Chingford Cricket Club

A Review of the 2021 Season

The lockdown until late March meant no AGM could be held in person and also no-one could do any preseason training so – following the road map below, players went straight into the April games and some injuries inevitably resulted.

So for the first two scheduled  weeks of the season, teas and spectators were banned, clubhouses out of bounds plus no dressing rooms but nevertheless we got the season underway in bitterly cold conditions on Sat April 10.

Restrictions eased in the defined stages but a key one remained in that car sharing to matches was not allowed in April, meaning the League Committee ripped up the League Cup draw and replaced it with everybody playing their next door neighbours. We beat Woodford Wells and Fives and Heronians and then in June went out to Hornchurch at the Quarter Final stage.

Results in 2021 were as follows:

The League Committee took the sensible step to reverse the time and overs matches, which in my opinion had always been a complete anomaly anyway. Other than this the competition was to run smoothly albeit with no catering permitted and Chingford had also taken the decision to revert to four Saturday xis.

The 1^st xi season proved a bit of a struggle in the Premier League but we achieved safety by securing 8^th place. A somewhat disappointing performance fuelled by erratic availability of a number of the better players yet having said that there are only 9 other occasions in the Club’s history when the 1s have finished in the top 8 in Essex. Andy MacGregor with 393 runs and Peter McDermott with 326 were the only batsmen to pass 300 runs, whilst Essex staffer Feroze Khushi hit the only century v Fives and Heronians in the League Cup. Liam Lannen led the way with the ball with 32 wickets at 14 apiece, while Skipper Alex Stokoe picked up 22 at 19 each. Best bowling of the season was Ben MacGregor with 6-98 v eventual Champions Chelmsford.

The 2^nd xi nursed a massive hangover from the winless 2020 season and with the 1^st xi under strength hence on many occasions found themselves with their best players on 1^st xi duty. The result was the team struggled to compete in the Premier Division and finished bottom by a considerable margin. There were few highlights although Jibran Mirza hit 325 runs in total and with the ball Talal Sultan contributed 21 wickets including 7-37 v Ilford.

Faizan Awan’s 3^rd xi also looked doomed in early August but a late rally saw a few vital wins secured which carried them to safety in Division 2. As usual these days Ali Butt was the leading run scorer with 482 and Bilal Kamal hit an impressive 126 v Harlow 4^th. With the ball, skipper Faizan Awan led from the front, returning 45 wickets at 12 apiece which contributed greatly to him bagging The Bunny Swinfen Trophy for the first time.

Stuart Cox led the 4^th xi for the first time and did an excellent job as they finished runners-up in Division 1 West. With only 1 promotion slot available to the 3 runners up in the Regional 4^th xi Div 1 Leagues, this is a very difficult Division to get out of. Stuart also uncovered a wealth of talent from amongst the Colts parents which added considerably to the team’s strength and a number of promising Colts began to deliver. Stuart was ably assisted by former 1^st xi Captain Jamie Hill who as one would expect proved a positive role model to all the youngsters. Newcomer Bernard Storm smashed 539 runs in just 10 innings in his own inimitable style ably assisted by the Captain and Vice-Captain With the ball Nick van Arkle proved a handful with his left arm seamers delivering 17 wickets, while Stephen Thorne returned the best bowling performances with 7-26 v Ilford 5^th and 7-28 v Goresbrook 3^rd.

The Sunday xi after 2 years with just 1 defeat reverted to type as for a variety of reasons we lost the services of most of the better batsmen who had served us so well in that period, yet we still had a full house of bowlers. This led to some less than well balanced sides and some erratic results at times as we finished 6^th in Chess Valley League Division 3, but nevertheless 8 games were won overall. Ross Simmons’ batting has come on in leaps and bounds and he was leading run scorer with 439, followed by Lewis Dixon with 316 and Harry Houldsworth with 300. James Bridge with 263 at 43.83 was in superb form until his season was truncated very early, following breaking a bone in his leg. With the ball the spin department as usual dominated proceedings with George Duke (27 wickets), Talal Sultan (24) and Scott Prestedge (24) all making consistent valuable contributions.

On the international scene the Club were delighted to see Dan Lawrence make his England debut in January 2021 away to Sri Lanka, and the Club received some welcome publicity in the National Media as we were badgered by journalists wanting to know more about the product of our Colts system. By the turn of the year Dan had featured in 8 tests overall v India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka with a highest score of 81* v New Zealand. Dan was also selected for the Ashes tour of Australia but sadly did not feature in any of the 5 tests.