On a sunny Saturday morning the Hillhead troops gathered under the captaincy of Jim Lindley-Dawe and made our way down the M74 to Pudsey Congs, Leeds. Following some delicious rolls from Gregg’s at Southwaite services (No Square to Alex’s disgust) we felt in fine fettle for the game ahead. We were dressed to the 9s with some fabulous tour tops (organised by Alex) and a bucket hat from Jim.
Everyone arrived at the Britannia stadium in one piece, and after a good stretch off we elected to field first. The wicket was looking a cracker the weather set for a fine spectacle. A great crowd had gathered for Jim Lindley-Dawe’s home coming, Pudsey Congs a club he played at for 18 years and the ground was looking superb.
Hillhead opened up with Krushnesh Patel following an impressive off season in the nets, unfortunately he struggled to find his length and the Congs opener Duncan Heath took no prisoners sending 3 of the first 4 balls of the over to the boundary. Gav Lynch returning from a winter in the wilderness of Tain limbered up and bowled a maiden like he’d never been away!
Congs put on a strong opening partnership with Heath and Congs Skipper Ross Kettlewell complementing each other’s styles well. Shash Mazumdar made the breakthrough following some tight overs, Heath (29) tried to hit out and was well caught by Jack Holland on his return to the Hillhead side in the 11th over. 51/1.
John Dew on his debut for Hillhead dismissed the other opener Kettlewell (25) finding the edge and Veteran Paul Bartlett taking a sharp catch in the slips. 70/2. Congs steadily rebuilt, running the singles well and punishing the odd bad ball with Richard Jubb and Om Behera causing no alarms. Dew picked up his second wicket of the day nipping one back and getting Jubb (19) LBW in the 20th over. 94/3.
Lindley-Dawe turned to his spin options of Jared Bartlett and Cammy Horn, both bowled better than their figures perhaps suggest, not helped by the lightning quickness of the outfield at the Brit. Jared eventually broke the partnership of 56 between Behera and Moiz Naveed (32) with his father P. Bartlett taking the catch. 150/4, 28th over.
Enter Mark ‘Sparky‘ Forbes, a man with a renewed vigour this season following taking on the 2XI captaincy. Mark’s rhythm was the best seen in years and he started to tear into the Congs lower order, taking 4 for 18 off his first 3 overs. Although his final 2 overs went for a bit of tap by Tom Marshall, (30*) and Raman Athwell (29) whilst he was trying to search for the magic ball to bring up his 5-for he could definitely walk off the pitch at half time with his head held up high.
A very strong performance in the field backed up by some good accurate bowling.
Pudsey Congs 246/9 dec off 39.5 overs
D. Heath 29, R. Kettlewell 25, O. Behera 33, M. Naveed 32, T. Marshall 30*, R. Athwell 29.
Mark Forbes 4/51, J. Dew 2/27.
Hillhead opened up with Lindley-Dawe and Patel and got off to a steady start going along at 5s until Patel (19) was out caught by Adam Patrick off the bowling of Zak Stolarski. 36/1. Ganu Adarkar batting #3 hit a nice 4 but was then out 2 balls later. 42/2.
Many may have a feared a collapse at this stage but onto the pitch strolled the ever confident Jack ‘Dutchy’ Holland and it was obvious that him and Jim love batting together. Holland was aggressive taking the attack to the bowlers whereas Lindley-Dawe was (to the great surprise of the Congs faithful!) patient, found the gaps well and ran hard.
These 2 put on a well-made 107 run partnership and whilst they were batting many could imagine Hillhead bringing the victory home. Heath, a very experienced cricketer showed his class and was very difficult to get on top of, and managed to bowl 3 maidens in his 8 over spell, only going for 19 runs.
As the required run rate was rising the lads tried to get on with it but unfortunately Holland, (53) was caught out off the clever bowling of Behera and Lindley-Dawe (60) fell 2 overs later trying to hit the returning opener Athwell over the top. 155/4 off 31 overs.
With Hillhead requiring 90 off the last 9 overs it was a difficult task, Mazumdar, (batting with a broken pinky) J. Bartlett, Thornhill and Dew all gave it their best but fell cheaply. Horn (17*) gave a brief cameo innings at the end but unfortunately it was not to be. A special mention to Congs’ standard of fielding as it was superb and something that all the lads mentioned after the game. It will be the standard we strive to achieve as a cricket club going forward.
Hillhead 191/8 off 40 overs.
J. Lindley-Dawe 60, J. Holland 53
R. Athwell 2/16, Z. Stolarski 2/47, O. Behera 2/49.
Thank you once again to Pudsey Congs for their hospitality and for everyone who helped make this game happen.
A special shout out to Tracey and the ladies who put on an amazing tea for the lads who all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the bowlers! There was a selection of sandwiches, pasta, pizza, chips and most importantly plenty of cakes and a grand pot of tea!
It is the first time that Hillhead have travelled to England to play cricket since 2008, and hopefully this will be first of many! All the lads can hold their heads high getting beat by a quality side.
The skippers enjoying a catch up after the game!
A lovely photo showing off the fantastic cricketing facilities at Pudsey Congs.