28/09/2021
Comberton CC 2021 Season Review
Comberton CC finished 6th out of 10 in the Cambridgeshire Cricket Association Junior 3 West Division in 2021 winning 8 and losing 8 games. We also finished 4th out of 5 in Division 2 of the Cambridge Business House League, having been promoted in 2019. There were numerous close and exciting matches, many of which were decided only in the final over. We welcomed several new and returning players to the club this year and it was great to enjoy a full season of cricket. 27 games in total were played including friendlies and midweek games.
The season began well with a pre-season friendly win over St Giles (Dip Patel 96 and Luke Osbourne 5-17) before we had a 138-run win over Bar Hill with Patel (71), Tom Ashmore (34), and Warren Fitzhenry (3-0 on debut) all impressing. An 8 wicket win against Milton II followed with Tom Kirker (3-12), Patel (3-24 and 42) and Fitzhenry (38) doing the damage. We then experienced 21 and 17-run defeats to Qualcomm (Patel 41*) and St Giles III (Patel 30) before beating Madingley II by just 3 runs (Patel 42 and 4-27). A narrow 2 wicket defeat against Longstowe ensued despite runs for Madu Gedara (52), Derek Wick (39) and Fitzhenry (31), and wickets for Nigel Cook (4-47). There were then defeats to Cherry Hinton by 6 wickets in the Lower Junior Cup and to Swaffham Bulbeck by 8 wickets (Krishna Varadhan 35). A 4 wicket win against Cam Kerala II was next up with Fitzhenry (3-11) again leading the way. June was completed by two midweek defeats to Milton (Patel 52* in the first game), a final over 3 wicket win against Harlton (Kirker 3-10, Patel 34 and Gedara 31) and another tight 2 wicket loss to Longstowe (Vinny Samways 58). After a 20-run defeat to Cambourne III chasing a low score (David Gresham 4-20 and Cook 3-21) we beat Parkside by 47 runs with Ed Willan (41), Kirker (33*) and Gresham (4-23) all performing well. We then fell to an 89-run loss to league winners NCI III, and it would have been worse but for superb bowling from Fitzhenry (6-19). There were subsequent defeats to Qualcomm by 34 runs (Kirker 3-21), Cambourne III by just 1 run (Wick 30, Gedara 34, Kirker 33), Swaffham Bulbeck by 3 wickets (Osbourne 33* and Ed Kirker 3-39) and Madingley II by 9 wickets which saw us slip down both league tables. The loss to Cambourne III was especially agonising after the middle and lower order had almost taken us to victory. Our next game against NCI III was rained off after lower order runs from Cook (55) and Tom Preece (36) had taken us to a competitive total at the midway point. A final ball, 2-run defeat against St Giles III (Gresham 3-35, Patel 72) followed before we closed out the season with excellent wins against Milton II by 3 wickets (Cook 4-18), Cam Kerala II by 89 runs (Patel 75, Will Glasse 4-10 and Varadhan 3-18) and Bar Hill by 105 runs (Samways 84*, Patel 53 and Coral Reeves 4-3), and an enjoyable end of season friendly and BBQ against Billericay St Johns (Reeves 51, Oscar Swift 3-9).
We hope all who have played this summer have enjoyed themselves and it has been great to get a full season of cricket completed this year given the events of the past 18 months. A big thank you goes to Ken Gifford and Tom Preece for preparing the square and organising the teams each week!
1st XI Batting D Patel 454 runs @ 37.83
1st XI Bowling N Cook 20 wickets @ 10.20
Midweek Batting D Patel 125 runs @ 62.50
Midweek Bowling E Kirker, W Glasse, D Gresham, T Kirker (shared) 5 wickets each
Players Player T Kirker
MVP Award D Patel
Best Batting Performances
D Patel 96 Friendly XI vs St Giles
P Samways 84* 1st XI vs Bar Hill
D Patel 75 1st XI vs Cam Kerala II
D Patel 72 1st XI vs St Giles III
D Patel 71 1st XI vs Bar Hill
Best Bowling Performances
W Fitzhenry 6-19 1st XI vs NCI III
L Osbourne 5-17 Friendly XI vs St Giles
C Reeves 4-3 1st XI vs Bar Hill
W Glasse 4-10 1st XI vs Cam Kerala II
N Cook 4-18 1st XI vs Milton II
