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Saturday 11th June 2011 vs Yateley 1XI (Away)
Henley 3rds travelled to Yateley to face the league leaders with the intention of putting up a good fight and lifting themselves out of the relegation zone. After skipper Liam Dennison lost the toss and was asked to bat on a damp pitch it appeared that the cricketing gods were not in Henley’s favour. This was further compounded when Yateley left arm opening bowler Bartlett squeezed one through Jeremy Palmer’s defence to bowl him for 3, and Dan Harrigan followed in similar style 3 balls later for 0.
Tom Oldershaw and Prakash Gurung set about building a recovery with both players latching onto anything short with great fervour. Having posted a 50 partnership, it was Oldershaw who was out next caught in the gully off the economical Peace for the team’s top score of 42, leaving his female fan club disappointed. Will Allum, in his new position of number 5, joined Gurung and this new tactic proved inspirational for the Henley middle order. The second 50 partnership of the match was ended when Gurung was caught for 30 and Allum was joined by the hard hitting Paul Smith. This pair once again batted well together gradually increasing the tempo with some good running and lusty blows. It was one of these lusty blows that proved to be Allum’s downfall as he holed out for a well compiled 37.
Nick Johnson made his intentions clear a huge straight six to get off the mark and along with Smith continued to raise Henley’s run rate. Having compiled a fine 29 Smith was caught and was quickly followed back to the pavilion by James Knight who was bowled for 1. With the score on 174 and with only a few overs remaining Dan Hayden joined Johnson to add the extra spark of life that the innings needed to lift it above the 200 mark with some enterprising shots and placement. Hayden was out in the last over for 14 to give Yateley bowler Lipo a well-deserved fifth wicket, leaving Johnson 32 not out and Sean Taylor 0 not out. Henley’s total of 210 was only the second time this year that Yateley had conceded more than 200
Having consumed the majority of the best tea on offer this season, Henley rolled out onto the field with the intention of inflicting Yateley to only their second defeat of the season. Taking the new ball, Dennison and Hayden were put to the sword by Muir who was merciless on anything short, but it was Viner who was first out for 3 very well caught by Knight at mid-wicket off Dennison. Dan Hayden then accounted for Roper with a fine away swinger to hit his off pole for 5. Palmer then replaced Dennison and rediscovered his bowling mojo by beating the outside edge of Muir’s bat repeatedly and with the score on 70 Muir finally gave in to the pressure and edged one to the keeper Harrigan for 41.
Henley fielded brilliantly all day and the next wicket was a result of that as a mix up between Rawatt (31) and Charlie Harris saw Rawatt sent back and a superb direct hit from Hayden at mid-off saw him short by a yard. The run out obviously affected Yateley as it triggered a mini collapse as Petts fell for 6 to what could be considered the catch of the season by Gurung as he clung onto a powerful drive off his own bowling, diving full length to his right, and Harris (15) then edged the hard working Taylor to Smith at slip who took a sharp low effort. At 106 for 6 Yateley appeared to be struggling with the run rate rising but to give them due credit they fought hard to reach the total with Peace and Lipo staging a recovery hitting some fine boundaries. It was Gurung who put out the fire in their innings by bowling Peace for 30 and the returning Dennison had Lipo caught by Knight on the boundary for 16.
Despite Henley taking their foot off the gas to allow Yateley to reach 176 for 8 and gain an extra batting point it was an effort that was not worthy of a team languishing in the bottom half of the table. They now lay third from bottom in Division 3a.
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Saturday 18th June 2011 vs Newbury 1XI (Home)
After a very wet week indeed, the prospect of any play was deemed unlikely as Henley 3XI entertained a Newbury side in the top two of the league. Henley making three changes from the team that almost beat Cove 2XI the week before, with Chappell, Kenworthy and Smith being replaced by Harrigan, Gurung and Johnson.
With the sun making an appearance at 12:30, the covers were removed and play started at the scheduled time. Skipper, Liam Dennison, won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket that has proven very difficult to bat second on, so far this season.
Openers Allum and Harrigan got Henley off to a steady start, pinching runs off the seemers where possible. Though it was evident from very early on that wicket had some invariable bounce in it, with a couple of deliveries from Hanabe planted in the same spot; one rose too high for Allum to pull, with the next ball shooting past his ankles. Given the difficulty, the two applied themselves well pushing Henley to 60 runs without loss after 16 overs. It was with the introduction of slow leg spinner, Anstey and off spinner Mills, that Henley's fortune took a turn for the worst. Allum dancing down the track trying to negate the issue of bounce, missed the ball and was stumped by the sharp Ferguson behind the stumps. Fresh from a good knock last week, Oldershaw succumbed for a duck and Harrigan followed in the following over. Gurung then fell for just one playing an extravagant shot with Nick Johnson falling soon after playing an identical shot. James Knight fell for two when the wicket produced some erratic bounce as he shouldered the ball to the slips. Palmer tried to inject some purpose to the cause hitting the spinners for consecutive sixes, but his demise was in similar fashion to Knight when the ball popped off a length. Dan Hayden followed soon after when he was caught and bowled. Jason Withers enhanced his season batting statistics as he provided another not out inning and scored some valuable runs batting with the tail-enders as Henley were bowled out for 126.
Taking to the field, Henley knew that they had a sniff of a chance on this wicket, and with Pratley continuing his fine form, removing opener Uden in the fourth over, Henley felt they were right in it. Though a slow and steady partnership of fifty between Anstey and Holland, edged Newbury towards the finishing post. Gurung removed the latter when he snicked behind. Dennison then took the new ball and got some good pace and bounce out of the wicket. With the score on 71, he prized the wicket of opposite skipper Anstey and he edged a ball to slip where Pratley dropped his effort, but Palmer showed quick reactions as the veteran snuffled the ball before it hit the ground. There was time for Pratley to take one further wicket, but with the hard hitting Duncan hitting the ball to all parts of the ground, with some lose deliveries from the Henley bowlers, Newbury passed the finishing post with 6 wickets spare.
There were plenty of positives to take from the game, including the superb fielding effort from the team, but they have plenty of areas that they will need to work on if they are to beat high flying, top of the table, Yateley 1XI this Saturday.
Saturday 4th June 2011 vs Hillingdon Manor (away).
Henley 3rds travelled to the RAF Sports ground at Vine Lane, Hillingdon to face the Manor’s first team on a warm, yet breezy, day. Theyfound a near perfect batting wicket and a billiard table like outfield. A hard day of toil looked to be on the cards, especially when Henley lost the toss and were asked to field first.
The Hillingdon openers made a very steady start to their innings punishing the bowlers wherever they dropped short, although Henley were unlucky not to have early wickets as Dennison had a catch behind turned down, and Palmer an lbw resulting in a negative result. At the first drinks break (17 overs) Hillingdon definitely had the upper hand being 90 without loss, but it was Sean Taylor who made the first breakthrough having Corbin well caught by Gurung for 49.
The game changing moment then came with the introduction of left arm spinner Ron Pratley who immediately struck by having Seymour lbw for 0. This was quickly followed up with Pratley inducing Zubair (40) to give a good catch to Hayden, and Pratley then bowled Azim around his legs for 2. With half the side gone, and only 97 on the board, Hillingdon’s woes continued when Taylor had Webb (0) lbw and Dan Hayden took an excellent high, swirling catch from Burles (7) to give Pratley his 4th wicket.
Aftab and Harper then produced something of a minor recovery taking the score past 150 with Harper hitting Pratley for two big sixes. His aggressive intent proved to be his undoing as he picked out Hayden at long on with pin point accuracy for 19. Henley’s excellent fielding display continued with Pratley taking a fine diving catch to dismiss Syed (12) off his own bowling and his fantastic day was finished off by enticing Aftab to play on for 38. It was Dennison who finished of the innings havingDuce (9) gave an easy catch to Taylor at mid-off to bowl out Hillingdon Manor for 186 in just 44.1 overs.
The openers Allum and Gurung made a steady, if slow, start in reply but it was Allum who succumbed first to be lbw for 4 and Gurung was joined by Henley keeper Dan Harrigan. His bat seemed the broadest on display in the match as his stroked the ball in majestic fashion through the offside reaching his 50 in no time. Gurung later followed suit playing some fine pull shots as all bowlers were struck to all parts of the ground as the hundred partnership was raised.
With the score on 130 it took a brilliant diving catch by Azim at gully to end Gurung’s patient innings for 54 and to bring Palmer to the wicket. The new pairing continued to patiently accumulate runs inching Henley to the finishing line but, as previous weeks have shown, it was not to be plain sailing as Harrigan was caught behind off spinner Syed for 80 when looking certain for a 100. James Knight and Jeremy Palmer were both bowled for 5 and 24 respectively, and Paul Smith was out first ball to send mild panic through the Henley dressing room with still 10 runs required to win. Tom Oldershaw (19) and Dan Hayden (1) calmed the nerves by showing great maturity in finishing off the game to see Henley victorious by 4 wickets and lifted from the bottom of the league table.
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Saturday 28th May vs Chiswick and Latymer (Home)
Henley arrived for the first game on their new home ground at Nettlebed to find a testing, damp looking pitch to which the Henley captain Liam Dennison had no hesitation in inviting Chiswick & Latimer to bat first on what would turn out to be a rollercoaster of a day.
The Chiswick openers found runs hard to come byat first with Dennison and Linfoot bowling tightly and creating chances that unfortunately could not be taken. After some impressive pull shots from the confident Glover, it was B. Bhatia (1) who was first to fall well caught by Allum with a stretching high catch at mid-off from Linfoot. Glover (24) then followed 5 runs later with the score on 32 with a well judged catch by Linfoot at mid-on from Dennison, proving that front foot shots were difficult on this surface. Runs were still hard to come by as Palmer and then Taylor were introduced into the attack, and with the run rate at just 2 an over, a partnership between Chibbar (40) and Sanjheria (63) developed doubling the run rate within 10 overs as the batsmen were particularly harsh toward Taylor and Gurung. It was that combination of players which finally broke the partnership with the score on 100 with Gurung taking a smart catch to snare Chibbar.
H Bhatia (18) then joined the party hitting some fine boundaries before falling to a cunningly disguised waist high full toss from Kenworthy which obligingly put down Will Allum’s throat at deep square leg. K Bhatia (36) gave good support to the classy Sanjheria finding the boundary on a regular basis before Dennison returned to trap Chiswick’s top scorer LBW with the score on 171. Dennison then induced Singh (2) to slice a catch to Oldershaw at cover and trap Bidmead (8) LBW to complete his most impressive bowling display this season so far with 4 wickets for only 21 runs from 15 overs. With Prakash Gurung producing a quick piece of fielding to run out K Bhatia, and Linfoot grabbing the ninth with of Scott (2), again well caught by Allum at fine leg, the visitors declared 9 down after 50 overs setting Henley an intriguing 207 to win on a wearing pitch.
The Henley openers Will Allum and Paul Smith began the reply steadily until Smith edged Singh to slip for 3 with the score on 12. After which Allum and Gurung combined in a partnership of 44, both hitting some fine boundaries.
The situation at this stage looked comfortable with both batsmen in control until Chiswick took the new ball, and the extra pace on an uneven pitch proved awkward to play. The visitors spirits were then lifted when Allum (32) played around a straight ball from R Bhatia, closely followed next ball as Oldershaw fell in identical fashion for 0. Palmer survived the hat-trick ball and with Gurung, who was struck a painful blow to his upper arm, battled to build a recovery.
As the Henley batsmen appeared to be getting on top of the Chiswick bowling, posting a 50 partnership, Gurung was snaffled as slip for a brave 40 and Palmer was joined by the hard hitting Schenk. After two well struck boundaries in one over, Palmer tried one big shot too many and holed out at long on for 30, of which all his runs were on the leg side.
The slowness of the pitch proved to be the undoing of the next few Henley batsmen as Schenk (5), Linfoot (6) and Dennison (3) all played too early and gifted easy catches to the Chiswick fielders. The home side requiring 80 runs from 14 overs with only 2 wickets left had no choice but to shut up shop and hang on for the draw. The experienced Taylor and young Kenworthy negotiated 10 testing overs before Kenworthy was bowled by H Bhatia for 2, and it was left to Johnson (11) and Taylor (13) to successfully resist the last four overs reaching 151 for 9 to earn Henley a draw from what should have been hard fought victory.
Saturday 21st May vs Beaconsfield 2 (Away)
On a beautiful summers day, Henley travelled to Beaconsfield's picturesque Wilton Park.
Having won the toss, captain Liam Dennison opted to bat first on what looked a decent batting track. Openers Hobday (44) and Thomas (3) entered the fray, with the former hitting a huge six onto the London Road off the first over of the game. Despite the explosive start, Henley lost Thomas in the 5th over. Kendrick (25) aided Hobday in steadying the ship with a mix of defence and powerful hitting. When Kendrick fell, Palmer (34) continued in the same vein. With Henley passing 100 in the 29th over with the loss of just two wickets, things were looking good, though recent performances suggested that nothing could be taken for granted. With Palmer and Hobday parting in quick succession, this was very apparent. Michael Schenk joining James Knight (42) at the crease. Two very contrasting styles made it very difficult for the Beaconsfield bowling attack to bowl with any consistency and the two amassed the biggest partnership of the season. 130 runs coming of just 13 overs as Henley set up a defendable score. When Schenk departed for 76, Henley declared soon after with the score on 268-8.
Henley then took to the field knowing that they needed two early wickets to exert some pressure on the home side. It wasn't until the 12th over when Dennison finally made the breakthrough with a ball that nipped back off the seam and clipped the top of Taylor's off stump. Dennison then captured the wicket of the left handed Suter with a fine in-swinging yorker that spread the stumps. Leading wicket taker Sean Taylor then joined the attack and picked up two further wickets. Van Der Westhusen showing some resilience as he worked his way to 85. Chris Johnson then took 2 wickets leaving Henley requiring the final wicket of either Connolly and Watts, with 4 overs remaining. Both batsman stood firm and Henley failed to take the final wicket which would have capped a deserved win for their performance.
With Henley putting in a very good performance they will look to keep the momentum going as they host a strong Chiswick and Latymer side that have won 2 of the first three games this season.
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Saturday 14th May vs Maidenhead and Bray 2 (Home)
Having spent most of the week working hard to find a venue for the fixture, the team turned up to the ground at Stonor grateful for being able to have a fixture at all. The forecasts suggested showers throughout the day, though in the end, only 30 minutes were lost to the weather.
The fixture itself had an air of excitement about it, as Maidenhead had pipped Henley to the division 4 title last season having beaten Henley both home and away.
Maidenhead captain, Tom Wilding won the toss and elected to bat first.
Henley opened with Dennison and Shrenk, who was making his debut for the club, however he only lasted one over, having pulled a muscle. Sean Taylor replaced him and made an immediate impact removing opener O'Neill for just 5. Henley's bowling continued to bowl a mixture of fine deliveries and too often, poor deliveries which were dispatched well by the Maidenhead batsman. Skipper Wilding scored an aggressive 50 and four other batsman made it into the 40's. Ronnie Pratley returning to the side bowled very well and finished with figures of 3-61 (off 15 overs) as Maidenhead batted the full 52 overs to compile 257 for 7.
Henley looked to make a vast improvement on their batting exploits following last week’s collapse. Openers Ayres and Hobday got Henley off to a decent start with the latter launching two almighty sixes in successive deliveries, though fell later that over. With Ayres, Oldershaw and Knight falling quickly after, another collapse looked imminent. However, 2010 leading run scorer Jeremy Palmer hit a match saving 79 with support from Gould (30). As Henley closed in on Maidenhead's target, requiring 57 from the remaining 10 overs, they lost the wicket of Palmer. Now Henley's ambitions of winning the match were all but dead. And with the departure of Taylor, it was left to Pratley and Kenworthy to save Henley from the mire, and they did so in superb fashion. The pair, having been in the same situation last year, where they ran each other out on the final over, stood firm and secured a deserved Henley draw.
A vast improvement from last week’s performance, Henley will take a lot out of this fixture ahead of next weekend’s fixture against Beaconsfield 2's, who have lost their opening two fixtures. Henley will be without 5 of this weekend’s line-up and with the club riddled with injuries, it will be interesting to see what line-up will be on show this weekend.
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Saturday 7th May vs Royal Ascot (Away)
Henley 3XI embarked on a new season as the newly promoted team in division 3a of the Thames Valley Cricket League. Their first game of the season was a tough match against Royal Ascot 1XI, who were unlucky to have been relegated from division 2a last season and went down on the last match of the season.
Henley, missing a core of players to university alike, went into the game knowing anything other than their best, would not get their campaign off to the greatest of starts. Captain Liam Dennison won the toss, and elected to bat first.
Henley got off to a bright and promising start with Marc Ayres (22) striking the ball nicely and Will Allum (21) getting himself set. After the departure of Ayres, Henley 3XI's new wicket keeper, Dan Harrigan (40) entered the fray. Both he and Allum worked extremely hard to stay focused and take runs where possible, against a very disciplined bowling attack from Royal Ascot. With the score at 90-1 off 28 overs, Harrigan found himself at the receiving end of Allum's bat, colliding whilst running a single, leaving a nasty gash below the eye. What followed was something that defied imagination, as a shambolic collapse ensued. Despite putting themselves in a good position to post a decent and challenging score, Henley somehow through away their remaining nine wickets, having only scored another 22 runs in 18 overs. Henley posting a bleak 112 all out, with Ascot's Jamie Romer taking 5-39.
Talk of the wicket cracking up and being significantly bowler friendly, never seemed to materialise, as Royal Ascot blasted their way to a comfortable and comprehensive victory inside just 18 overs. Marc Inman, Ascot's overseas player for the season, contributing 72no off just 48 balls, as Royal Ascot posted the required 113 runs with the loss of just 2 wickets.
If there were any doubts as to the challenge that faced Henley 3XI this season, Saturday's events made it very clear that they will need to improve vastly if they are to compete in the league this season. This weeks fixture see's Dennison's boys host Maidenhead and Bray 2XI, the team that (comfortably) pipped them to the title last year. This will be a vital contest and Henley will be pleased to see the return of leading run scorer and player of the season, Jeremy Palmer as well as new vice-captain, Thomas Oldershaw, who last season scored two impressive centuries and an average of over 50. Onwards and upwards.
Pre-Season Friendly's: Windsor 3rd XI (toss) vs Henley 3rd XI
(Saturday 30th April 2011) Windsor 3rd XI
| S Jordan | C Kendrick | B Dennison | 20 |
| O Jordan | LBW | B Dennison | 5 |
| P Huggins | LBW | B Dennison | 5 |
| R Noble | LBW | B Gurung | 9 |
| B Lickell | St Gould | B Gurung | 86 |
| T Bullock | C Palmer | B Taylor | 9 |
| R Lewis | B Kenworthy | 0 | |
| A Gill | C Gurung | B Taylor | 18 |
| D Bean | B Dennison | 22 | |
| U Ahmed | Run Out | (Ayres) | 6 |
| A Ghattura | Not | Out | 9 |
| Extras | 25 | ||
| Total | 214-9 |
Henley 3rd XI
| Jeremy Palmer | C Lewin | B Bean | 0 |
| Prakash Gurung | C Gill | B Huggins | 104 |
| Jonathon Gould | B Bean | 4 | |
| Alex Johnson | B Bean | 0 | |
| Marc Ayres | B Gill | 3 | |
| Tim Kendrick | C Jordan | B Bean | 1 |
| Sean Taylor | B Bean | 4 | |
| Rob Kenworthy | C Bullock | B Ghattura | 12 |
| Liam Dennison | C Gill | B Huggins | 18 |
| Ronnie Pratley | LBW | B Ghattura | 1 |
| Peter Head | Not | Out | 0 |
Upcoming Events
Henley CC senior training to begin on Sunday 29th January 2012 going through to Sunday 1st April--9.00am to 11.00am
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