The Over 60s XI match against Billericay Veterans, scheduled to have taken place on Thursday, 4th August, had to be cancelled when both teams arrived, as no wicket had been prepared on the square. No match had been played on the square last weekend either.

Just six days after the Two Counties Veterans staged their Presidents Match at Elmstead, the Over 70s XI returned to play there against the East Anglian Veteran Ladies (plus a couple of Gents), and defeated them by eight wickets with nine anda a bit overs to spare.
The Ladies started well, with ex-England international Janet Southgate and Marilyn Smith not being afraid to put bat to ball. It took an ill-judged call for a run which finally separated them with Smith being run out for 26. Sue Benson then joined Southgate, and while they were together they had control of the contest. Benson retired when she reached 50, but after that control was taken back. Just before the close of their innings Southgate did something nasty to her thigh, retired hurt on 93, and took no further part in the match. In the 40th and final over a bowler, Bruce Tompkins, did finally claim a wicket. Two run outs and one retirement before that. 195-4 was the score they closed with.
The outcome of the match was never in any doubt as Jerry Hadcock and John Stuck soon had us well ahead of the required five an over. They added 95 before Hadcock was dismissed lbw for 28. Steve Isaac then joined Stuck in the middle. At the 20 over drinks interval, Stuck had reached 80 out of 134-1. Then with just eight runs required from 11 overs, Steve Isaac bizarrely hit the ball onto his own stumps, around his own legs, for 41, and the second wicket had also added 95. John Stuck took his score to 109 not out, before Chris Martin brought the match to a conclusion with almost 10 overs remaining.

EAST ANGLIAN VETERANS LADIES 195-4 (Southgate 93 retired hurt, Benson 50 ret., Smith 26)
TWO COUNTIES OVER-70 198-2 (Stuck 109 not, Isaac 41, Hadcock 28)

Two Counties Over 50s 250-6 (Ben Moyle 52, Nick Meakin 50, Phil Tomkins 49)
Old Marconians 251-7 (Jono Slater 86, Tony Curtis 82, Paul Elby 45, Martin Southwell 3-64)

Old Marconians win by 3 wickets

It was definitely a day to be a batter at the picturesque Bayford & Hertford Nondescripts CC ground. Captain Pat
Patel’s lucky toss winning streak continued and as usual opted to bat on another day of hot sunshine.
Making hay were openers Ben Moyle and Phil Tomkins. On reaching his half century from 40 deliveries
Ben Moyle also brought up the opening partnership to 100 which had taken just 14.2 overs. Whilst
Moyle retired, Tomkins remained at the crease on 46 only to join Moyle back in the pavilion just two
overs later having been caught by Jono Slater off his own bowling. A rueful Tomkins was out for 49.
Richard Polley (20) and Stephen Henderson (21) kept the scoreboard ticking along nicely until they both
fell victim to the slow bowling of Graham McKay. The big assault on the home bowlers came from Nick
Meakin (50) and Sudi Trivedi (36) as they put on 74 from just 44 balls faced. Meakin’s 50 of which 38
came in boundaries was scored a mere from 27 balls. The innings closed at the end of the 40th over with
the Two Counties on 250-6.
If the Old Marconians had looked somewhat shell shocked at tea, they suffered an early blow as opener
Watson was bowled by Chris Hills in the 5th over with only 14 runs on the board. A second wicket
partnership of 72 between Tony Curtis (82) and Paul Elby (45) ended with the score on 86 but with 20.3
overs gone, the Two Counties were still firm favourites to collect another win. With Curtis and Elby both
falling victim to Polley catches off the bowling of Trevor Money, it was left to no. 5 Jono Slater to change
the course of the game. In the same bludgeoning style of Meakin, he smashed 5 x 4s and 6 x 6s in his 45-ball 86. The half century came in 25 balls and a century was surely there for the taking until being caught
and bowled by Martin Southwell. Following his demise, just nine runs were needed from the final six balls of
which just 7 were needed. Cue great delight from the victorious Home XI.

With the worst of the heatwave having passed, Two Counties Veterans assembled at Elmstead Cricket Club for their Annual Presidents Day contest. Patel’s Pirates taking on Meakins’ Marauders, and after 80 overs of fiercely contested action the match reached a dramatic conclusion with the Pirates losing their final wicket to the final delivery of the 80 overs for the Marauders to force a tied match. Probably the most agreeable of all outcomes to this, the most friendliest of all friendlies.

The Marauders won the toss for the 40 over match, with slightly amended playing conditions whereby a batsman scoring 50 will retire, but can return once all the other players have batted. The Marauders’ Stephen Henderson became the first to retire, while Fraser Eadie and Simon Sargeant both came close but were dismissed for 43 and 48 respectively. Steve Isaac closed on 23 not out, as the Marauders’ 40 overs ended with 230-5 on the board. Tony Oram with his eight overs only costing 24 runs was the most economic of the Pirates bowling line up.

One of the advantages of batting first is knowing what we have to defend, but this is counter-balanced by the stiffness that sets in during the quick turn round between innings. The early part of the Pirates reply saw them remain fairly equal to their opponents scoring rate. Sudi Trevidi eventually reached retirement, but as the Pirates looked to be getting closer and closer to victory, they were losing wickets. One key turning point could have been the run out of Kevin Ross for 20. Dan Luxford kept the Pirates in the hunt, but in the 37th over, he was caught and bowled by Sargeant for 45. It was now 217-9 and Trevidi was on his way back to the middle. The Marauders tactics were to try and keep Tony Oram on strike. Six runs were required but Tony managed to scoop a four over the infield and down to the boundary behind the wicket. Simon Sargeant then bowled a wide which levelled the scores, so it ll came down to the final ball, with Tony Oram needing a single to win it. The run never came as he lobbed the ball to mid-off where Nick Claus took the catch with tied the match. Martin Southwell, with 3-32 was the Marauders most productive bowler.

MEAKINS’ MARAUDERS 230-5 (Henderson 50 ret not out, Sargeant 48, Eadie 43, Isaac 23 no)
PATELS’ PIRATES 230 (Trevidi 55, Luxford 45, Patel 22, Wakefield 20, Ross 20, Southwell 3-32, Sargeant 2-33)

The players and supporters then enjoyed the traditional fish and chips and other hot food.  Thanks go to Elmstead Cricket Club for hosting the game, the two captains and Stuart Carpenter for the arrangements for the day.

After a two year break to accommodate that weird and wonderful Covid thingamy, the Two Counties Seniors finally got their show on the road in Embsay on Monday July 3rd. Sadly though I have to report that our astonishing four year unbeaten run in Yorkshire finally came to an end.

In near Arctic weather conditions, something our Seniors are certainly unaccustomed to, our doughty batting line-up chose to display their lack of talents first, and boy oh boy, did they struggle. Thankfully we did have a saviour, and it wasn’t the weather, but Nick Meakin. His 70, aided by an extremely stoic undefeated 33 from virgin tourist, Trevor Money, save us from total humiliation on a ground on which we had not lost since 2017. The pair took us from 53-5 from 19 overs to 139 from 36 before Nick decided, unwisely, to give the bowler some catching practise. Another tour virgin, Ken Greenaway, then came to the crease, but whilst we were thinking 140 all out, the pair had different ideas and by simply closing their eyes and swingining, they took us to a respectable 170-6 from our allocation of 40 overs of dibbly-dobbly rubbish.

Now it was the turn of the home team to show us how it should be done, and they did. They kept the scoring rate absolutely on point, and eased themselves through to 174-6 with an over or so to spare. Scott Robinson, fresh from filming the final episode of Neighbours, top scored with 41. Three of his team-mates all weighed in with individual scores in the 30’s. Pick of our bowlers, I suppose, was Chris Hills, who returned 1-11 from his seven overs, four of which were maidens.

Two Counties Seniors 170-6 (Meakin 70, Money 33no) Embsay Seniors 174-6 (S.Robinson 41, N.Robinson 34no, Robertson 33)

Tuesday:

Day two and it’s all aboard the charabanc, and head off over the hills to Steeton Cricket Club, home of the famous teas. Three years ago we had the temerity to walk away from Steeton with a hard earned victory. Now those stout Yorkists needed to exact revenge, they don’t forget when their pride has been damaged.
Early doors the Two Counties Seniors kept their opponents under a modicum of control, and 46-2 from 13 overs was a decent return. Sadly though it didn’t last, and with four of their batsmen scoring between 38 and 44, they were able to take their final score to 232-8 from their 40 overs.

Batting after the banquet, the Two Counties found their full bellies a real handicap to their batting. It was left to Nick Meakin to repeat his fine batting at Embsay, with another 70, and a hard hitting Pat Patel, who launched the bowlers for 79 not out. However, despite those heroic efforts, the scoring rate could not get us ahead of the eight ball, and our 40 overs ended with a total of 222-8.

Steeton Veterans 232-6 (Freemans 44, Howarth 41no, Higginson 40, Akridd 38, Shahid 3-43); Two Counties Seniors 222-6 (Patel 79, Meakin 70, Chapman 3-39)

Wednesday: Another venue, another opponent, but also, yet another defeat. We moved a mile or two up t’road to Sutton-in-Craven. The wind returned after an all too brief respite at Steeton, and there was no sign of the regular ice cream van. The latter shouldn’t have surprised anyone as a mobile soup kitchen would have been more appropriate. The home team batted first and scored too many! We hardly assisted our own cause with some injudicious fielding, and this allowed Sutton-in-Craven to close their 40 overs with 183, the final wicket falling to the final ball of the innings.

Confidence was high was we began our reply, at 0-0 from 0.0 overs we were looking good, but one has to wonder when any innings was played with the two opening batsmen being dismissed “run out”. In reality those two batsmen, Sudi Trevedi and John Stuck were two of our three top scorers, Stucky going first for 21, and Trevedi, later for 41. The pairing of Steve Bulger and Tan Shahid gave us hope, but the momentum could not be maintained, and wickets fell rather than runs were scored. The demise of Bulger for 40 basically signalled the end for us as it preceeded a calamitous collapse from 143-4 to 158-9, with the final handful of balls being blocked out to ensure the innings ran its full course.

Sutton-in-Craven Veterans 183 (Fountain 39, Hurley 39 not out, Southwell 4-32), Two Counties Seniors 158-9 (Trevedi 41, Bulger 40, Thornton 4-19)

Time for us now to head into Skipton, minus a few players who are required to play elsewhere. We had not been forewarned about what awaited us there. Soon after our arrival some very youthful looking pensioners began to arrive at the ground, and it became apparent that instead of playing an Over 60s XI we would be testing our mettle against an Over 16s XI. We batted first and pretty much struggled against some of the slowest, spinniest bowling you can imagine. Extras was actually our top scorer with 41 as we closed with 164-7 on the board. Sudi Trevedi was the next best contributor with 37. Only John Gallant and Nick Meakin also exceeded 20.

Skipton’s sprightly young things then crash, banged, and walloped their way through to 168-7 in less than 27 overs, even having the temerity to run a four!!

Battered and bruised from four defeats the remaining tourists then decamped t’pub for much needed succour before heading either home or back t’hotel for one last nights sleep.

Two Counties Seniors 164-7 (Trevedi 37, extras 41); Skipton XI 168-7 (J.Fry 45, G.Owens 37, Southwell 3-35).

Follow the link below for Fixtures for season 2022:

TC Senior fixtures

Click on the links below for additional information………

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Two Counties Over 70s vs Suffolk/Norfolk Over 70/75s – Game played at Abberton on Wed. 1st September 2021

Norfolk/Suffolk 144 – 8 (D. Andrews 80 n/o, R. Ratford 39, M. Southwell 5 -14)

Two Counties 147 – 2 (D. Curtis 55 n/o, C. Martin 44, R. Inns 1 – 26)

Result:  Two Counties won by 8 wickets

Suffolk/Norfolk won the toss and elected to bat and made steady progress to reach 94 before the first wicket fell. Thereafter the run rate slowed as wickets fell regularly, resulting in a score of 144 – 8 at the end of the allotted overs, with Andrews not out on 80. Pick of the bowlers was Martin Southwell, who returned the remarkable figures of 9 overs, 1 maiden, 5 for 14.

In reply, the Two Counties openers (Curtis and Martin) achieved a score of 90 for the first wicket and aggressive batting by Maynard saw the required total achieved with 7 overs to spare.

Our thanks are due to Abberton Cricket Club for hosting us and for providing such excellent facilities.

Two Counties Over 70s v Herts Over 70s – 40-over match played at Copford on 24th August 2021

Herts Over 70s 288 for 8 (Riddle 101 ret’d out, Patel 50 ret’d out, Garside 50 ret’d out, Highfield 2-25)

Two Counties Over 70s 267 for 5 (Maynard 92 n/o, Black 42, Martin 40, Riddle 2-26)

Result: Herts Over 70s won by 21 runs

Herts batted first on an excellent batting track and the top 3 had little trouble in scoring the bulk of the runs amassed. A superb knock of 92 n/o by Phil Maynard led the Two Counties response but, in spite of good supporting innings by the other batsmen, Two Counties ended up 22 runs short of victory.

It is of great credit to the groundsman, Lawrence,  that such a good wicket was produced, in spite of having been heavily rain-affected two days before. Our thanks are due to him, to Sue for the excellent teas and to Copford Cricket Club for having hosted us again this season.