2018 Season Review

Reviews of our 2018 matches will appear below, along with a summary of the season so far.

Season Summary

So, how did we do.  Well, a mixeed season.  We played 13 games and won three of these.  Luckily two of these were against The Cavs, so the Ashes were regained. 

We should note that we had to call off two matches due to England doing too well in the Football World Cup.  Despite our lengthy club history this has never been an issue before.

Team numbers have been good with us often fielding a full eleven, and sometimes more.  More importantly we have welcomed several new players into the fold.  Andy, James V and Dan have fitted in superbly and all look like they could be decent cricketers.  Something we can always do with. More recently it have been good to see Robin play a few games this season.

19 May 2018 Christchurch Winchester

Team - Jon, Will, Finley, Milo, Mark Ath, Simon, Howard, Arvind, Richard from Cavs, Plus one from our opponents

25 May 2018 - The Cavaliers - Riverside Park

Team - Will, Jon, Finley, Milo, Ethers, Other Mike, Simon, Howard, Matt Shroff, Andy J, Mole

A rare luxury for BP with twelve players available, including our new recruit Andy.  We quickly arranged to sell our skipper to the Cavs (for one packet of crisps), and lined up eleven-a-side.  Just like in real cricket.

The Cavs won the toss and elected to bat.  Milo and Jon put the pressure on and wickets started to fall. With plenty of options available Will rotated the bowlers on what was a hot afternoon.  This included Andy making his bowling debut for the club.

The Cavs picked up at the start of the second half of their innings but were then pinned back by some excellent bowling by Matt S, who picked up 3 for 5.  There was a runout featuring great work by Ethers, and an all round solid fielding display from BP.  Just like in real cricket (this is worrying - Ed). The Cavs ended up being all out for 106, with our skipper run out at the end for them.  More on him later.

At this stage BP were feeling confident, and indeed things got off to a great start in our innings.  Finley and Other Mike got us to fifty without loss whilst looking very comfortable.  We started to think about finishing things off before drinks, and an early trip to the pub.  At this stage the Cavs elect to bring on Pete H to bowl. 

Fifteen minutes later Other Mike, Finley, and Will are all out thanks to our skipper (innocent whistling - Ed). Will's wicket was the pick of the dismissals with one that moved late and clipped his off stump.  Things were now not looking so rosy, and that bag of crisps appeared to have been the bargain buy of the season for the Cavs.

BP regrouped, with Matt S and Simon adding valuable runs.  With Milo out to one of those unplayable low balls it fell to Jon and Matt S to see us home.  With five wickets and several overs to spare this looked a comfortable victory in the scorebook.  On the day it did not feel so easy, with the Cavs fighting to the last ball.

Awards were then given to Matt from the Cavs for his fine bowling spell,  & Will from BP.  The champagne moment went to the Cavs wicketkeeper for an excellent catch.

We then retired to the Hop Inn for drinks and snacks. 

7th June        The Vine                Bursledon Rec

Team - Will, Jon, Milo, Finley, Simon, Andy J, Pete H, Mark A, O'Mike, Daz B

Milo's Big Birthday Bash

BPCC faced our old adversaries from the Vine at an overcast Bursledon Rec on Thursday evening. We had

10 players so pretty much a full team for us.

The Vine batted first and attacked from ball one. All the BPCC bowlers took a while to adjust to the slope,

and despite some good fielding, the batsmen raced to 80-0 off 10 overs. Things were looking threatening, but

we then started to pull it back and Pete and Will took a wicket each thanks to smart catches in the covers by

O'Mike. This slowed the scoring rate, and Finley then joined in with a nick that was well taken by reserve

keeper, Simon. The fightback was now on and Milo, the birthday boy, got Paul, their captain caught and

bowled. Will and Jon then kept things tight near the end and grabbed a wicket each,

This meant the total we were chasing was 120 - tough but could have been a lot worse.

We opened with O'Mike who promptly hit a straight six, and Finley. Both played well, but we had to score

quickly and the risks meant we were soon 20-2. Simon was then joined by Jono, and they got the score up to

59 by the 10th over. Simon went on to retire with a well made 25 no, and Mark added some great shots

before we arrived at 70-4 off 12 overs. Andy J then made his batting debut and put on good runs with Milo.

Presumably feeling that you're only 15 once, Milo then played like BPCC at a free buffet. He hit 2 enormous

sixes down the ground, and the scores started to narrow.  We started the final over needing 18 to win, and

although Milo hit another boundary, we ended on 109 all out. Milo finished 28 not out.

The Vine were hospitable as always, and we joined then in the pub for sausage and chips.

Saturday 9th June - Christ Church  Riverside Park

Team - Details are patchy. The team probably was Mark Ath, O' Mike, Simon, Milo, Finley, James J, Ethers, Arvind, Finley's mate, and Will.  

With none of our regular cricketing correspondents available for this match details of the game are slim.  Here is what we do know.

Mark Ath scored 42 not out, despite a nasty head injury.  See photo gallery for more details.

Other Mike got 46, and Milo 20.

We lost. 

Tuesday 26 June - OPCS, Sports Centre

Team - The team selected was Mark Ath, O' Mike, Simon, Arvind, Milo, Finley, Pete H, AJ, Howard, Phil M, and Will.  

It was good to get a midweek game in against OPCS, one of our oldest opponents.  We mainly lose to OPCS, and today was no exception.  This was despite key performances from Milo (22 runs and 1 for 21 off 3 overs), and Finley, with 25 not out. 

Sadly our 'more experienced' players could not match them, although credit should go to Will and Other Mike for sharing eight overs for only 39 runs. 

Maybe next time...

21 July 2018         The Cavaliers            Riverside Park

Team - Jon, Simon, Ethers, Howard, Andy, Pete H, Daz B, AJ, O'Mike, Barry, James V (not the Scottish king of that name)

At a baking Riverside Park, with grass the colour of sand, BPCC gave debuts to Barry and James, and both distinguished themselves. We were asked to bat by Cavs who welcomed back Tom who had heroically driven from Northumberland.

We opened with O'Mike and Barry who got us off to a flier on a lightning quick outfield. We were 20-0 after 2 overs but then Matt Brown cut a ball back and O'M was bowled. Barry was then well caught at mid off and we found ourselves  25 -2. Simon and Jon then tried to rebuild, and although pinned down by Matt, reached 55-2 after 10 overs. 

They then accelerated and reached 103 before Simon was bowled by the wily James for an excellent 42.  Daz then joined Jon and they took the score to 125 before Jon retired having hit his first 50 since the nineteenth century. Andy and AJ perished for quick runs, but Daz scored a very handy 22 no and aided by Howard, we finished on 153 off our 30 overs. 

The Cavaliers started more slowly due tight spells from Pete H, AJ, O'Mike and Jon and were 30 -2 after 10, with wickets from Pete and AJ. O'M then bowled Martin Tilley and after 15 overs, the Cavs were behind at 70-3. Things then got a bit weird when, with Jon bowling, Ethers suddenly stood up at the wicket and turned around to talk to long leg. Tom hit the ball up in the air, it fell to new James who got it back to the now correctly facing Ethers and Sandeep was run out. Very BPCC.......

There were then first wickets for Andy and for James and with 5 overs to go, the Cavs needed 50 more.Tight fielding by everyone especially Barry and Andy, meant we won by 10 runs despite a late assault by the Cavs. The series was won 2-0 and we adjourned to the Hop.
 

25 July 2018     Shirley CC     Sports Centre

Team - Jon, Ethers, Simon, O'Mike, Pete T, Barry Olson, Pete H, Matt S, Graham (on loan from Shirley)

The evening started badly with the news that Will, Milo, Finley and Daz were sadly unavailable.  Whilst it was tough to lose three genuine allrounders, two of which are actually very good, we still had a strong core team.  Shirley were also kind enoughh to lend us Graham, who went on to bat bowl and field rather well (can we have him next week as well?) .

BP bowled first on the open expanses of pitch one, which had been baked hard by the summer's heatwave.  Unsurprisingly Shirley got the scoreboard ticking over nicely. All bowled well, but a couple of very tricky catches went to ground, and anything loose raced to the fence, and sometimes through the fence and down the hill. 

BP are an experienced side now, and have learnt to adapt to this situation.  We calmly let their top order reach 25 and retire, in the hope that their lower order wouldn't be as good. This did eventually slow the run rate down briefly, but Shirley still posted 140 off of 20 overs.  Not impossible, but challenging.

In reply BP fought hard, but could not keep up with the run rate.  O'Mike hit a six and some fours before we sportingly called him in early on 22. It was also good to see Barry batting for us, having scored many runs batting against us in the past.  Our guest player Graham also made 25.

O'Mike was able to go back in at the end as a retired batsman managed to get past the magic 25, but that will not stop the jibes which the scorer will doubtless face for many years.

In the end we were 20 runs short in what was a highly enjoyable match.

There are a few pictures of this match on our photogallery.

1 August 2016   Shirley CC     Sports Centre

Team - O'Mike, Finley, Simon, Pete T, Mark, Will, Milo, Matt S, AJ, Pete H, Ethers, Robin

A week later and we were back at the Sports Centre for a rematch against Shirley CC. Despite the rain the previous Sunday the outfield was still hard and fast albeit with some green patches.

After our experience from last week when the team shrunk to 7 in the hours before the start, this time we were in the unusual position of having 12 and being able to lend the opponents a fielder whilst their last player was stuck in traffic.

We batted steadily and this time O'Mike retired after having actually scored 25 unlike the previous week. Milo also managed to retire n.o. and Will scored a frenetic 20 at the end to bring our score up to 121 in 20 overs. Not bad we thought, but based on last week's performance with the bat Shirley could were not out of it by any means.

Everyone bowled well, and such was our embarras de richesses in the bowling department that when Pete T had to limp off with a hamstring injury (no photos available) there were plenty for the Skippy to choose from. 

We kept them a bit behind the rate and a few excellent catches were taken - AJ's was a skier, Finley's one of those nasty ones which fall short of you but he managed to come forward to take it, and O'Mike, plucked one travelling very fast high above his head at deep slip where he had only just been placed.

Towards the end:

 Skippy to AJ "Do you fancy a bowl?"

AJ "I'm up for it" (I should think so too after that catch)

Figures 1 over, 2 wickets  6 runs. Up for it indeed.

In the end we ran out winners by about 10 runs. A Victory! Huzzah!

15th August 2018       OMCC   Sports Centre

Team - O'Mike Barry O, Will,Phil M, Mark A, AJ, Andy J, Pete H, Pete E, James V

Following our magnificent victory against Shirley last week, 10 of us, full of optimism gathered on

one of the handkerchief pitches at the Sports Centre to confront one of our regular opponents,

OMCC. Our earlier fixture against them had been called off due to rain, so this was our first

meeting of the year.

Winning the toss, we elected to bat…

Barry & O’Mike opened, and after nearly being cleaned up first ball, O’Mike dispatched the

opening over for 23 runs, including 6 sixes and a 4, retiring on 25 after the second ball of the

subsequent one.

After 3 overs we were 41- 0. It couldn’t last, and a succession of slow loopy bowlers proved

difficult to get away, though interestingly, and possibly for the first time in a BP innings there were

no dismissals. Yes, I repeat, NO DISMISSALS!

This merits a display of the batting card in full.

Barry: retired 25

O’Mike retired 25

Will (without the distraction of childcare duties) retired 25

Phil M n.o. 10

Mark A retired 26

A.J. n.o. 0

We closed on 118-0 which looked a bit light given the size of the pitch.

The OMCC innings took a similar trajectory as our own, save a single dismissal, a fine boundary

catch by AJ. After a quick start their progress was more stately, with three batsmen retiring on 25,

reaching our total in the final over.

Sadly, another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, assuming those jaws to have been set at

only 3 overs in.

18 August 2018             Eastleigh Baptist           Riverside Park

Team - Pete H, Pete E, Jon, AJ, Mark Ath, Barry Olson, Robin H, Andy J, James V, Mole, Cavaliers x 3 (James J, Matthew B, Bharath)

Following our defeat during the week BP turned up for our game against Eastleigh Baptish mob handed, with thirteen in our team.  We even had to turn down Richard from the Cavaliers, who promptly got himself into Eastleigh's more traditional eleven.

Pete H won the toss and we elected to bat. Now, whilst Eastleigh lacked our numbers, they did not lack quality. The opening bowlers were all but unplayable and we did well to finish their opening spell only three wickets down. Having done well against this opening pair Andy then fell to a slow bowler.

James V, batted well and it was good to see Robin out in the middle later in our innings. Sadly most of our batsman struggled with a challenging pitch and consistent Eastleigh attack. Wickets continued to fall.

Throughout all of this Mark Ath had stood resolute at the other end. Having got into the forties (not for the first time recently) he eventually fell towards the end of our innings whilst trying to get us to a competitive total. We ended on 89. Mark getting more than half of them.

In reply BP grabbed two early wickets and sensed there could be life in the match yet. Eastleigh however dug in and at the halfway stage were on 48. On track for victory if they played sensibly. BP were unable to slow things enough or get into the Eastleigh tail and the game in the end was comfortably won by Eastleigh.

BP can look back on two great catches (AJ and Ethers), to go with Mark Ath's knock. 

23 August 2018              Deportivo          Sports Centre

Team - 

Report...

29 August 2018              St Cross             Sports Centre

Team -  O’Mike Mark, Phil, Will, Pete H, Finley, AJ, O’AJ, Toby, Howard, Simon

An unusual game, pitch 2 at the Sports Centre playing host to a rare exact 11 from BP. As is

usually the case, in the couple of days leading up to this match three players called in their

unavailability, but amazingly in none of these cases were they on the original team list, so we

started with 11, including a first appearance of the year from Toby about whom there had been

dark rumours of retirement.

Batting first due to numbers the view from the boundary revealed that scoring was somewhat

tricky, the recent rain encouraging a more lush outfield than has been the case of late.

We ground our way slowly along with Finley retiring on 25, and a nice innings of 21 from Simon to

a light looking 84.

After the difficulties of seeing the ball in the previous week’s gloaming, we opted to use a white

ball, which proved readily visible to the end.

Bowling began with Will and O’Mike, continuing with Finley & AJ, and the combination of lush

grass and good fielding meant that St. Cross, who normally score very quickly at the start of their

innings, found scoring was as difficult for them as for us.

A notable Champagne Moment came as Mark made a diving one handed stop close to the wicket,

though whether he was diving to get out of the way is moot.

After one of their batsmen retired on 25, our only wicket was one bowled, which allowed a big

hitter to come to the crease who proceeded to find the boundary with more ease than his team

mates, and our total was reached for the second time this year with just one ball to go.

15 September 2018             Rest of the World           Cheriton Cricket Club

Team - Jon, Mark Ath, Simon, Ethers, Matt S, Andy, James V, Dan, Pete H, Robin, Phil Moulin, Howard, Mole 

For our final game of the season we elected to play against an allstars rest of the world 11, largely made up of players from Christchurch CC and Eastleigh BC. The match also featured the debut of Dan. 

With local pitches unavailable due to something called 'soccer', we took the opportunity to play at Cheriton.  A lovely ground with a proper cricket pavillion, it made us look like a real cricket team, at least until we started playing.

With BP fielding 13 players a 12 a side game took place, with BP subbing a fielder every few overs.  An early start allowed 35 overs per side.

The RotW team got off to a slow start due to accurate bowling by Matt S and Jon.  Just 18 runs of the first 8 overs.  As the game progressed RotW started to find the short boundary resulting in several delays as we rummaged for the ball amongst the hedges.

Toby from Eastleigh retired having reached his 50, and Ethers took a great catch behind the stumps.  Sadly this did not slow the run rate greatly.  BP were perhaps a little unlucky that a number of arial shots by RotW batsmen fell between two fielders, with the end result that a challenging target of 164 was set.

Seeing as we had access to the pavillion we decided to have a cricket tea, which is a rarity for us.  Being the elite sportsmen that we are the BP squad limited their refuelling. Limitted to two packets of crisps, four cocktail sausages, a chicken wing, two pork pies and a muffin.  And a slice of cake. And another muffin.

Suitably refreshed we went out to bat.  Not surprisingly we got off to a slow start.  Half a dozen overs passed before we managed to score a run off of the bat.  Extras luckily had already been scoring at a run an over. Things were not helped by Mark Ath picking up yet another injury and having to come off for running repairs. Mark has been unlucky enough to get injured in just about every game he has played this year.

This however did bring Pete H to the crease. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands by hitting an impressive 24. There were then cameos from Andy J and Dan, who both showed enough to make the 'one to look out for next season' list. Towards the end Mark was able to come back in having been patched up.  

A late charge to the line was not quite enough as we fell twelve runs short.  There was compensation however with Matt S reaching his maiden 50 for the club, in a man of the match performance.

Post match we retired to the Flower Pots for some further refuelling, this time in liquid form.

Thus ended the season.  Next up nets and the Dinner Dance.  

Pictures from this game, the rest of 2018, and seasons past are available in the picture gallery.