For our second Home County Women’s League game we were playing Luton Town and Indians CC away at their second ground on a windy Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, Luton didn’t have a full team with only 8 players, but they were very accommodating and keen cricketers. Amelia Peck was captaining our team and lost the toss meaning we were fielding. Emma Braddock was excellent in opening the bowling and getting a maiden over in her first over and a wicket for only 2 runs in her second over. We all struggled a bit fielding with difficult pitch conditions: it was windy, an uneven surface and on quite a slope. Consequently, in the field we dropped a few catches, although Lara Daurka kept wicket very tidily. In the fourth over Samiha Bajpayee was bowling and Emily Brown took a great catch to dismiss their captain for only 6 runs. Bowling up the hill proved a challenge, however Louisa Peck managed it with great figures giving away only 6 runs in her 2 overs. Caitlin Walker adapted her bowling to the conditions making her overs very efficient finishing her bowling on 4 overs for 13 runs and 1 wicket in the 13th over. The following over Daisy Lawless ran out a batter who had been at the wicket for some time. Our new ladies worked hard in the field and in the 16th over Gayana Gallege produced a great bowling performance only giving away 3 runs. In the 17th over Sophia Davies bowled a great ball to find the stumps of their fifth batter. Samiha continued to be very economical, giving away only 5 runs in her 3 overs, including a crucial 19th over. Emma finished the bowling in excellent fashion, giving away only 1 run and gaining her second wicket on the final ball of the 20 overs and Luton were all out for 86 runs. Batting was a bit of a challenge with the uneven surface and we quickly lost 3 wickets for only 6 runs. Sophia and Amelia rose to the occasion and produced a partnership of 75, Amelia hitting 58 including 11 4s and both batters producing some lovey shots. Emily batted well partnering Amelia to close the match. We were thrilled to get our first win in our second match in difficult conditions: well played ladies.

Back to Saturday now and the 1st XI travelled to Little Kingshill to take on Amersham 3s. Having lost the toss, we were asked to bat first. Alex Martin anchored the innings to score his fifth century of the season. He was out for exactly 100 but 35 apiece from Ansur Mahmood and Waqas Kiani propelled Chenies to 259-9 from 46 overs before we declared giving us 54 overs to claim the 10 wickets needed for victory. Unfortunately we only got to bowl 23 before the rain forced an early close to the day’s proceedings. In those 23 overs we did reduce the home side to 90-4 with Alex Walker and Dave Brown claiming a wicket each and Ateeq Mohammed claiming 2.

The 2nd XI faced a strong Beaconsfield side at home this week. They are currently 3rd in the league and pushing the top two. Beaconsfield won the toss and elected to bat on a bright sunny afternoon. Their opening pair looked comfortable and put on 71 for the first wicket in only 12 overs. We kept plugging away and started to take some wickets. Roger Vessey was the most successful bowler taking 3 for 33 in 8 overs. Beaconsfield had batting in depth however and finished on 247 for 6 in 40 overs. In reply our batsmen struggled to score freely against the Beaconsfield bowlers who were among the best I have seen this season in league 8. We only managed to reach 67 for 1 at the halfway point so never looked like chasing the target down. Nevertheless we battled away and aimed to amass some batting points and reached 163 for 5 after 40 overs. Sarthak Panvelkar just missed out on a half century finishing on 49 not out at the end. There were also useful contributions from Ian Gilmour (37) and Ben Cross (27).

The 3rd XI pulled off a remarkable three-wicket away victory against Ickenham 5s, thanks to a spirited never-say-die team effort. Electing to bat on a surprisingly dry and flat-looking wicket, Ickenham got off to a solid start. Progress was slow thanks to tight and probing lines from James Louw (0-20) and James Jarman (1-26), but after the interval and with the opener Kevin Wilson still at the crease, Ickenham pushed on and built momentum. John Moffit’s 2-30, with sharp catches from Jon Goddard and JJ, helped arrest the scoring but Wilson went on to make 89no with Ickenham reaching 210. Chenies’ reply was slow but steady with John performing his usual role of anchoring the innings with a purposeful 33 before being run out. Satish Panvelkar added 18 before Tushar Gajjar, on his league debut, set about the bowlers just as the run rate was looking too much. A rain delay reduced the target to 195 off 37 overs, and with Tushar and a cameo 13 from James Louw, the target began to look achievable. Tushar’s fall for 44 looked to be the end of it but JJ picked up the mantle, running quickly and hitting the ball hard, and ably supported by Kartikeya Kokkula saw Chenies home with three balls to spare. The win keeps Chenies well in the chase for promotion ahead of a potentially tricky home tie against Chesham on Saturday.

On Sunday we hosted North Enfield in a 45 over game, and on winning the toss home skipper, Brian Shipley decided to field first. Possibly for the first time , Nick and Alex opened the bowling for Chenies - the Enfield openers played very watchfully to tight bowling from both ends. Keeping Alex back for 2 overs, the new bowler SK made an immediate impact thanks to a sharp catch by Mattie Brown at extra cover. Nick also got into the act with a well taken caught and bowled. Nick was replaced by the leg spin of Mattie, and this brought immediate results thanks to a sharply dipping delivery to bowl their number 4 bat. Their opener continued to nudge and nurdle his way to a well constructed 50, and was also joined by their first team skipper who also struck a good fifty to take them to 253 off their 45. The bowlers were also well supported in the field , and by the keeper, Sastha. Pick of the bowlers were Mattie (3-35) , SK (1-23) , Nick (1-42) and tight bowling from Alex who went for 32 off his 9 overs. In reply the Chenies top order stuttered to 34 for 5 in 14 overs against some very tight bowling, before Mattie (72) was joined by Brian (66*) in a stand of 121 in 20 overs. The focus was on defending the good balls, strike rotation and also putting away the bad balls - the partnership prospered until they brought on their quick bowler to stem the flow of runs and Mattie was trapped in front by one which kept a bit low. Thereafter the innings subsided to a respectable 192 off our allocated overs. Afterwards we enjoyed a drink with the entire opposition team outside on a glorious mid summers evening.

Next week the 1st XI host Hounslow & Whitton, the 2nd XI visit Harefield and the 3rd XI are at home to Chesham. On Sunday the Women are at home to Abbotts Langley with a men’s T20 afterwards against Full Tossers. There is also a traditional Sunday XI match away at Fleet Street Strollers.

Colts:
The colts season is now fully up and running with many matches having taken place.

26th June - Stoke Green V U8 Lightning. The Lightning were back playing this weekend after having a few weeks off due to cancellations and Half-Term with an away match at the very hospitable Stoke Green CC. After losing the toss and being asked to bat. Ollie Rogers and Joseph Button opened with a stead and safe start to the innings. They put on 21 runs for their 4 overs. Then a flurry of runs came from Tom Parker and Rishi Tokeria as they put on 46 runs (31 and 13 respectively) of their 4 overs with some tremendous ball striking. The next pair, Kieran Thompson and Tanay Appana, kept the scoreboard ticking over. With the final pair of Harrison Hughes and Raif Oza adding another 35 runs to the total with some fine hitting. This meant the Lightning finished their innings with a very handsome total of 309. The Lightning kept the pressure on Stoke Green in the field by not letting the hosts get away and always taking wickets at important times. Standout bowling figures were Kieran and Rishi both finishing with 1 wicket for 6 runs. Tom finished with 3-6 which included two wickets in two balls but the best bowling figures belonged to Joseph who finished with 4-2 off his two overs. The two runs were from a No Ball and one of his wickets came from a very tidy caught and bowled. There were also some exceptional fielding displays. Notable Rishi who took two wonderful catches above his head. An awesome all round performance from all of the boys and a big thank you must go to our brilliant hosts Stoke Green. Lightning now look forward to a home match against Farnham Common CC this Sunday.

Chenies U12A (72/2 from 10.3 overs) beat High Wycombe U12s (69ao from 19 overs) by 8 wickets. High Wycombe batted first and there was a steady fall of wickets throughout the innings, which also served to keep the run rate under control. There were some excellent bowling performances throughout but Neil Chahal (3-12 from 3 overs), Rafe Alibhai (2-2 from 2 overs) and Oscar Knight (2-12 from 3 overs) were the main wicket-takers. The rain was closing in but our batters remained steady with Yayin Bajpayee providing a solid platform with 11no from 25 balls before Oscar slammed 29no from 12 balls to accelerate us over the victory line just as the rain started to come down. Another good win for the team but the lack of batting opportunities for our lower order due to excellent bowling in all 3 matches so far and then solid top order batting is likely to change at some point.

Chenies U12A (116/5 from 14.4 overs) beat High Wycombe U12s (113/6 from 20 overs) by 5 wickets. Wendover batted first and Neil Chahal (1-8 from 3 overs) bowled with pace and hostility, hitting one of the Wendover openers with a rising delivery before clean bowling him next ball. Aarav Majithia (2-13 from 3 overs) also bowled well as Wendover dug in to post a score of 113. This represented our highest chase so far this season and aggressive batting from Shiv Chauhan (29no from 25 balls), Neil Chahal (20 from 23 balls) and Jeevan Brar (11 from 8 balls) saw us to the victory target with more than 5 overs to spare.

Chenies U12A (123/1 from 18 overs) beat Chesham U12s (122/3 from 20 overs) by 9 wickets. Chesham batted first and Neil Chahal (1-16 from 3 overs) gave us an excellent start with a clean bowled wicket first ball. Following this, the Chesham batters had a fair amount of luck with edges flying wide of our keeper, dropped catches and balls not quite going to hand - but they batted aggressively to take full advantage and it took some excellent bowling from Yayin Bajpayee (0-4 from 3 overs) late in the innings to restrict the Chesham score to 122. This represented the highest chase of the season so far but superb batting from Shiv Chauhan (33no from 25 balls) and Aarav Majithia (10no from 25 balls) provided a good platform after Yayin was dismissed lbw early on. Jeevan Brar (21 no from 25 balls) and Oscar Knight (19no from 25 balls) batted against a battery of Chesham spin bowlers who bowled a tight line and did an excellent job of keeping their composure to see us to a comfortable 9 wicket win with 2 overs to spare.

Chenies U9/U10 Lions (68/8) beat Chesham U10s (89/13) by 9 runs. We faced a strong Chesham team who batted first. The Chesham opening batters batted and ran between the wickets very aggressively - which ultimately led to us grabbing a couple of run outs to reign in the scoring. Following that we bowled tightly with Aran Brar (2-9 from 3 overs), Jesal Kulhar (1-6 from 3 overs), Ethan Rajanagan (2-8 from 2 overs) and Ayan Jandwani (1-6 from 2 overs) leading the way. Our excellent bowling performance saw the Chesham innings end on 211 from their 20 overs (scores start at 200 and 6 runs are deducted for each wicket). Our batters also found the going tough against some good bowling and fielding from Chesham but good contributions from Ayan (7 from 17 balls), Zaraar (5 from 15 balls), Jake Knight (4 from 8 balls) and Jesal Kulhar (3 from 13 balls) saw us to a score of 220 to record a 9 run win with Zaraar and Ethan Rajanayagam blocking out the last few overs in old school Boycott style to secure the win.

Chenies U9/U10 Lions (121/3) beat GX U10s (68/19) by 149 runs. GX batted first and struggled against an outstanding bowling display from the Lions, with everyone bowling 2 overs. Sam Brar (4-6), Teja Vadlamani (3-4), Ayan Jandwani (3-5) and Aran Brar (2-0) led the way and there were 3 occasions when there were 2 wickets in 2 balls. This left GX with a net score of 154 (scores start on 200 with 6 runs deducted for each wicket). With little pressure, our batting performed well and Dhiren Rayat (16 from 17 balls), Jesal Kulhar (12 from 11 balls) and Zaraar Khan (9 from 15 balls) took us to a net score of 303 to record a win by 149 runs.

Chenies U9/U10 Lions (123/7) beat Beaconsfield U10s (77/12) by 76 runs. Beaconsfield batted first and made a good start but another excellent Lions bowling performance kept them to a net score of 205 from their 20 overs (scores start at 200 and 6 runs are deducted for each wicket). Aran Brar took 3/2 from his 2 overs to take his season stats to 10 wickets for 15 runs from 11 overs and the top of the league bowling charts for wickets taken, average and economy rate - not bad for an U9 playing a year up! There were also excellent bowling performances from Dhiren Rayat (2-9), Kayaan Hassan (1-1) and Jesal Kulhar (2-12). Sam Brar provided another excellent start to our innings with 19 from 19 balls and our captain now has the best batting average in the league - again not a bad effort from an U9 playing a year up! Thomas Herring (12 from 11 balls) and Aran (6 from 16) also batted well before Dhiren and Jesal batted sensibly against strong closing bowling from Beaconsfield to secure a 76 run win.

Chenies U-11s visited Stoke Green on a sunny Sunday morning (19th June). The U-11s have had a great start to the season and were unbeaten going into the game. Stoke Green won the toss & chose to bat. On the request of Stoke, the match was played with an incrediball, a rather unfamiliar situation for Chenies accustomed to playing & training with a cricket ball for two seasons now. Ayan Jandwani & Michael Thorpe opened the bowling for Chenies, with a miserly spell from both of them, Ayan bowled 2 maidens with his customary accuracy, while Michael(4/0) bowled with good discipline too. Stoke Green's innings never built momentum despite not losing wickets, in face of some tight Chenies bowling. William Marley-Shaw ( 6/1) finally got the first wicket, with a wicket maiden. William & Sam King (2/0) kept things tight, as Chenies excelled with some sharp fielding. The introduction of Yash Tokeria (9/2) & Aron Banks (6/1) brought a flurry of wickets for Chenies. Yash in particular impressing with his pace, line & length.Our quicks, Luke H & Tommy B then bowled really well in tandem picking 3 wickets each. Luke at one stage had 3 for none, while Tommy with his shorter run up was supremely accurate. Ayan( 4/1) closed out the innings bagging a well deserved wicket off the final ball of his spell. Stoke's innings came to a close at 187. As is the rule in pairs cricket, Chenies needed to keep wickets in hand to secure victory as the score itself was never likely to be a challenge. Our batters found the going tough, having to deal with the slowness of the bowling & an unfamiliar ball. Despite losing a wicket in the first over, Chenies soon recovered & the opening pair never looked in trouble. William, opening the batting along with Aron (8/17), was the standout batter, making an accomplished 32(19). We then had a hiccup in the form of a clump of wickets and looked in a spot of bother, despite Sam's composed 8(16). Luke H( 13 off 16) & Ayan ( 9 off 19) had a decent outing with the bat too, Luke getting undone by playing too early to be bowled and Ayan skying a catch in trying to go over the top. Tommy 19(16) & Yash 5(8) ensured we were in a comfortable position as Chenies romped home to a deserved 95 run victory. The victory was particularly satisfying with notable contributions from the entire squad. Chenies U-11s top of the table with 8 points, and would look to capitalize on a strong start in the next game against Beaconsfield u-13 girls. Ayan was voted player of the Chenies team by the opposition.

U14s vs Farnham Common 26/5/22 AWAY. Our first match of the season was an almighty mash-up with a team drawn from all corners of the club including U11s, U15 girls, U13s and U12s. Farnham put us into bowl in fairly grey and slightly chilly conditions. Wickets fell apace courtesy of Jasper Mitchell (2/14), Oscar Knight (5/2), Luke Hargreaves (10/1) and Shayna Patel (8/1). At the end of the 20 over innings we were left chasing a 95/8 target which seemed imminently achievable. Our openers Shiv Chauhan and Jeevan Brar set to work putting on 28 and 17 respectively with Zac Saul and Oscar Knight then building with a further 19 and 11 respectively taking us to 96/2 at the close with 8 wickets in hand. A very respectable start to our 2022 campaign captained by Jasper Mitchell and particular mention must go to debutants Luke Hargreaves and Shayna Patel for making such a positive contribution on their first outing with us and to Sastha Sabarinath for some exceptional and at times acrobatic wicket keeping.

U14s vs Chalfont St Peter 9/6/22 AWAY. With some wind in our sails following our earlier win against Farnham, we faced a friendly and familiar opposition in St Peter. St Peter put us into bat where Shiv Chauhan (13), Samiha Bajpayee (22) and Jeevan Brar (26) deftly helped up build towards a respectable 116/4 at the end of 20 overs. With no-balls and wides counting for 2 runs each, our total was more than flattered with St Peter having conceded 50 extras. It was certainly game on with St Peter starting off slowly but then building to an almighty strong finish coming into the final 7 overs where some judicious bowling decisions by captain Samiha Bajpayee paid off and we managed to close them out at 114/6 winning by 2 runs at the close. The narrowest margins of victory abetted by far too many leg side deliveries in the final overs so lots to work on the for next one. Nonetheless, a win’s a win so well done to Samiha for making a stunning debut with both bat and ball.

Teas / coffees and cakes will be on sale every Sunday morning in the pavilion. All cakes are home-made by Emily Brown 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:

A vibrant social scene, with interaction across the various teams is a vital component of the club’s success both on and off the field. Therefore on Saturday 2nd July, with all three teams nearby we are going to be having a BBQ at the club after the games with all opposition encouraged to join us as well! We are also planning to run a quiz, so see you all after the game on Saturday! Please do make every effort to attend, even if it is only for a short while. Please let Ben Cross know if you’re going to be coming to help with catering numbers. benwcross@live.co.uk or a WhatsApp on 07496635596

Subscriptions for the 2022 season are now due. Many thanks to the majority that have already paid. If you have not paid then please do so as soon as possible. A full guide to the subscriptions process can be found here

The new playing shirts are here. And the distribution has begun in earnest. In total, 160 shirts have been distributed so far. All teams are looking really smart taking to the field in the new shirts. There is a shortage of shirts in size XL – they have been ordered and will be here soon. If you have not yet got your shirt then please contact Dave Brown. For all other club 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.

Loads of news to bring you over the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled on the website and your inbox.