliant decision by John as our previous meeting with Wimbledon proved that allowing them to bat on a surface like that would probably result in us having a long afternoon chasing leather.

Oakley and Mathew Aldis opened the bat and were first to face the quality of the Wimbledon attack. Fast but short pitched bowling made it virtually impossible to score runs. The old phase “wait for the bad one” was ringing in our ears; however “the bad one” was extremely rare due to consistently tight bowling. Aldis plugged away and toughed it out before getting caught for 16.

Martin Power and Stephen Walter were next to form a partnership at the crease which became something of a stalemate as Wimbledon’s short bowling was incredibly hard to score off but their short bowling meant they were never going to hit the stumps. So there were no wickets or runs for roughly 10 overs, which was very frustrating for both teams.

Power and Walter endured a lot of abuse from the Wimbledon fielders but they didn’t take the bait and tried to focus on their own games. Sadly a poor L.B.W decision cost Walter his wicket (out for 12) before Power (out for 21) was caught through a miss hit pull shot.  Power and Walter’s stand gave Paul Legg just enough time to get mentally in tune before coming out to hit a classy unbeaten 35, including five fours. Chessington were all out for a mere 108 in 37 overs.

After an enjoyable tea, Chessington set about the near impossible task bowling out a strong Wimbledon batting side. Mixture of poor bowling and impressive batting meant that Wimbledon comfortably reached our total within thirteen overs, without losing a wicket. A big learning curve for Chessington, against a Wimbledon team that are playing way below their standard and would benefit from playing a lot higher than fourth team cricket.