Tag Archives: Sussex Sharks

Cricket: Tough Draw on Beautiful but Tricky Wicket

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Sussex Sharks v Metro –  21  May 2022

Metro travelled to the beautiful Sussex ground at Blackstone on a day where the conditions for cricket would have been excellent in the wind had been a little more gentle and less gusty. There was warm sunshine all day but with enough cloud cover to keep the temperature in check.

Rory Field called heads to give the home side a winning toss and Metro were asked to bat first. Their openers faced a tough opening spell from Phil Daniels and Joe Harrison as from the first six overs, two of which were maidens, just nine runs were scored.

Runs did a flow a little more quickly after that but the scoring rate remained modest as the openers reached 86 at the 15 over drinks beak. Their stand was finally ended when Nick Ebbeck was caught and bowled by Alex Towers.

High quality energetic fielding backed up the disciplined bowling that included an unbroken spell of eleven over from Alex Towers who finished with three for 49.

After Matt Dean was dismissed for 68 to leave the visitors on 123 for 3 they set out to bat to ensure they could not be beaten with crease occupation rather than scoring the main aim.

Sussex did not allow this to undermine their committed approach squeezing hard after the fifth wicket fell in the thirty first over with the score on 169 as Mo Ghalib was caught by Toby Collins off Phil’s bowling.

The next partnership was twenty, but the fielding side took control and ended the innings in the thirty-seven over, although Metro had just secured a fourth batting point at 200.

This left a target of 201 from the remaining twenty-three overs of the sixty. There was time for Sussex to show that Covid had not impacted the outstanding quality of their teas; as the break lasted just over half an hour for all to enjoy the feast.

Metro opened the bowling with a pair of totally blind bowlers – Amin Amin and Sam Hoskin and enjoyed a great start from that tactic limiting Sussex to 15 for 1 from the first three overs with Amit bowling Dave Daniels for 4.

They then brought on their regular opening pair of Mo and skipper, Rory – with Mo as hard to score off as the Sussex openers, but he was not able to make a breakthrough. Although Rory ran out Toby Collins in Mo’s first over it was not until Gareth Jones replaced Rory that the third wicket fell as Phil Daniels was bowled.

They left the experienced pair of Joe and captain Dan Field at the crease. Although there were a few chances for Metro – Gareth making great ground to get to one chance in the covers and not quite being able to hang on to a difficult caught and bowled chance, this pair batted through to the end in a partnership of 86.

The tough batting conditions are clear from the boundary count – 17 plus a  single 6 for Metro and just 5 for the home side; albeit that much of the game was more about not losing wickets rather than chasing runs.

After a break, the next league games are Metro’s visit to Northants and Sussex’s trip to Somerset on 25th June.

Match report by Paul Toplis

 

Download: Scorecard

 

 

Metro Devils – The Development Team

Would you like to play cricket? We are always happy to welcome enthusiastic new players, so if you are interested in playing this season or taking part in training sessions, please contact Hassan Khan at the Metro Devils at h.khan25@googlemail.com 07792 004838 or contact lucy.simper@metroblindsport.org  07966 260089

 

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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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The photo above is of the Good, The Metro team with Rory holding the BCEW National League Cup!

To start with the good news – on Saturday the Metro team collected their medals and Rory the BCEW National league cup – won before the final league game had been completed as Metro had an unassailable lead over second-placed Somerset. The Metro Devils will also be collecting BCEW South & West league winners’ medals and that trophy whatever the result in their final match of the season against Gloucestershire next Sunday.

Then to the bad news; Sussex Sharks held their nerve to win a low scoring game that was, at times tense, but in which neither team used their full allocation of 30 overs. The game was played at the Kent County ground at Beckenham; as noted by Mike Brace a very appropriate venue for the 40th BBS cup final as it was the place where both visually impaired cricket has strong roots and where the Primary Club was started. The Club received their BCEW “Hall of Fame” induction at the lunch break before their representatives helped in presenting the awards at the end of the day.

Metro Cricket team warm up for the 40th BBS Cup Final
Metro Cricket team warm up for the 40th BBS Cup Final

The pitch was a great surface to play on, the weather kind – if anything perhaps a little too warm, camera crews were on hand filming a Metro promotional video when Rory lost the toss and Metro had to bat first. The start was not what was wanted as Nick was caught off the last ball of the first over, and Andy Law also fell cheaply but the runs were flowing from Matt’s bat with a series of drives through the off side and down the ground while tucking anything wide on the leg side to the fine leg boundary as he and Simon put on 54 for the third wicket.

Disaster then struck in the eighth over bowled by Dave Daniels as Matt in hitting the ball hard and fine past the keeper hit wicket, having scored 51 from just 29 balls with 10 fours. This sparked a collapse of true English proportion as in the next over from Dan Field both Ryan and Simon were caught leaving Dan on a hat-trick. Mark Russell saw off a maiden from Alex Towers, who was to bowl Rory in his next wicket maiden for an amazing two over spell. Meanwhile, although Dan did not complete a hat-trick he did dismiss Alex caught and bowled; so that four wickets had fallen as the score moved from 83 to 84.

Metro Cricket and Sussex Sharks at the 40th BBS Cup Final
Photo from the boundary rope with a blind cricket ball in the foreground and the Metro Cricket and Sussex Sharks teams playing at the 40th BBS Cup Final

Sussex now faltered a little as Mark Russell and Hassan put on 38 before a mix up saw Hassan run out before Alex was given the ball again to take another wicket, Rob the only LBW dismissal of the match before Dan Field picked up Amit to take 4 wickets for 13 and get himself on the cup final honours board. Although 180 had been defended against Warwickshire in the cup quarter final 126 seemed too few to defend on the beautiful, true playing surface, which you know was true.

Sussex knowing the required run rate was very low were able to bat carefully against Metro’s two main strike bowlers Rory and Rob, the latter bowled out his 6 overs for just 16 with only eight of those off the bat while Rory bowled five overs for 19 although 18 were off the bat. There was a spark of hope for Metro for when these two combined with Rob catching Dave Daniels at fine leg with 14 scored.

Thirty more had been added before another wicket fell as the other opener, Joe Harrison, edged Amit to the keeper. Andy Dalby-Welsh came out to join the Sussex skipper and this pair carefully batted through taking just the runs on offer until they accelerated at the end with a boundary to bring up the 100 and three more as they reached exactly the 127 needed with Andy 29 not out and Dan on 45 which took him to the man of the match award, with Dave Daniel’s crucial wicket getting him the total man of the match award.

So finally, the ugly cricket correspondent confirms this is the last match report for 2018 as Metro are not at T20 finals day. Enjoy the winter including the England VI tour of India and Sri Lanka and start looking forward to the 2019 season.

Report by Paul Toplis

 

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Sussex Win Heindrich Memorial Cup!

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5 Sept 2017  – original report by bcew.co.uk

The second British Blind Sport Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup Final to be played at the cradle of cricket, Broadhalfpenny Down, in the glorious Hampshire south downs was an excellent day.

The hosts were very generous and welcoming and support, as ever, from the Primary Club was essential in making this game and the BBS cup competition happen every year.
The match day programme had a carefully selected cover showing Charles Ronayne of Metro, Northants and Essex Tigers in action for Metro against Warwickshire; the day included a minutes’ silence closed with a well deserved round of applause in memory of Charles. The weather was excellent for cricket as bright blue skies with just a few friendly white clouds meant plenty of warm sunshine but with just a little breeze.

The cricket started with Justin Hollingsworth of Warwickshire, cup winners in five of the past six seasons, winning the toss and asking Sussex to bat first

Missing their injured skipper, Sussex started with Joe Harrison and Alex Towers. This pair batted carefully to blunt the opening bowlers’ spells, but this meant that the scoring rate was slow. The openers only managed one boundary before both falling victim to Asif Ali in his first spell, with a bowled and an lbw. His brother then chipped in, shortly afterwards, with a run out to dismiss Dave Daniels and leave Sussex wobbling a little on 41 for 3.

Dan Field had come to the crease at two down and had now had time to settle, and to bring his excellent form from the season into the middle. He started by bossing a stand of nearly 50 with the hard hitting Toby Collins only contributing 12, before perhaps the first example of the great wicket keeping on display throughout the day from both sides.

Toby looked for a little reverse scoop off the bowling of Mark Turnham which Gerald Porter on seeing the shot set up anticipated and was able to grab the top edge. It seemed a big total was going to be tricky with just 84 scored. However Dan now started to control the game with the bat dominating the ball and able to score almost at will.

He kept the strike carefully during a partnership of 58 for the fifth wicket; ended only when Luke Sugg ran out Ian Morris, but Dan’s domination continued to the end as Matt Greenhough sacrificed his wicket with a run out to allow Dan to score two off the last ball and finish on 121 having struck a six and 14 fours. This places him fourth on the all time list of top scorers in the cup final; the last three finals having now produced four big hundreds, when only one had been managed before that.

The second innings started in exactly the opposite way to the Sussex innings as the Bears captain, Justin Hollingsworth, looked to score quickly from the first ball. He raced to 28, with a six and three boundaries, before being bowled in Dave Daniels’ opening spell.

This was 46 for 1 with the Bears well ahead of the rate and the scoring did not slow when Nathan Foy joined Luke Sugg in the middle. He sped to 20 from just eight balls before trying to repeat the shot that had earned him a six over square leg, only to be caught by the well placed Joe Harrison just inside the rope. So 77 for 2 but, with two big hitters gone, the game seemed well balanced as Luke Sugg looked to try and repeat Dan’s feat of controlling the innings.

At the half way stage, the Bears were on 97/3 – well ahead of the 64/3 Sussex had posted at the same stage – but soon after the break they lost two wickets with the score on 100, Luke caught by Dave Daniels on the full and then Hassan Ali bowled by Dave Daniels.

At 100 for 5 their chance of winning had gone, it seemed. Chris Styles scored a few including two good boundaries, and the reliable Mark Turnham also reached double figures but no one else was able to score and the innings finished in less than 21 overs with the difference in scores being 61.

The day ended in front of the excellent pavilion, with Peter Tuke, the chairman of the Broadhalfpenny Down Preservation Trust, assisted by Pete Sugg from the BCEW cricket committee handing the cup to the winning captain, trophies to all the players and officials, and the Man of the Match awards to the two worthy winners, Dan Field (Partially Sighted) and David Daniels (Total).

Scorecard

Sussex Sharks v Warwickshire Bears
At BroadHalfPenny Down, Hampshire
Saturday 26th August 2017
Umpires: Alan Pearce & Darshak Patel
Scorers: Steve Field & Steve Hollingsworth
Warwickshire won the toss & chose to field first

Sussex Sharks Innings

J Harrison Bowled A Ali 15
A Towers Bowled A Ali 9
D Daniels Run Out (H Ali) 8
D Field not out 121
T Collins Caught G Porter Bowled M Turnham 12
I Morris Run Out (L Sugg) 4
M Kippling Bowled J Hollingsworth 0
M Greenhough Run Out (G Porter) 3
M Oliphant not out 0
Did not bat: C Reynolds

Extras:( 8NB, 11W) 19

 

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