Penn Street vs Chipperfield Clarendon CC

Penn Street CC 136-2 (Sam Hennell 69, C. Russell 45)

Beat

Chipperfield Clarendon CC (C. Watford-Humphteys 35, D. Jones 4-12, K. Velau 4-25)

By 8 wickets

On Sunday last week, the second game of the 2025 season commenced against Chipperfield Clarendon CC. Penn Street were off to a flying start when not one, not two, but three players turned up to the wrong ground. Thanks to Josh for putting the wrong address in the group chat! This first mishap of the day out the way, Penn Street were just about ready to play on a chilly Sunday afternoon.

Penn Street were bowling first. Vish and Jeremy Knox opened the bowling and with a staggering 83% of fantasy players picking Vish, and 67% picking Jeremy, the pressure was on for the pair to perform. Vish took the first wicket in the 7^th over of the innings with a beautiful inswinger catching the edge of the bat, landing straight into the safe hands of Sam Martin behind the stumps. These opening spells only saw one wicket fall, leading to an unfortunate 0 points for Jeremy Knox in the opening weekend. But Penn Street were off to a strong start with Chipperfield struggling at 36/1. 

Charlie Tollerfield and Steve Smith were next up to bowl, and in true Charlie fashion his first ball went barrelling down leg, followed by some generous umpiring who somehow did not give it a wide. However, with his bad balls out the way, he kept going and ended up with a wicket in his final over. Dismissing the other opening batter for Chipperfield, the commentators describing it as a ‘yorkery-ish type ball’ hitting middle stump. Steve Smith came on from the other end with his unorthodox catapulting technique, stunning the Chipperfield batters, bowling some simply unplayable balls, ending with figures of 0/33 off 5. This bowling partnership had left Chipperfield 103/2 off 21 with Penn Street still hunting for the remaining 8 wickets.

Enter Penn Street’s resident Welshman, Dave Jones with an impressive spell, bowling 5 overs and taking 4 wickets to break into Chipperfield’s tail. His first wicket fell with the batsman charging towards the ball and missing it, leading to the first unconventional stumping of the day – Sam Martin barely catching it and spilling/throwing the ball onto the stumps. 2 balls later another wicket fell, with a top edge flying towards Sam Hennell with a lovely take over the shoulder. The collapse didn’t stop there, from the other end  Kiri was introduced to the attack, taking a wicket in his first over with a well bowled ball rearranging the batters stumps.

The pair of them single handedly dismissed the remaining 8 wickets with a few notable highlights throughout. One being the second unconventional stumping of the day which consisted of Sam Martin catching the ball but in all his excitement for the stumping opportunity dropping it. Which then lead to what can only be described as ‘thrusting’ the ball into the stumps, potentially the first recorded stumping with a crotch. Another notable wicket was a Rob Sutherland ‘Jonty Rhodes like catch’. A fantastic diving catch at gully to open up his season is style. Dave Jones finished his spell with impressive figures of 4-12 off 5, with Kiri’s figures just as impressive ending on 4-25 off 3.5 overs, taking the final wicket leaving Chipperfield 132 all out off 29.5 overs. A target deemed chasable by the predominantly batting heavy Penn Street side. 

Sam Hennell and Chris Russell opened the batting for Penn Street looking to chase down the 132 set by the opposition. With Chris facing the first ball, Penn Street looked comfortable at the wicket, with both players putting on an incredible shift. Sam Hennell was looking to change his form from last season, after having a batting average of 9.5. He seemed to do this quickly as he found himself hitting Penn Street’s first 50 of the season after just 47 balls at the crease. An amazing display of batting which remarkably was achieved without without using the middle of his bat. At the other end Chris Russell was also chipping away, perhaps in a more sensible manner. Between the two of them it was clear that this was the first game of the season as match fitness was lacking. With little to no running between the wickets occuring, even hitting it almost for 4 with no fielder in the way for … 1 run.

With Sam Hennell finally dismissed for 69 to a good catch, which seemed to have been coming for a long time, Rob Sutherland took to the crease and punched away a beautiful cover drive which raced for 4 runs. Unfortunately, he was bowled out for 6 , with the finish line in sight. Next in was Ajith, who seemed to have gotten a bit too comfortable sat down on the boundary, a bacon butty in his hand which was quickly finished before he made his way out to the middle. With Penn Street edging ever closer to their target there were a few conversations flowing on the boundary, mainly that of if  Chris would reach his 50? With little runs required and Chris edging closer it was going to be tight, however a wide ball running away for 4 saw those hopes diminish. Before everyone had to endure the longest few overs of their lives with Chris needing 6 to reach his 50 and the team needing 1 run to win the game. Chris blocked out comfortably, completely unaware of the team on the sideline all wanting to go home for a pint. Blocking out the attack looking for the perfect ball to launch for 6 and his 50, unfortunately for him that ball never came and he punched away for 4 to win the game for Penn Street, ending on an impressive 48 not out.

The game finished with Penn Street winning by 8 wickets and taking the first win of the season in full flow hoping this would be a sign of the things to come in the 2025 cricket season.

PSCC: Chris Russell; Sam Hennell; Rob Sutherland; Ajith Pillai; Vishal Goundar; Jeremy Knox; Steve Smith; Dave Jones; Sam Martin (Captain); Charlie Tollerfield; Kiri Velau. Scorer: Cally Sutherland