A tough one for the 1st XI this week at Taplow, where the sun blazed down and the coin didn’t fall our way. Sent in to field on a scorcher, we had to work hard early on as their opener took an unorthodox approach, skipping tradition and battering the skipper straight back down the ground. But once Richie P and Donnel came into the attack, things turned quickly. They shut down the momentum and removed both the danger man and their number three in no time. The skipper returned to keep things tight and removed the other opener, before Ateeq took centre stage through the middle with a fantastic spell, claiming his first 3-for of the season. We pulled things back brilliantly to restrict Taplow to 223 from their 45, a total we felt good about at the break. Unfortunately, the chase never quite got going. A familiar top-order wobble was followed by a familiar middle order wobble and we had slumped to 74-8 by the 18th over, leaving too much to do. But there was still plenty of fight with the last 2 partnerships contributing 104. Donnel batted with serious intent for his 42, and the skipper led a rearguard action with a composed, unbeaten 44. He and Rich P stuck in to keep the flame flickering, but the damage had been done early. A disappointing result, but one that’s given us clear areas to improve. We’ll dust ourselves off and come out firing next week, no doubt about that.

The 2nd XI picked up a crucial win this week against Chesham 4s at the CCG, finishing the run chase of 200 within 30 overs! The game started with temporary captain (have you heard the word?) Milan Lad losing the toss, and being put into bowl. Mark Rogers and Anand Sharma spearheaded our bowling attack in effective fashion, getting the new pill to move big. At one point, Mark had a wide given which he claims pitched on middle and leg! As Mr Laurie very eloquently put it, Mark is a well known swinger. His opening spell of 4 overs went for only 9 runs. Anand’s inability to overheat in the ‘weak’ English sun paid dividends, as he bowled 8 overs through for 18 runs including 2 maidens (wearing a black base layer, which would make Alex Walker overheat just thinking about it!). After some gritty batting, and effective pinch hitting from Chesham they reached 200-5. In response, the 2s chased their score down with control throughout our innings. Milan Lad and Tushar Gajjar brought up an opening partnership of 65, followed by a 51 partnership between Luke Marsden and Ali Jawad. Luke and Ali’s running between the wickets was brilliantly effective, ticking our run chase to 120 at drinks, and frustrating Chesham completely. No matter how sharp their fielding was, our running was sharper! The rest of the runs, and the completion of the chase was down to a sensational 50* from 36 balls, including 9 boundaries, from Bhavesh Patel. He got to 45 runs, with 5 runs to win the game - and there was only ever going to be one result. Game won, roll on next week where we look to continue the 2s winning form, and carry on climbing up the league table.

On a warm and sun-soaked afternoon, Chenies 3rd XI hosted Uxbridge 5th XI in what turned out to be a thrilling encounter of resilience and grit. Uxbridge won the toss and elected to bat first — a decision that paid immediate dividends as their openers came out flying, racking up a blistering 80 without loss in just 8 overs. However, the Chenies bowlers kept their composure. Regrouping with discipline and determination, they steadily clawed back control of the innings. Through tight lines and clever variations, they restricted Uxbridge to 231 for 7 off their full 40 overs — a fine effort given the explosive start. In reply, Chenies began cautiously, keeping wickets in hand but falling behind the rate. At 80 for 4, the chase hung in the balance. Enter Gaurav, who injected much-needed momentum with a fluent half-century, steering the innings back on course. Partnered by the ever-reliable Ashish, the duo began to chip away at the remaining target. With 50 still needed from the final 10 overs, Gaurav’s dismissal could have proved costly — but Dharmendra had other ideas. Launching a flurry of boundaries, he eased the pressure with intelligent strokeplay. As the score neared its target, Ashish fell with the scores level, but Himanshu wasted no time in sealing the deal with a boundary, sparking jubilant celebrations. It was a calculated and courageous chase, marked by cool heads and timely contributions. Chenies 3s were rightly ecstatic at the finish — a hard-fought and richly deserved win. Bring on next week!

With Luke Marsden away on holiday, he passed responsibility for his Sunday XI over to Donnel for the away trip to Uxbridge Casuals. The toss was won and Donnel decided to have a bat. All went well to start with Bill Mead and Pete Naylor-Smith putting on 62 for the first wicket. Bill fell for 27 but Pete ploughed on. No other batters made a significant score so when Pete was out for 63 the score stood at 139-5 and we then subsided to 160 all out. Not enough, but the bowlers made them work hard for the victory, taking 7 wickets with Aaryan Teckchandani taking 3 and Kaneel Mathurata claiming 2.

Next week the 1st XI welcome Chesham 3s to the CCG, the 2nd XI travel to Ickenham and the 3rd XI have an away game at Kew 4s. The Sunday XI have an away game at Little Missenden and the Women 1st XI begin their league season with a home match against Beaconsfield 2s.

Colts:
The colts season is up and running with the usual vibrancy at Chenies on Sunday mornings alongside the sunshine.

Colts managers – please do send in your match reports for inclusion in the bulletin

C&LCC U14 Destroyers vs High Wycombe. A tough loss for the team to take. Having won the toss and elected to bat, the team knew that we would need to set some runs on a perfect batting track against a strong High Wycombe side. Unfortunately, the opening bowlers bowled a great line and we were 7-2 very quickly. Ali-Jawad and Reyan rebuilt the innings patiently with both boys showing great patience and resilience and at drinks, we were well set at 57-2. Alas, Ali-Jawad was out shortly after. Not to be broken, Rafe and Reyan continued before Reyan was caught trying to accelerate the score and Jesal and Rafe saw us through with a some nice hitting from Rafe showing great composure to anchor the innings home. At 114, the team knew we were perhaps 20-25 runs short of where we wanted to be. The key to this game would be wickets. When Luke delivered the key wicket of Ajay, we were jubilant (including the coach). An excellent run out by Reyan via Ali-Jawad and a direct hit from Ashwarth left Wycombe reeling on 24-3 and a famous win seemed possible. In fairness, kudos to the High Wycombe batsmen who batted well to see out our bowlers. Special mention for Ayan, Dhiren and Eashan (all U12) who bowled their heart out. By the time we got the 4th wicket, it was 74-4 but High Wycombe eventually won by 6 wickets and we were left to ponder what could have been. Credit to our young team for never giving in. Our season will not be defined by this loss. Rather we saw some serious character and togetherness which will hold us in good stead for the remaining 5 games we have.

Teas / coffees and cakes will be on sale every Sunday morning in the pavilion. All cakes are home-made by Zaynab Haq and all proceeds will go directly to the club. We have a card payment machine so please do avail yourself of the fayre on sale, and save yourself the trip to the coffee shop on the way to the club.

In other news:
2025 Subscriptions are now due and available on the website. Thanks to those that have already paid. Full details at this link https://www.chenies-cricket.org/a/subscriptions-46652.html Please pay promptly and early, many of the club running costs are loaded to this time of the year so we do need funds to be coming in so that we can maintain a healthy cash flow. Also remember that you are not insured via the club if you have not paid your subscription.

Personal Coaching – if you want to find that next level in your game from personalised 1:1 coaching then reach out to Roshan Dias on 07427 926943 or visit his website here

An appeal for further help to run the club
Our wonderful club has seen unprecedented growth over the past few years. Credit goes to everyone at the club for facilitating this, but special credit goes to the management committee for working so hard to develop and grow the club.
The downside to this is that the workload upon the committee has also grown such that it is no longer possible for our officials to cope and run the club efficiently or effectively.
We are therefore appealing for members to come forward to help.

The first appeal is for someone to take up the position of Sponsorship Manager: Sponsorship is a significant yet untapped opportunity for funding at our club. We are looking for someone to manage and nurture our existing sponsors, and to proactively work to develop new sponsorship partnerships. The role could easily be shared among 2 or 3 people. If you are interested please speak to Dave Brown or Simon Hargreaves.

Our mantra is ‘many hands make light work’ and we are looking for 2, 3 or 4 people in each of the following areas to form a small team working with the committee member responsible for that area. None of these are committee positions so you don’t have to worry about coming along to meetings; all we’re asking is to get involved and help out in a way that suits you:

Our bar is going from strength to strength under the stewardship of Mick French. But he can’t be there all the time and if we are going to open more frequently with publicised hours then we’ll need volunteers to take on shifts behind the bar. If you’re interested in joining a group of volunteers who could take on shifts occasionally then please contact Mick (mickbeernut@gmail.com / 07771 866370)

An intra club Fantasy Cricket game has been set up by Alex Walker. These are great fun – you just pick a team of 6 from the club’s players and see how their points rack up for your team based upon performances. Entry is just £3. Go to http://chenies-latimer.fantasyclubcricket.co.uk/. Player prices will change each week based on form and anyone not in the database yet will be added automatically once they play a league game.

Instagram – some great work behind the scenes has revived our Instagram account and we’ll be posting regularly and aften throughout the season. Please follow us @chenieslatimercc and @chenieswomenscricket

Also make sure you have downloaded the club app and have your Pitchero account profile set up to receive communications from the club. More details here

For all club kit and clothing requirements, please visit https://www.chenies-cricket.org/a/club-kit-58457.html and contact Dave Brown to order.

Our kit supplier, Chiltern Sports, are also open if you need to acquire any playing equipment. They are well stocked with Shoes, bats, helmets, pads and gloves plus all other playing accessories that you might need. Call the shop on 01296 613399 or Richard Young on 07831 662874.