The club enjoyed another very successful Beer Festival thanks to a great deal of hard work from many, but particularly Nick, Matt and the mastermind behind the whole event, Angus. There were excellent beers, a great band, the hugely popular addition of a dead trendy Lebanese Street food van and lots of happy customers. 

Sore heads all round as usual the following day, but in a change to tradition the Saturday saw the Club play the Pub in an intra-village T20. It was jolly fixture play in the right spirit. Although the Club came through successfully, it was a good opportunity for young members of the village to showcase their talents and they did so emphatically, taking wickets and scoring lots of runs. 

And so to the main event; President’s Day. This was Paul Haddock’s first fixture as President and he’d put together a strong side, featuring a number of familiar faces, though fortunately rumours of Alex Hales opening the batting turned out to be a hoax. After an excellent steak lunch and a couple of sharpeners (all the beer festival supplies must be drunk you understand!) the Club took to the field and the President’s XI batted first, as is tradition. 

The President’s XI got off to a good start, laying a foundation though not at a rattling pace, restricted well by Ben, Stanley and Luke. The partnership was eventually broken which brought the President’s XI dangerous middle order to the crease. Jack Kilganon, Olly Haddock (captaining) and Ben Langley have all played a very good standard of cricket and they were tough opponents. They approached their innings’ in very different ways. Kilganon danced down the track and reverse swept for an eccentric 30, Olly timed the ball well through the covers for a half century and Ben pushing the rate on for a well put together 50 at the end of their innings. Our bowlers stuck to their task, Nick the pick with three wickets and were supported by a good fielding effort. O.Haddock made a competitive declaration before tea on 230, the match very much in the balance. 

During the Club’s batting innings we were almost always up with the run rate, and significant contributions were made by a watchful Henry Capper and explosive Henry King and Spencer, but all three fell short of a really big score, which we needed to chase down the total. Enter Luke Brennan. Though not as snappy between the wickets as he might have been after a long bowling spell and even longer Saturday night, Luke started creaming straight drives and lofted clips over midwicket. Our run rate has been a bit subdued, but Luke’s quick fire 65 got us there or thereabouts again with just a few over to go. Unfortunately there was too much to do, and the inevitable bowling chance to bring the openers back on tied us down again and time ran out. We finished a tantalising 10 runs short, both sides shook hands on well played draw and retired to the marquee to polish off the end of the barrels and debrief on a thoroughly successful Big Weekend 2019.

In their 2017-2019 pomp, it was often said of England’s Cricket World Cup winning team that their game plan was to bowl satisfactorily, go for quite few runs, but chase down anything that they were set. Anything you can do Eoin and co., HHCC can do better(and worse).  

Our fielding efforts against Great Gaddeson, were below par (dreadful). Bowlers struggled for line and length, we dropped half a dozen catches and our ground fielding was sloppy. Perhaps this was part of the game plan? At tea we pondered the monumental challenge of chasing 265(!) to win, yikes. 

Dom and Matt Sims needed to set a foundation for the explosive middle order to capitalise on. Well, tick, they reached 50 without loss, first hurdle jumped. Matt sadly pinged his calf and was forced to hobble off for a wel made 20, including a number of classic Sims square cuts and well timed, pushed, cover boundaries…classy. Dom heaved his way to a significantly less classy, but effective, 46 before being caught whilst pushing the rate up, and Fiddy fells in the teens, just as he was getting going.  

At drinks we had two new batmen at the crease, and 20 overs to score 180 runs, we needed our Stokes and Buttler. Stokes; muscular, talented, fast bowling, boundary pumping, party-enjoying, ginger…see Luke Brennan. Buttler; softly spoken, cool headed, sunny disposition, all round athlete, striker of a long ball, See Charlie Lines. We had the right men at the crease. With never a thought of a draw, Luke and Charlie crashed the bowling around for some scintillating sixes and fours. Luke peppered the gardens on the other side of the road and Charlie matched him, booming one particular six that was still going up as it hit the trees. With the rate still well over 8 an over, Gaddesdon’s only option was to put every single fielder on the fence. But the boys excellent timing meant they continued to find gaps for fours, and run twos. It was an astonishing period of play.  

With six over remaining, the rate was down to a run a ball, Luke was closing in on 100 and Charlie had reached his maiden half-century for the club. A few more lusty blows by Charlie meant that Luke was in danger of knocking off the runs on 98 not out! Happily, he dispatched one final four, won the game and brought up a round 100. Charlie’s final score was 60 not out. Amazingly we still had three overs in hand. What an incredible victory. It was worthy of a World Cup trophy, but they might have to settle with sharing the HHCC Champagne Moment trophy at the end of the season instead.

We bowled first in an overs game at Cublington this week and were excellent in the field. We used seven bowlers, restricted their batters with fine ground fielding, (mostly) took our catches and nine wickets were spread evenly. Fiddy was the pick, taking two wickets from his seven for just 14 runs. Ed Whitehead was also miserly, taking 1-20 off his seven, and Billy, Ateeq, Simon, Kenny and Henry King backed them up. Liam was brilliant in the covers, peppered all afternoon with lusty blows, but was impenetrable. We restricted Cublington to 156, which was all the more impressive thanks to them fielding not one but two Australian overseas pros. One had scored 160 against us earlier in the year; turns out he was no match for Simon’s guile with the old ball.

Our reply got off to a spritely start. The Australians proved their all-rounder status by both bowling quickly, on a track with good bounce and enough grass to nip about. Henry and Dom managed to negotiate things early on, putting on 45 for the first wicket, a good foundation in a low chase. Henry was the dominant force and when Dom fell, he kept going, striking cover drives and straight drives with immaculate timing. Our middle order did as best they could, but 156 was looking a world away as wickets tumbled for single figures. When Henry was finally dismissed for a brilliant 78, we still had a tricky 20 odd to score. Ed and Simon came together, ran smartly, and played calmly, knowing time was on our side. A punched 4 took us to victory and left Ed 14 not out.

A match winning knock by Henry in the end, but we wouldn’t have got to 200 today, so huge credit to the bowlers for a fine disciplined display and a great team effort in the field. Cublington have a number of Saturday sides and a lot of depth. Having beaten them twice in a season, we had better be wary of them next year.