Month: August 2020

MAIDEN CENTURY FOR MARTIN HINGS AS ARTHINGTON RUN RIOT

A week of heavy rain did not dampen the spirits of the 2nd team who travelled to Bishop Monkton for the return match having played this team at home the previous Saturday. The forecast was set fair and having arrived at the ground the team were delighted to discover that the wicket and outfield were in pretty good shape. Captain Ken Clayton won the toss and without hesitation elected to bat, the decision no doubt informed by the previous week’s convincing victory against the same side.

Ken was in whimsical mood, elevating Faiyas, Martin Hings and Joe Seaborne up the order. With Jo Nash retaining his opening batting spot, he and Faiyas strode out onto the field. The unpredictable batting order was reflected by the weather, with the forecast set dry all afternoon, rain began to fall. Play commenced with opening bowler, running into a stiff breeze, dropping the ball short and Jo summarily dispatching it to the boundary. This shot of uncharacteristic authority by the usually watchful batsman set the tone for the rest of the innings. The only blip was Faiyas running himself out in the third over pushing for a second run to a shot played down to backward square. A strong, accurate throw brought his brief innings to a close.

Martin Hings was in bullish mood, stepping across his wicket and powering the ball through the onside with an array of commanding shots. As his innings progressed the ball was dispatched to all parts of the ground with an array of fine strokes including off drives, cuts and delicate dabs backward of point. With the fielders set deep, both batsmen took advantage, running singles and twos when their stroke play failed to penetrate the field.  Martin reached his half century when the team score was just passed a hundred. With a look of steely determination of a man on a mission he proceeded to smash the ball to all parts on his way to a superb maiden century. This significant milestone was met with much applause and Martin was visibly delighted with a smile brimming from ear to ear.

In the meantime Jo was accumulating runs and was on 63 when the partnership of 170 came to an end with Martin retiring having reached his century. Joe Seaborne contributed to a 3rd wicket partnership of 28 before being caught, having mistimed an expansive off drive.  The score was on 213 with 7 overs remaining. Enter Wasim into the fray, a batsman with no average having already amassed 154 runs in two matches without being dismissed. With foreknowledge of what Wasim was capable, the opposition fielders scattered to the boundary. His first delivery, a decent length ball was whipped off middle stump for the first boundary. It was a jaw dropping shot having been hit with such power and ferocity. He proceeded to make the ground look very small, hitting 14 boundaries in 28 balls with 8 of them clearing the boundary including one remarkable shot played with his weight on his back foot and sending the ball sailing into a neighbouring garden way beyond the boundary at long on. The innings finished on 316 for 2 with Wasim on 84* with Jo on 79*. The question everyone is asking is whether Wasim will have an average by the end of the season?

Bishop Monkton’s innings never really got going. Joe Sebourne was in fine form, bowling with pace and unerring accuracy. After sustained pressure, the opening batsman looped an easy chance to gully. This was the first in a five wicket hall including two plumb LBWs. While Joe was making hay Faiyas was quietly toiling away from the other end. His patience was rewarded by a high catch at first slip taken by Vince whose relief that it had come to rest in his outstretched clutches was palpable having put down a difficult chance earlier. Faiyas went on to take another wicket, this time bowled, giving him figures of 7 overs 2 wickets for 15 runs. Now entered the ambidextrous Vince into the attack who elected to bowl left arm over the wicket. Having taken two wickets with the last two balls of the innings the previous week he was now on a hat trick. The first ball was a beauty hitting the batman’s pad just outside the line of off stump – not out!   Imparting prodigious movement he immediately forced an error from the batsman popping the ball in the direction of Jo who gratefully accepted the chance having just moved to silly mid-off.  The innings was wrapped up by a regulation stumping from Dave off Vince’s bowling giving him the figures of 2 wickets for no runs of 1.2 overs.

This was a convincing a win as an Arthington team has achieved in its history and the 277 margin of victory equals the previous record set by the 1st Team in that memorable match against Pateley Bridge in 2017.

Thank you to Bishop Monkton for being so sporting by continuing the match in the most inclement weather. Cricket was clearly the winner and it just goes to show what is possible with determination and perseverance when the conditions aren’t particularly good.

The 1st team’s match unfortunately did not get underway with the opposition deeming the wicket unfit to play on. Not to waste the day the 1st team proceeded to play a practice match on the very same wicket!

Thank you to Ken Clayton for sponsoring the 2nd team match ball.

ARTHINGTON AT THE DOUBLE AS GREY SKIES PART TO ALLOW TWO GOOD WINS

At the beginning of this latest Saturday, it seemed unlikely that much cricket would be played at all. There was heavy rain in the build up to both matches but over the course of the day it held off sufficiently and meant that both Arthington sides could record excellent victories against their respective opponents.

The 1^st XI travelled to Ripley; probably the largest outfield that they will play on this season. With it being his last match for the foreseeable future, Matt Moss was made honorary captain and won an important toss, electing to field first.

The Ripley innings never really had any great momentum to it, partly due to tricky conditions as well as the regular loss of wickets that they suffered throughout. Luke Seaborne and Ahmer Sadiq opened the bowling and the former was unlucky to not take at least one scalp during his wicketless spell. Sadiq (5-1-13-1) did make a breakthrough, dismissing the opener LBW but struggled a bit with the excessive new ball swing.

The first bowling change brought on Naveed Andrabi and he claimed the wicket of the Ripley number three, who had been living very dangerously up to this point. Finally, a catching chance went to an Arthington fielder as opposed to a vacant patch of grass and Umar Farooq took a good catch as the ball came over his shoulder.

Due to the bails being removed in the high winds, Rafiullah Khan’s wickets were slightly less spectacular than they could have been. The ball thudded into the stumps on two occasions in his excellent 9-over spell. His bowling was not only deadly but also extremely economical and he looked like taking a wicket every time the ball was pitched up. He ended his spell with figures of 9-4-11-2.

Umar Farooq got himself a wicket with an LBW but after that the batting became very defensive and it seemed that Ripley had lost all appetite for setting a total, sitting at only 80-5 after 32 overs. Then came a bold move from stand-in captain Moss, who brought himself on to bowl at one end and Kamrosh Khan at the other, both bowling off-spin, neither player having bowled any overs this season.

The change of pace turned out to be a masterstroke, as Moss claimed a wicket in his second over, two in his fourth and another in his fifth. After a few words to the batsman about the apparent lack of desire to post a meaningful total, Moss enticed a big shot, which was sliced to Kamrosh Khan at point for a simple catch. A similarly aggressive shot was attempted for Moss’ second wicket, the ball striking leg stump after making no contact with the bat. Alex O’Neil then took a terrific sliding catch at mid-on in the same over to give Arthington their eighth wicket.

Khan also took a wicket after finally getting one to straighten onto the line of the stumps and hit the batsman on the pads for an LBW, before Moss rounded off the innings by dismissing the opening batsman, who had batted the entire 37.2 over innings for 40. With wickets falling around him, he eventually gave in to temptation and only succeeded in picking out Ahmer Sadiq at mid-off with his aerial straight drive. Ripley all out for 89.

Arthington reached the target without too many scares. Blame for the three wickets that were lost in the reply can largely be put at the feet of the batsmen. Sajid Hussain made ten runs before clubbing a short ball straight to a fielder at cover and Kamrosh Khan, who had played exceptionally well to reach 49, including 7 fours, tried one inventive shot too many and scooped a ball behind him straight into the waiting hands of a Ripley fielder. With the scores level, Naveed Andrabi’s attempts to hit the first six of the game fell embarrassingly short as he was easily caught without clearing the in-field. It was fitting that Matt Moss (11), at the end of his seven years with Arthington, was there at the conclusion of the match, as Alex O’Neil hit the winning runs in only the 18^th over.

Despite not quite being quite at their best, Arthington still managed a 20-point win, thanks largely to some excellent captaincy from Matt Moss, whose insight, enthusiasm and cricketing skill will be missed in future matches. Next week, the 1^st XI host Spofforth at the ACG.

Arthington 2^nd XI played Bishop Monkton at home and recorded a similarly emphatic victory. Bowling first, all four bowlers managed two wickets apiece, with Vince Greaves-Newall recording particularly impressive figures of 3-1-6-2. The fielding was also impressive, featuring two fine catches from Dave Howard and Matthew Clough and a run out apiece for Mohammed Faiyazuddin and Wasim Malik, restricting the visitors to 94.

In reply, Jo Nash made 32, Martin Dickinson 29 and Wasim Malik a quickfire 23, finishing the innings with 16 runs from three balls. In an odd piece of scheduling, the 2^nd XI play Bishop Monkton once again in their next match, this time away from home.

Arthington CC wishes to thank the match ball sponsors for the latest round of fixtures.

1^st XI match ball sponsor: Alex O’Neil

2^nd XI match ball sponsor: Martin Dickinson

TOP ORDER COLLAPSE NOT ENOUGH TO PREVENT EMPHATIC ARTHINGTON VICTORY

It was a day for the middle order and bowlers to shine for Arthington as they secured another fine victory on a gloomy day away at Rainton.

Had Rainton not been bottom of the league, Arthington captain Naveed Andrabi may have thought twice about batting first, following another successful call at the toss, but such has been the formula for success of late there were no such thoughts. Yet his optimism looked to have been ill-founded after only a few overs, as a lively opening stand of 29 ended when Kamrosh Khan was out LBW for 16 and Arthington then collapsed to 60-5 in only the 13^th over, with the first four batsmen all reaching double figures before promptly losing their wickets. Slow left-arm spin did most of the damage, claiming the scalps of Sajid Hussain (13), Naveed Andrabi (15) and debutant Umar Farooq (12).

However, with the current strength in the Arthington 1^st XI batting line-up, things were not quite as gloomy as the grey skies suggested. Rafiullah Khan and Ahmer Sadiq formed a magnificent 6^th wicket partnership of 141, taking the innings all the way into the 37^th over before Khan finally fell, caught behind. His exciting knock of 62 was far from chanceless though, in fact he gave the Rainton fielders four chances to dismiss him with lofty, aerial shots before a catch was finally taken by the wicketkeeper. His excellent innings included 7 fours and 2 sixes.

Sadiq, on the other hand, played flawlessly, until an LBW in the final over saw him fall just seven runs short of a century. After a composed start, he accelerated impressively and was soon sending the ball to all parts of the boundary, including one enormous blow onto the pavilion roof. His score of 93 came in good time and contained 11 fours and 3 sixes. After 40 overs, Arthington finished their innings on 236-8.

In the very first over of the reply, Umar Farooq (6-2-30-1) took his first Arthington wicket with a beauty; a ball that started on leg-stump, swung in the air to middle and then jagged off the pitch to clip the top of off. An almost impossible delivery that would have dismissed many fine batsmen. When fellow opening bowler Luke Seaborne pictured claiming his 100^th Arthington wicket, it is unlikely he would have imagined a catch by the wicketkeeper taken at short mid-wicket, but that’s exactly what happened in the very next over, when a leading edge looped high into the air and Andrew Dowson scampered from his position behind the stumps to take the catch.

There began a mini revival after the early breakthroughs with a quick 31-run stand, before Seaborne (5-2-15-2) claimed his second wicket in even more bizarre circumstances; the batsman, through his shot too early, diverted a ball that was sailing harmlessly down the leg-side off the back of his bat and onto the stumps.

Following a chest-high no-ball that ended up reaching the boundary, Naveed Andrabi took a wicket with the first legal ball of his spell; a vicious delivery that found the edge of the bat and the waiting gloves of Dowson. With this loss of their top scorer for 29, that signalled the last of any real Rainton resistance.

Andrabi went on to take a wicket in both of his next two overs; sending a bail flying with a pacey delivery before a catch looped up to a well-placed Ahmer Sadiq at deep cover to leave him with terrific figures of 4-1-18-3. At the other end, Rafiullah Khan managed a wicket and three maidens from his excellent four over spell, giving the impressive Andrew Dowson his third catch of the game behind the stumps and the Rainton tail was comprehensively lopped off by Hamza Mahmood (3-0-14-3) with the help of a sharp slip catch by Seaborne, a fantastic yorker and a length ball that kept low, clattering into middle stump. Rainton all out for 91.

After a shaky start, Arthington were able to coast to a comfortable victory thanks to an outstanding middle-order partnership and their usual high standards of bowling and fielding. The 20-point win allows them to maintain their perfect start to the season in division three. The 1^st XI wishes to thank Malcolm Barraclough for umpiring in both innings and Ken Clayton for scoring the match. Next week they have another away fixture against Ripley 1^st XI.

Sadly, the Arthington 2^nd XI fixture against Ripley 4^th XI did not take place due to a concession. Their next game is at the ACG against Bishop Monkton.

Thanks also to Chris Pennington, our match ball sponsor this week.

ARTHINGTON RUTHLESSLY DISPATCH WEAKENED SPOFFORTH IN CLINICAL DISPLAY

Following the disappointing news that Arthington 1^st XI’s opponents had conceded, an opportunity arose for the 2^nd XI to receive full coverage of their demolition of Spofforth 2^nd XI in a match that showcased some fabulous individual performances.

Arthington captain Martin Dickinson won the toss and, in glorious conditions and the prospect of an excellent batting pitch, opted to bat first.

Yet things did not start well for the visitors, as they lost opener Jo Nash in the very first over to a catch at slip. Dickinson and Umer Khan bided their time and absorbed the best of the Spofforth bowling without moving the score along all that quickly. It wasn’t until after the first drinks break at 18 overs that the innings began to gain real momentum; the batsmen opting to play more aggressively and move the score in the right direction.

Unfortunately, this change of approach proved the undoing of Dickinson, who feathered the thinnest of edges behind to the Spofforth wicketkeeper to make the score 50-2. The fall of the captain’s wicket brought Wasim Malik to the crease alongside Khan and together they formed a terrific 116-run partnership for the third wicket.

Despite seeing the majority of the overs to this point, Khan was actually beaten to his half-century, as Malik punished any bad bowling with ruthless efficiency. In fact, when Khan was finally dismissed for exactly 50, following a catch at long-on, Malik had already reached 76 and showed no signs of slowing down. Khan’s excellent and disciplined fifty was his first for Arthington and included 3 fours.

Gareth Meredith had a brief innings but wasted litte time before being caught behind. This left Malik and Vince Greaves-Newall, sporting some very garish mustard-yellow pads, to take on the remaining overs. In typical fashion, Malik brought up his century with a six and followed that up with two more in consecutive deliveries. The field was spread far and wide at this point but could do nothing to prevent the onslaught from Malik, who peppered the nearby fields with maximums. As the dust settled at the end of the innings, Malik departed for an unbeaten 132, including 9 fours, 10 sixes and some fine running between the wickets. Greaves-Newall, whose one-handed straight drive for six towards the end of proceedings will live long in the memory, was also unbeaten on 15 at the end. There was some sympathy for Tom Mitchell and Joe Seaborne who had both spent the entire innings padded up ready to bat, but with quick scoring required the captain chose more aggressive options. Arthington: 244-4 from their 40 overs.

The Spofforth reply seemed a difficult enough task to begin with, but once Joe Seaborne and Martin Hings had finished their opening spells, it had become virtually impossible. Hings was first to strike when the opening batsman inexplicably swung to the leg-side as the ball clattered into the stumps. Seaborne then set up the chance of a hat-trick with the final two balls of his next over. His first wicket came about as the result of a fine inswinger and left the umpire in no doubt once the ball had been stopped by the batsman’s pads. The second was a catch at mid-off by Martin Dickinson.

Although the hat-trick did not materialise, that was not the end of the wicket taking from the opening pair. Gareth Meredith took a catch at mid-off for Hings’ second wicket before both openers rounded off their spells with a caught and bowled apiece; Seaborne’s a particularly fine one-handed grab. Seaborne finished with fantastic figures of 6-2-9-3 and Hings with an even more remarkable spell: 7-2-5-3.

With the score at an incredible 19-6, there was a brief lull in the fall of wickets as change bowlers Mohammed Faiyazuddin and Vince Greaves-Newall found their stride and a 26-run partnership followed. But soon after, 45-6 became 48 all out, as the Spofforth lower order capitulated. Greaves-Newall (4-0-12-1) broke the partnership with the help of Meredith at long-off, who held a difficult, high catch near the boundary. Faiyazuddin (5.3-3-13-3) then made short work of the remaining batsmen after catches by Greaves-Newall and Hings and a long-range stumping by Dave Howard, capping off an outstanding 196-run victory.

The result sees Arthington keep their spot at the top of the division, despite playing a game less than their three closest rivals. Next week, the 2^nd XI have their first home fixture of the season when they take on Ripley at the ACG.

Unfortunately, Arthington 1^st XI’s match against South Kilvington did not take place, owing to the opposition conceding. The 20 points gained means that the 1^st XI still have maximum points from their first four fixtures at the top of division three. Next week, they travel to Rainton.

Arthington CC thanks Dennis Nash for sponsoring the 2^nd XI match ball this week and Ken Clayton for his excellent work with the pen as scorer in this week’s match as well as several others this season.

BOTH ARTHINGTON SIDES DOMINATE ON AN OUTSTANDING 40-POINT WEEKEND

It’s all looking good for Arthington Cricket Club at present, as both the 1^st and 2^nd teams sealed comfortable victories in their respective fixtures in the latest round of matches.

At the ACG, Arthington hosted Bolton Abbey with whom the points were shared last season, following one win apiece. On this occasion, Arthington largely controlled the match and won by 102 runs; their largest margin of victory of the season so far.

Arthington captain Naveed Andrabi won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a slightly damp wicket and outfield, with clouds in the sky and generally favourable conditions for bowling. The Arthington batting line-up looked quite formidable with batsmen all down the team sheet and the team welcomed back Sajid Hussain to the position of opener.

Kamrosh Khan got the ball rolling with a stylish yet short-lived 14 before being caught and was shortly followed by Hussain who edged behind to the wicketkeeper. This brought Naveed Andrabi to the crease and he immediately got into his groove, losing the new ball in a hedge from a towering six from his very first scoring shot. Having ridden his luck on 25 after a dropped catch in the covers, Andrabi went on to score 81 excellent runs, including 5 fours and 6 sixes.

Things were not going quite so well at the other end, as a couple of Arthington batsmen came and went cheaply. Rafiullah Khan stemmed the flow of wickets with a nice knock of 38 runs. Despite starting slowly to get his eye in, his innings quickly gathered pace and he soon began finding the boundary; five times in total including 2 sixes.

Alex O’Neil also managed two maximums in his 12-ball score of 18 and, with nine wickets down, Andrew Dowson and William Sparling managed to make use of the entire 40 overs, with Dowson scoring 3 fours from the final over to finish on 13 not out from only 8 balls. Arthington’s first innings score: 214-9.

The chase looked well and truly on after six overs and the first sanitiser break; the score having raced onto 43-0. However, in the first over after the break Ahmer Sadiq took a nice catch at cover to dismiss the dangerous opener for 33, from the bowling of Luke Seaborne (6-1-24-1) and from that point onwards, the required rate only ever increased. Naveed Andrabi bowled economically to build the pressure but without reward and was unfortunate to see a catch put down at second slip. Not only did Seaborne fail to take the catch, but, in deflecting the ball, succeeded in damaging a rather tender area of Matt Moss as well.

The change bowling of Rafiullah Khan did the real damage for Arthington. Taking his first wicket in his very first over with a catch behind by Andrew Dowson, Khan proceeded to take a further five and secure the 1^st XI’s third consecutive five-wicket haul. Khan’s many middle-order victims were dismissed in a variety of ways including a caught and bowled, a great catch by Khamrosh Khan at backward point, a high ball grabbed by the ever-reliable Alex O’Neil at mid-on and a spectacular, yet completely unnecessary swan dive by Ahmer Sadiq, fielding close in. Khan ended the match with fine figures of 9-3-17-6.

The innings was wrapped up by Sadiq (5.3-1-31-3) with two quick wickets all of his own work; a caught and bowled and a clean bowled to end the Bolton Abbey resistance. All out for 112 in the 30^th over.

Given the nervy start to the fielding innings, Arthington fought back well in the middle overs to regain control. There were great performances from several individuals with bat and/or ball and also from every player in the field, which kept things tight and inevitably forced mistakes from the batsmen.

Arthington 1^st XI are now sitting pretty at the top of division three after three matches, having secured the maximum 20 points in all of their matches so far. Next week they host South Kilvington at the ACG, in search of a repeat performance.

Fresh from their by-week, the Arthington 2^nd XI had a great day out, playing away at Rainton. It is fair to say that they outclassed their opponents; dismissing Rainton for only 49 runs before making short work of the total in 18 overs.

The dangerously consistent Martin Hings (11-7-11-3) reaped the rewards of his economical bowling and was helped by Joe Seaborne (7-2-11-1), Mohammed Faiyazuddin (8.5-4-17-4) and Vince Greaves-Newall (4-1-9-2). Only one wicket fell in the chase with Jo Nash (32) scoring the bulk of the runs. The result takes the 2^nd XI well clear at the top of their division. Next week they travel to Spofforth.

Arthington CC thanks the match ball sponsors for this week’s round of matches, Dave Howard and Matt Moss, who will be taking his winning match ball with him to Wales at the end of the season, following his many years at Arthington.