Penn Street vs Isleworthians and Heston

Macken makes senior debut as Penn Street win again!

Isleworthians and Heston - 166-10 off 30 (Jeremy Knox 3-33, Chris Lovewell 3-27)

Penn Street - 167-2 off 24.4 (James Sempill 60*, Peter Jupp 64*)

It is now 7 games unbeaten for PSCC as they beat Isleworthians and Heston CC on Saturday, in a last-minute change to the advertised fixture list.

Following some typical British weather in the week leading up to the game, Penn Street won the toss and elected to bowl first. The opening bowlers struggled to find their stride in the first few overs with a wet ball and a wet pitch playing on the bowlers minds. Isleworthians scored quickly in the first 10 overs, although they might have benefitted from a better defensive shot selection as a number of batsmen threw away their wickets cheaply. Archie White and Jeremy Knox can feel relatively satisfied with their contributions overall as they shared a number of wickets in their opening spells.

Persistent rain showers hampered the flow of the Isleworthians innings. A tight spell in the middle overs for Chris Lovewell, who took 3 wickets, kept Penn Street in the game, along with some excellent deliveries from Caitlin Macken who took a wicket and showed excellent promise for the future in her PSCC debut.

It was also excellent to see the return of Chris Herriott who bowled like he had never been away, taking 2 wickets (although he might have felt it a little more on Sunday morning than in previous seasons).

With rain showers persisting throughout the afternoon, Penn Street walked off at tea feeling reasonably confident in bowling Isleworthians out for 166. Their fielding performance kept the opposition under wraps with good catching and ground fielding all round.

Following a short tea interval, Alex Woest and James Sempill opened the Penn Street innings in typically circumspect fashion, with runs hard to come by as the ball struggled to make it across a wet outfield.

Woest was first to fall and will feel a little frustrated with his shot selection as he missed a ball of full length which took his off stump. Next in was Dave Jones, who immediately increased the tempo of the innings before throwing away his wicket as he miscued a pull shot to a slightly short-pitched delivery to square leg for 28, leaving Penn Street at 60-2 after 7 overs.

Pete Jupp came in and he and Sempill set about building a partnership of 116 over the next 20 overs to seal the game. Jupp produced another chanceless innings as he made 64 not out, while Sempill finally found some fluency with the bat making 60 not out as Penn Street chased down Isleworthian and Heston’s total inside 30 overs.

Hopefully Penn Street can take this fine run of form into our annual tour of Worcester this weekend.