On paper, looking at the final table of 2018 season most would be inclined to think that promotion to the Premier Division was possibly a step to far. Whilst that is understandable, we were far from being out of our depth. With an emphatic win over the promoted Hampton Hill on the final game being supported by results elsewhere going in our favour, Newdigate finished the season in 8th place a heathy 9 points above our closest, relegated rival. To add some perspective, we were under 30 points from 3rd place and through the season beat all the top 5 teams.

A summary of results shows 7 wins and 10 loses and 1 game abandoned due to wet weather.

In the batting department, we had some truly excellent performances mirrored with disappointing ones. Being rolled for 64 after toiling in the heat as Long Ditton racked up 280 wasn’t our finest hour. Although posting 287 against Hampton Hill in a must win game was extremely satisfying.

Individual performances saw our first season since the introduction of Tom O’Malley in 2015, that our overseas player hasn’t topped the averages. This Year Dave Arnold scored just shy of 300 runs in the 10 games played, at an average of 37.38. Along the way his standout performance was his innings against Shepperton where he carried his bat to an unbeaten 99*. This was also the highest score for Newdigate this term. Other worthy mentions go to Andy Kehl who towards the back end of the year really made the most of a bump up the order. In his last 5 games, he scored nearly 200 runs at an average in the 90’s. Our highest run scorer was overseas Matt Dedes accumulating a total of 459 runs at just over 30. A good solid year from Matt who offered us quality both with bat, ball and in the field. We wish him well.

Bowling stats look a little down on previous seasons, a good year for Allan Cooper taking 40 league wickets at 12.48 a piece claims the team’s highest wicket/lowest average for the season. A purple patch in which he took 3 consecutive five wicket halls helped him finish 2nd in the overall league bowling performances being beaten by a single wicket. In an injury hit campaign Ben Crook still managed to take 19 wickets at just over 18 and Andy Kehl took 17 wickets also at 18.

Overall it was decent season, we have always been looking for new people to come in and challenge the existing team and this year saw a number of new players, the likes of Samuel Clark and Harry Ellis bought and injection of youth to the set up and more experience though Lewis Davies and Kevin Goldsmith gave us a good balance. Long may that continue.

After 5 years at the helm I shall be passing the captaincy on this year. The past 5 seasons have no doubt been my most enjoyable. I believe the team has so much potential and have developed a real winning mentality. The team is very different and I feel it’s in a great position to take the next step. If trends are anything to go by, next year should see us crowned champions as we have now had our ‘acclimatising’ season.

Big thanks this year go to James Penfold, who in difficult circumstances has taken on a larger role than he wanted and done a great job. Paul and Charlie with their massive support in player selection and listening to my occasional rants!! Everyone who still do so much around the club to make it as presentable as it is.

And finally, everyone that has personally shown me support of the last 5 years (too many to mention) Especially the last couple of years that have been tough from a personal point of view.

Allan Cooper

Saturday 2nd XI

We played 14, won 8, drew 1, lost 4 and tied 1 and we ended up finishing in third place. I think this was an amazing achievement considering the availability of players we had.

We had two stand-out performers this season. With the bat we had Dan Jones who scored 464 runs with a notable 122 not out. With the ball we had Will Bowley with 26 wickets and a best of 7-47. Both these players won the league awards for their skill.

I would like to thank Jack Bowley for putting the results on play-cricket every week, the pitch rollers and outfield cutters, Christine Hartt for the teas and Martin Earp for the bar.

I would like to thank Allan Cooper and especially Charlie Major for helping me to get a team out every week and I would like to wish my successor the est of luck for 2019.

Paul Bettesworth

Sunday XI

2018 was my first season as the Sunday XI captain at NCC. So, I am not in a position to compare my experience with the previous year. However, feedbacks from different sources suggest that it was an OK season with things needing improvement. I learnt that captaining a Sunday XI is not only about captaining the team, but also recruiting players from all available sources, liaising with the opposition team and manage drop-outs, re-arrange fixtures, constantly keeping updates on weather changes, making drinks, hanging score-boards, finding pens and score-books, placing markers and boundary flags, pegging the stumps, getting the wall-clock out. I kept on failing at the beginning, made James really annoyed with my continuous failures and he eventually decided to put up a ‘To-Do-Post and Pre-Match’ notice everywhere in the club house!

It was quite a busy season and we had quite a mix of players from all ages – some colts, some coaches, some Dads, some mid-week players, players from 1st XI and 2nd XI, some new players and also some returning players. There are about 34 players who played for the Sunday XI in 2018.

Available Fixture at the beginning of the season – 17.

Match played – 11

Limited overs (6 matches)

Won 4 vs BBC Bushmen, The Badgers, Leigh and Westcott CC

Lost 2 vs Temple Sheen and Portsmouth Tigers

T20 matches

Won 1 vs Reigate and Redhill Wanderers

Lost 1 vs Coldharbour

Timed matches

Won 1 vs the Cricket Society

Drawn with Nuthurst

We lost 7 fixtures (2 due to League Cup, 2 due to rain, 1 for prosecco cricket, 1 for withdrawal – Old Dorkinians, 1 conceded vs Wellington)

A couple of fixture were arranged in Sept; one was played vs Teddington Town where the visitors won, the other two vs Royal Challengers and the Old Kingstonians did not take place due to bad weather.

Stats, performance and Trivia:

Overall, we had seen a good level of participation in the matches from all part of the club. There were some regular participation from the 2nd XI through Will Bowley, Jack Bowley, Sean Roast – all of whom have enjoyed the matches with their Bats and Balls. The Moon brothers always gave me advantages with some quick runs on the board and some wickets when needed. Rubin Flower – a consistent bowler and Mark De Vrij were among the regular faces. The Kehl family members have enjoyed quite a memorable season with Sunday XI – Fiona kept on improving with her cutters, Ian was impressive with his tight bowling and some valuable runs lower down the order. The image of Ian dismissing Rob Humphreys (the Cricket Society), diving forward off his own bowling – will remain in a lots of people’s memory, especially to on the field Andy, and to Steve and Tricia at the gallery. Andy opened the batting in one occasion and made the promotion count by scoring a century!

Some Key performances are here –

Bowling:

Mark De Vrij – 30/5 (6 overs) vs Wescott CC

Rubin Flower – 25/4 (8 overs) vs The Badgers CC

James Bennett – 29/4 (8 overs) vs West Chiltington and Thakeham CC

Consistently good bowling from Jacob Moon, Will Bowley, Sean Roast and Fiona Kehl.

Batting:

Matt Dedes had a good time with his batting and got a few good innings – two centuries and a couple of half centuries. The other stand out batting performances were –

Will Rowland – 144 not out vs Leigh;

Richard Callcut – 122 not out vs Westcott; 57 vs W. Chiltington; and 84 vs Portsmouth Tigers;

Andrew Kehl – 113 vs Nuthurst;

William Bowley – 88 not out vs The Cricket Society;

Jack Bowley built the solidity in the middle orders in a couple of matches; Adam Moon chipped in with consistent batting performance. It was great to see his hard-hitting innings and he scored a few half-centuries too, with a very high strike rate.

Some outstanding performances from the opposition

We faced some tough opposition and some quality players in 2018 season. I particularly remember Nick Adams, Mark Bounds and A J Martins from Leigh. These three batsmen scored over 150 combined and they were a good act to watch.

West Chiltington’s top order tested our bowlers and scored over 100 losing only two wickets at the start. Philip Martin and Raj Kuchhadia were the star batters.

Temple Sheen Eccentrics set up their victory with the solid start from their first 4 batsmen who all scored half-centuries or near half centuries.

The grittiness shown by the Nuthurst batters are praiseworthy who demonstrated how to save a match, even when the defeat was looming from half-way of their innings.

The Badgers staged a strong performance with the ball and with the bat and all of their players contributed. They have a wonderful support group and celebrated at the end of the match!

BBC Bushmen gave us a good challenge, courtesy by a century from Graham Dabby.

The touring sides visited us with great support from their spectators, complemented us for the great teas, had a good time at the bar after the matches. We enjoyed hosting them and would welcome them back again in 2019.

Trivia question – Which NCC bowler bowled two beamers at the beginning of the spell, conceded 9 runs before taken off the bowling? Against which team? Raise your hand if you know both the answers…. We will find out at the end of the report!

Thanks to Charlie Major and James Penfold for their all-hearted support in almost all the matches. I cannot just thank them enough! They sorted out some mouth-watering, delicious Teas – even the unhappiest touring side captain cited, ‘The Tea is the only thing that you have got right here!’ Charlie and James helped finding the score books, the umpires’ coats, the stumps, opening the club-house in time, recruiting players when I was struggling, the list goes on…. Thank you Charlie, Thank you James!

I would also like to thank Andrew Major for his continuous support in sorting out the team, the pitch, the outfield marking, score books, hanging the electronic score display and putting them back at the end of the matches– they were always ready and I can never thank Andrew enough for his help.

My heart-felt thanks to Martin for keeping the bar going on Sundays; thanks to the Kehls, the Clarks, the Bowleys, the Bennetts, the McLaughlin’s for their participation in the Sunday matches.

Most importantly, I am so grateful to all the amazing people in the team who always supported me with their best. On the field they made good efforts, their presence in the players changing room was friendly and positive, help in setting up the field and the facilities – all are very highly praiseworthy. I am proud to be captaining a team where the team members cherish a wonderful culture and gentlemanship – true to the spirit of the game of cricket. THANK YOU my team-mates!

I enjoyed leading the Sunday XI in 2018. There are improvement areas and I will give my due attention to them. The objective of Sunday cricket is all about engaging cricketer in a fun and friendly environment, providing opportunities for young players to excel to the bigger platforms. We will continue to do so in the 2019 season. As the Sunday XI captain at Newdigate CC, I would welcome all to come and take a part.

Monjur Elahi

Midweek XI

2018 if not greatly successful was certainly most enjoyable with the prolonged hot summer. We did not lose any games due to poor weather.The only game cancelled was right at the end of the season when the opposition could not raise a team. So, we played 17 games. We won 7 of them and lost 10. However, quite a number were very closely contested with the result only being decided in the very lat over. I do recall that I was the winning captain in four games, mostly early in the season.

As usual Barry has prepared the statistics, but he did complain that this was the worst season for score-book keeping which was surprising as we had rostered scorers for all games? In fact the score-book entry for the first game was never located, but he knows we lost.

Our awards for 2018 are as follows and were presented at the AGM.

Batting – Mike Ashkuri with 221 runs. Winner for the 5th year running. Batting Captain’s Award – Lee Brien with 167 runs. Bowling – Lee Brien with 12 wickets. Bowling Captain’s Award – Simon Cryer with 8 wicket and an average of 8.13, Tony Brimelow also took 8 wickets with an average of 8.75. Amit Paatel also took 8 wickets with an average of 18.5. Catching Award –Mark Treliving with 4 catches. Special Award – Simon Cornwall – Batting Average 29.7 plus 3 wickets and 2 catches. Player of the Year – Martin Evans – 50 runs at an average of 16.7 and excellent fielding all season.

Graham Capel