2011 End of Season Report

Harlow CC 1^st XI in its coloured kit, kindly sponsored by local estate agents Howick and Brooker. (Thanks ‘Pres’)

"Probably one of the best seasons for many a year. With young Luke Heskett taking over from Jason McNally, it was though a big task along with losing three other experienced players, but, he did it and in some style.

The last game of the season where we beat Southend and won the championship we had seven home grown players in the team! Brilliant achievement by Luke and the team.

Also the 4^th XI winning their league was remarkable considering there was doubts about being able to raise a 4th side not so long ago, well done as well.

A moment to remember? A champagne one for me anyway - Michael Prodger in the last game of the season, scoring a 50 and his, Mum over to watch, left the ground before it happened! I understand, that 50 may have doubled Mikes aggregate for the season!

And to think we played together for years, that's how old he is!

My thanks to everyone, a great season well enjoyed"

Alan Howick

Harlow 1^st XI – Shepherd Neame Essex Cricket League Division 2 Champions 2011

Saturday 1^st XI

Luke Heskett’s first season in charge at Harlow ended in a league title win. After several departures over the winter, new players Haris Afridi, Brian Kulasena and Matt Nobes came into the side as well as new coach Mike Boyers who had an excellent effect. The new look side won the first six games on the trot and were never out of the top 2 all season ending on 275 points.

Andy McGarry and Nicky Baxter led the seam attack taking over 20 wickets each at an averaging of under 14, with McGarry bowling at just 2.54 runs per over. Baxter's efforts were overall impressive considering he had been left out of the 1st team by the previous 2 captains. Heskett, Monger and Afridi were also key members of the seam attack all contributing valuable spells throughout the season. Ahmed Khawaja again proved his class taking 32 wickets with the highlight being his excellent hat-trick in the home game against Stanford-Le-Hope. Spell of the season though had to be Baxter’s 6 wicket haul at home to Leigh-On-Sea when we had just 179 on the board.

Ahmed Khawaja scored 500 runs to go with his wickets and Rehman Ahmed wasn’t far behind with 485. Haris Afridi, Luke Monger, Nino Calvino also made valuable contributions throughout the season. Highlight knocks included Khawaja’s unbeaten hundred in the one wicket home win against Wickford, and the 200 run plus partnership between Afridi and Ahmed away to Old Southendian’s guiding the side to a 9 wicket victory.

A huge difference from this side to previous Harlow sides was the incredibly high standard of fielding. Having Baxter, Nobes and Afridi in the side provided athletic, high quality fielders in the ring who would regularly make key stops. Messenger and Kulasena would run their hearts out on the boundary ropes and added in the safe hands of McGarry, Ahmed and Khawaja in the slip cordon, this Harlow sides fielding has been the best in years. The fielding highlight being Messenger’s two catches that sealed victory in the home game against Leigh-on-Sea.

The season also saw the emergence of several youngsters contributing in the first team. Academy products Monger, Ramsay, Riddell and Messenger all played regularly, with Webb, Matt Heskett, Stopp and Wiltshire all making first team appearances. Monger took on the opening batting responsibilities at the age of just 17 and even combined them sometimes with the new ball role. Young Nino Calvino kept well and in his absence at the back end of the season, 16 year Andre Riddell proved he is one for the future, keeping superbly in the promotion and title winning games against Westcliff and Southend. The side would regularly have at least 3 players under the age of 18 and with 7 players under the age of 23 regularly in the side combined with the experience of McGarry, Afridi and Khawaja the future is bright for Harlow, and we are looking forward to challenging in the 1st division next season.

Luke Heskett

Coaches Comments…..

After the 2010 season when 3rd place meant a further year in Division 2 , expectations were high for the 2011 Season. A number of changes of personnel including a new Captain, Luke Heskett, gave the team a fresh and dynamic approach which lead to a triumphant year with the 1st XI being promoted to Division 1 as League Champions.

Everybody that played made a significant contribution. Ahmed Khawaja, Andrew McGarry, Rehman Ahmed, Haris Afridi, Luke Monger and Nick Baxter were outstanding. The Captain Luke Heskett was pivotal to everything that happened. His leadership coupled with a calm approach as well as wickets taken at important times meant we were always positive and competitive.

Above all, the team enjoyed each others company, and there was nobody who played for themselves. There were no favoured groups, just a team playing for each other, with the aim of winning the League. This approach was inspirational and is one that we hope will lead us to success in our new challenge next year.

 Mike Boyers

Saturday 2^nd XI

It was a difficult year for Harlow Second Team, with many high points and depressingly more low points. The season started in a positive fashion with Harlow posting an impressive 303 against a strong Ardleigh Green side (who ended up finishing second) and narrowly failed to achieve an early season victory, largely due to their bumbling idiot of a captain wicket keeping. However, this was not a sign of things to come, as there soon started to become problems with player availability and injury.
Harlow then went on an early to mid season trot and their lack of a killer instinct in the bowling department as a lack of composure in the batting department really cost this young Harlow side. This was epitomised by their results showing five draws, many of which Harlow held a strong position in, but were unable to finish the game off. On other occasions, these draws were nothing short of a miracle and were largely indebted to some steadfast lower order batting performances (most notably Danny Stone and Dan Stopp). However, this steadfast batting did not shine through on several occasions shown by performances against Wickford (50 a/o), Buckhurst Hill (125 & 134 a/o) and Ardleigh Green (153 a/o). Three of which resulted in 9 wicket losses, which really seemed to damage Harlow's chances of avoiding relegation. It also showed the reliance of the team upon the runs of their captain and the young and talented all-rounder Ant Webb (who unfortunately only managed 8 fixtures). Despite this large list of negatives, it was a positive season for Harlow second team with them playing some remarkable cricket on occasions. They dominated Southend-On-Sea in both fixtures, which really showed that with the correct players then they would not have been in the situation they were. The victory they achieved against Southend was largely due to a strong bowling performance, with Dan Stopp picking up 4 wickets and Danny Stone 3. Another highlight of the season was managing to puck up 7 wickets against a strong Buckhurst Hill batting side, despite only posting 134. The other victories came at the back end of the season, which really highlighted the fighting spirit that this team has acquired as they refused to allow themselves to be relegated. Firstly, they chased down 200 to beat Benfleet and then 261 to beat Horndon, both times Ant Webb putting in superb performances to finish teams off.
Although there were many negatives for Harlow Second Team this season, there was a also a lot of promise, they will have gained real experience from this season, and we hope that we will mount a significant challenge going into next year. It is unfortunately reliant on the attraction of new players as well as motiviating some of our young players, such as Ant Webb.

Jon Perry

Saturday 3^rd XI

It’s fair to say that this year it was a season of two halves. we got off to the best of starts with a comfortable win over Westcliff at home, however after that things took a downward turn losing four games on the trot. In some of these games we were completely routed - all out for 40 against Orsett or losing by one run to Loughton after nearly chasing 236. The shortage of players in general (retirements, supplying the two's, let down's and injuries) took its toil on the threes. After seven games we were bottom of Division two with only the one win. The season turned around for us with the acquisition of three new players courtesy of Faisal Javed. Sunni, Azad and Mo were introduced into the side in game week 8 (although they had been registered earlier in the season they had not played due to a couple of abandoned games). All three proved that they could bat, and Sunni being accomplished with the ball. They provided some much needed steel in the middle order, and the house of cards collapse that typified the threes up until then became a distant memory. Of the last 10 games that were played we only lost 2, whilst beating Leigh on sea (chased down 246), Billericay (bowled out for 157) and Westcliff (bowled out 70) There were also winning draws against Loughton (just needed one or two overs more to get the runs) and Leigh on sea (posted 324 in 46 overs but unable to take the final wickets despite bowling 57 overs back). Having four games abandoned due to weather etc did not help our cause either. The end of the season has come too soon for us, had we had this team at the start of the season I am confident we would have been in the mix for promotion. However to comfortably finish sixth is an achievement of sorts after the disastrous start.

Special acknowledgements must go to Faz who once again proved himself to be Mr Reliable, be a real team player, and a man who is able to chip in the odd 144 not out (LOS) not to mention reaching 2nd in the league for runs 347.

And to John Perry and Rob Coldwell, the two's and four's captains, whose common sense approach made it a far easier season than in previous years.

Roll on next season.

Dave Whellams

Saturday 4^th XI

Well, what a season! After the initial uncertainty for the existence of the 4XI we ended the season as champions!! Though I knew I had assembled a good group of players and some promising youngsters within the club mixed up with a few of the senior players, I was confident of doing well. At this level I have always maintained that all you need to be competitive for honours is 2 or 3 guys who can bat and the same with bowling options and we had exactly that. In fact we had more bowling that batting!

We bowled five sides out for under 90 this season, sometimes poor opposition maybe but take nothing away from the bowlers I had at my disposal, in league games we had four players who picked up more than 10 wickets, Niall Lawless (38wkts) Dave Lambert (25) Joe Riddell (18) and Rob Coldwell (11). Lots of others chipping in as well.

Batting wise we had 5 players who scored 50's or more and I think this represents some major progress for the Harlow 4s. Dave Rogerson looked solid throughout, relishing his new role opening the batting but scoring 413 runs in 13 innings with a top score of 97, made at The Garrison ground against Southend & EMT when we chased down 216 to win the game. I chipped in with over 600 runs top score of 101 v Old Southendian’s, Dave Lambert nearly 200 and some of the youngsters, James, Sean and Alex Coldwell all scored over 100 runs as well, as did Lewis Porter.

We got off to a good start winning at Loughton by 8 wickets, lost our next two then won the following three games! So a bit inconsistent first half of the season. We lost 3 games to the weather in this time too, but such was the tightness in the league, we didn't drop out of the top 5 places.

The turning point for us was to be the game at home to league leaders all season, Shenfield. I did some homework on their results prior to the game, noticing they hadn't won a game all season batting first (which was the case for the duration of their season), on winning the toss I had no hesitation in putting them into bat. We were fired up that day and bowled them out for 77 with Niall Lawless doing the damage with 5-32 and Lewis Porter 4-26. We lost 5 wickets on the way, Dave Rogerson holding firm with 34*, getting the total but this was to prove a vital win for us.

I recall Dave Lambert saying to me before the game 'Rob, if we win this game we'll go on to win the league!' well how right he was. For the next 5 games after the Shenfield victory we won 4 of them, all convincingly.

In the penultimate game of the season we had 7 regulars unavailable due to holidays, but a makeshift 4XI still managed to bowl out Chingford for 80 ! I was away in Spain biting my nails as the updates of the run chase came through, 0-2 then 39-3 to 59-6 when the rain came and stopped the game for an hour. On resumption we were bowled out for 70.

Not a good day, but by some miracle both the 2nd & 3rd place teams lost as well so we were still top going into the last game of the season. I couldn't believe our luck!!

Needing just 2pts for promotion and a win would give us the title and join our successful First X1 in being Champions we went into the Ilford game full of confidence. We bowled them out for 61 with Niall Lawless 6-14 and Joe Riddell 4-16 sharing all the wickets. We didn't take long in knocking the runs off, we lost a couple of wickets in doing so but I managed to hit the winning runs and close what was a fantastic season for us.

We have some great youngsters coming through, Joe Barrett, Joe Riddell, Charlie Langley, Jake Messenger to name a few, mixed in with a few older ones to help them progress, we had a season to be proud of.

Rob Coldwell  

Sunday 1^st XI

Sunday team end of season report

First I would like to say that I am indebted to the people that played for the Sunday XI, and to the people that help on the Sunday to make things run smoothly. This season I wanted to make Sunday cricket more about an enjoyable game where everyone got to be involved in some form, rather than winning at all costs.

Having said this, the Sunday team won 50% of their games. With the games that we lost being against teams that fielded over half of their first XI (Stort and Chelmsford twice did this).

Selection for the Sunday team suffered throughout the season due to varying reasons, University, work, hangovers, playing for the millers, matchplay fixtures and various other reasons (47 different players in total).  This taken into account I was only unable to field a team on 1 weekend.

Some players made themselves available consistently and formed the backbone of the team, the likes of Kyle Farmer, Dipendra Basent, Jack Davies and Tom Gravelle all of whom played over 8 games in the season.

There have been several noticeable performances this year for me, Luke Heskett’s 150+ after appearing to be caught at slip for 0 walking 5 yards towards the pavilion, then changing his mind. Dip hitting 22 of his first 5 balls much to everyone’s amazement, and Surath’s one handed diving catch at mid-on (having run from Mid-Off) on the last day of the season. A special mention needs to go for the sterling work of George Messenger at Roydon away. After being dismissed cheaply he took it upon himself to go and buy the remaining beer in the village shop and distribute it throughout the team, top work.

The social side of the Sunday XI saw an improvement with more players staying for a drink after games, noticeably Charlie Allen, George Messenger and Tom Gravelle, who normally had ones before the game had started.  A big thanks goes to Sheila for keeping the bar open after long days and an even bigger thank you to Sophie for making the teas for the home games. It was generally agreed that her teas would be hard to beat!

Some stats

Batting 

Bowling

Senior Awards 2011:

• 1st XI Player of the Year - Nick Baxter

• 2nd XI Player of the Year - Danny Stone

• 3rd XI Player of the Year - Faz Javed

• 4th XI Player of the Year - Niall Lawless

• Sunday Player of the Year - Jack Davies

• U21 Player of the Year - Luke Monger

• U18 Player of the Year - Ant Webb

• Clubmen of the Year - Pip and Andre Riddell 

Colts Review

 There have been a lot of ups for the Colts so far in 2011…..

The Club had:

• 160 Colts

• 6 More volunteers going on the Level 1 Coaching Course in the winter

• Its Clubmark accreditation renewed

• Had the new nets installed in the winter

• One of our Colts, Luke Monger played for Northants this season

• George Kenny played for Hertfordshire this season

• Another Colts, Maeve Dunlea accepted into the Essex u13 Girls squad

• The start of the Harlow CC Academy which we hope to carry on for the foreseeable future

• Its first Summer Camp which went well and again we hope to carry on for the foreseeable future
   

Unfortunately, on the down side the Colts teams have had another mixed season with some of the teams not always performing as well as we had hoped

However the Under 11 team bucked the trend by winning not only the WEDCB Southern Division but beating Epping Forest in the North/South play off

Despite the mixed team results the important thing is that not only did the Colts continue to move from junior cricket into senior cricket but moved up through the ranks of the senior teams.

On the last Saturday when all 4 senior teams played, 40% of the players that played that day had risen from the ranks of the Colts.

On the last Saturday when the I XI secured promotion as Champions, 7 of the players were home grown players including the captain.

The IV XI also secured promotion as Champions and again home grown players figured prominently.

The Club would like to say a very big thank you to all the Coaches and parents who have helped to coach the Colts during the winter and the summer this year. There are too many people to name individually without forgetting someone but thank you to them all nevertheless.

As well as the Colts who have taken the Level I coaching courses, the Club would like to thank all those young people and Colts have helped on Thursdays during the summer:

Sophie, Gabriella, Charlie, Jack, Joe, Molly, Oliver and probably a few more who we have temporarily forgotten for which we apologise.

They have all been an enormous help.

However, the Club would like to say a special thank you to the 5 team managers for running the Colts squads: 

• Arthur Steward – u10

• Simon Baulcomb – u11

• Andre Riddell –u13

• Simon Radbourne –u15

• Pip Riddell - u16

We now look forward to the winter with winter nets at St Nicholas starting mid-September and Leventhorpe starting mid-October.

Paul Baxter

Colts Manager

 Facilities

Over the winter of 2010-11 the club invested in a £40,000 brand new net facility, over the course of several months members of the club assisted in taking down and disposing of the old nets before outside contractors came in and erected the new ones, the facility was well used during the summer, the club would like to thank all those who assisted in making this possible. Some images of the work and the opening ceremony are shown below….

Achievements by Young Members of Harlow CC in 2011

Representative Cricket was achieved by the following of the clubs young cricketers in 2011:

Luke Monger – Northants u17 and u19

Joe Barrett – West Essex u15

George Kenny – Hertfordshire u14

Jake Messenger – West Essex u13

Joe Riddell – West Essex u13

Maeve Dunlea – Essex u13 Girls

Conor Mak – West Essex u11

Jay Lowles – West Essex u11

 Joe Jenkins – West Essex u11

Max Baulcomb – West Essex u11

Thomas Smith-Hughes – West Essex PDG

John Tasker – West Essex PDG

Louis McArdell  - West Essex PDG

Colts Trophies Winners

Under 10 Player of the Year – Thomas Smith-Hughes

Under 11 Player of the Year – Jay Lowles

Under 13 Player of the Year – Shahzaib Asghar

Colt of the Year – Lloyd Sykes

Under 11 Squad that won the WEDCB League

Max Baulcomb

Jack Melaugh

 Jay Lowles

Tyler Dobson

Connor Mak

Mustafa Shah

Joe Jenkins

Jack Ellis

 Ben King

 Harry Burton

 Samir Irfan