Welford Park CC Race Night Report

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the Welford Park Cricket Club Race Night on Saturday. There were around 70 attendees, who all seemed to appreciate the good food and the fun racing on the big screen. I would also like to thank everyone who contributed to the catering and to the Social Club for running a fantastic bar for us. Many thanks to everyone who became an owner of a horse or its jockey and, of course, to everyone who placed a bid in the final auction race of the night which raised £295. Finally, I would like to thank JSC Communications for their continued sponsorship of this evening together with the individual race sponsors listed below.

The evening started off with the James Barrett Stable again in fine form, winning the opening race of the night, making it 6 winners in a row over the last two race nights. He eventually ended up with 2 winners from his 5 horses but Upendra Deshpande also had two winners from his 3 horses running to end up as joint top owners. Alex Hutchinson ended up as top Jockey with 3 winners from his 4 rides. The results were as follows:-

The money raised will help to pay for essential new sight screens for the Club as the old ones have not survived another winter.

We hope to run a Race Night again in March 2018 and look forward to you joining us then.

Many thanks again to everyone who has supported our fund raising.

Ian Herrington – On behalf of the Welford Park C. C. Fund Raising Committee

Welford Park CC Race Night 2017 – Great Shefford Village Hall, Saturday 4th March 2017

Race night – Great Shefford Village Hall, Saturday 4^th March 2017

add event to your calendar

Welford Park Cricket Club are pleased to announce the return of “The Race Night”. The event will again be sponsored by JSC Communication to whom we are most grateful.

Doors will open at 19:00 with the first race scheduled for 19.30.

This is a great evening out and will support your local cricket club at the same time. There will be an eight race card (plus a 9^th auction race at the end) with a break in the middle to allow a two course meal, based on Jacket potatoes to be served. Many thanks to those people who have offer to produce the chilli, veg curry and tuna and sweetcorn options.

We would like to thank:-

• Sporting Agenda
• Westbrook Taxis

Who have agreed to be race sponsors but we are still looking for more businesses to become involved.

Now is the time to get involved. Become an owner for £3 and name your horse. Be a Jockey for only £1. Both the owner and Jockey win a prize if your horse is a winner on the night. There will be a tote run on the night with a 50% payout with the balance going into the club funds.  GET INVOVLED and make a note in your diary. (add event to your calendar)

Tickets for the evening are priced at £7 which need to be purchased prior to the event with your meal selection made. If you would like to attend, Sponsor a race or become an owner or Jockey please contact Ian Herrington on 07879 204696 or email him on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and he would be more than happy to deal with your request.

Welford Park vs International Rescue

Sam Sargant is an old friend of the club. He’s taken 79 wickets for us but today he was looking to even up the score, leading his International Rescue team against us. Sam had been hoping that someone else that we all know well would be on his team too, but alas not. That person certainly wasn’t otherwise engaged flying Thunderbird One. Perhaps the cabin pressure was too much for him. Or perhaps he really had bumped his leg.  Can you tell who it wasn’t yet?

Having won the toss Sam opened the bowling. There’s never a doubt that he’s a quality bowler and a peach of a ball forced Dushy to play and edge to second slip at the start of the third over. He sprayed it about a bit too though, indicating that he does need more cricket to avoid the rust setting in [contact Jamo, Curly or Herro to arrange it Sam].

Herro, whose begging and pleading to open the batting had been, frankly, embarrassing, was now joined by Will for a Herringtons spectacle . Straight drives through long off and tickles to fine leg occasionally interspersed with inside edges toward fine leg and straight drives through fly slip put on eighty for the second wicket.

And then it was time for the first in a series of utterly irrelevant record breaking. Having scored eight, Brooksie then broke the Jurgo record for the most number of balls being within one shot of 1,000 Sunday runs without actually scoring any more runs. At the other end Mikey replaced Herro who had made an impressive meal for two, promptly called Brooksie through for a second run that Joe Brown would have made at a canter, and became responsible for a second run out in two days. 146-3.

The sun was still shining and a day like this deserved a procession so it was Srin, Uzair, Ashish and Jurgo who provided it. 151-8 and 165-9 in the end.

Park began very quietly in the field but were soon encouraged, possibly by a narrow miss at utterly irrelevant record breaking or possibly by a quality ball from Curly. My money is on the record attempt being the key. Inspired by a recent Park Under 9s triumph, a Park Sunday team first was almost achieved: passing the ball from keeper, through the slips and around the ring without dropping it, getting as far as extra cover before disaster struck. Curly’s wicket was quite good too though.

So now normal banter was now resumed and, next up, in an inspirational piece of captaincy, Jurgo told Kiran to get a wicket. So he did, glancing the Jurgo nose with the deflection off the stumps. 24-2  and Kiran finished with figures that other bowlers eyed enviously: 7-1-7-2.

The next bowlers were Ashish and Srini. Both bowled impressive spells. Having not played for a long time before this season, Ashish’s bowling is getting better and better despite having to navigate around an invisible lamppost in his run up. He bowled the no.5 early in his spell and did likewise to the no.4 toward the end of it. Srini bowled tightly, conceding just 16 in his five overs.

Faced with a left/right hand partnership, Dushy was unnecessarily worried that his line was off. All’s well that ends well and a ball that looked to be sailing wide of the left hander’s leg stump took the bat and provided a leg side strangle.

Ten overs to go. Sixty-nine runs required. Four wickets left. A double change introduced the Herringtons to the attack. Will found big turn and soon bowled Moore. Sam was still a threat. Successive sixes reminded Park that there was work to do. But Herro is not one to shirk a challenge and he continued to take responsibility to tie up that short boundary end.

Will continued too. Devastatingly. Three wickets for five runs as he bowled two more opponents. Not all over yet. Sam needing less than ten per over is still a concern. But in the 37^th over the International Rescue no.11 found himself facing Herro. Since the dawn of time (if not longer) it’s been the same:

 “The no.11 misses. Herro hits.”

Thunderbirds are gone! It’s Park by 28 runs.

Epilogue

Spinders had come to watch the end of the game. He looked nervous when invited to join the Blue Stripe huddle and his desperation to remember which leg to limp on was transparent. Nonetheless, the Blue Stripe went to Will for being too thirsty to contest it to the dubious Blue Stripes panel.

Park did eventually achieve the utterly irrelevant record breaking feat of passing the ball all the way around the circle without dropping it (so put that in your pipes and smoke it Under 9s!). And, perhaps most remarkably, Mikey now holds the utterly irrelevant record for the most successive balls wearing the yellow cap as Park took the one and only chance that was offered.

Disclaimer: the match report author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of utterly irrelevant records. Neither the author nor any member of Welford Park Cricket club will be responsible for hurt caused to any person being denied an utterly irrelevant record or, more likely, for hurt caused to any person being incorrectly credited for an utterly irrelevant record.

Welford Park CC vs Ashford Hill CC

This Sunday game had a lot of excitement around a pitch looking promising for batsmen, showcasing fantastic bowling from Ashford Hill and series of gambles from Welford Park.

Fifteen minutes before toss, Mark (our beloved skipper) delegated captaincy to Dushy, shall we call it gamble number one. Mark did note how sluggish the over-rate was last time Dushy was captain (thanks Mark for the motivational speech). We had 4 players on their debut at Park - Sagar, Uzair, Shahbaz and Bhushan.

Having lost the toss; As Skelly says, "We send out our best tosser and he lost the toss"; Park were put to bat first. Mikey stepped up for the challenge to open the innings with a slow player like Dushy and thus we changed our opening pair again. Contrary to popular belief, Dushy was not slow this time - golden duck - back in pavilion before you could blink. Mikey braved on while wickets fell on the other side, Park losing Uzair(2) and Brooksie (1). Then stepped in our hero of many games this season and last season (many previous ones) and many ones to come, Herro, steering the game on path for Park. Soon after Mikey was bowled over, bringing in Sagar, who played a brilliant 100.00 strike rate on his debut.  But Park's predicament continued, losing Shahbaz, Mark and Emily and Bhushan within a span of 5 runs. It was only Kiran who went for the last stand, while Herro went on to his 50. Unfortunately they missed the last wicket partnership record by 1 run! We could put up only 132.

After amazing teas by Kiran, Park needed disciplined bowling and superman fielding and that is exactly what the whole team went on to deliver. Kiran opened the bowling and bowled over one of the openers and he kept coming back in his following overs to get more wickets finishing at 4 wickets and only 1 extra. Opening from the other end was Sagar, and his tight bowling kept the pressure on. First change Mikey came in to claim 2 wickets and Shahbaz kept the run rate down. All these happening with brilliant support from fielders, dives by Uzair, Mark's quick reactions keeping batsmen in their crease, Brookise being a wall at midwicket and Emily kept chasing and converting 2s to 1s at gully. Bhushan claimed one important lbw. Herro bowled a brilliant spell to get one lbw. Finally Ashford Hill needed 22 of 12 overs with 2 wickets to spare and they kept getting 2s. Now the final gamble, having not bowled the whole season till now, Dushy was supported by vice captain Mark and he came on. All went well, thanks to Mikey for a brilliant catch, which was followed by a clean bowled. Park wins by 16 runs in 32.5 overs. phew!