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SO THE SEASON IS NEARLY WITH US – WHATS IN STORE?
After the Becker Cup win of September (the first in the clubs history) and the boozy celebrations that surrounded it, a dreadful winter for the Ashes party it will soon be time for players and officials alike to start dusting off their kit for the following 5 months, throwing their livers into storage as the new season is just a matter of a nick through the slip cordon away.
So what does the new season have in store for Potters Bar CC? Are the 1s going to gain promotion, will they manage to put up a decent defence of the Herts County Cup? Yours truly has dusted off his crystal ball and will have a stab at what may occur for all 5 elevens over the hopefully long hot summer.
Is Fred right??? Watch it unfold:
2007
April
Eastcote/Old Albanians see report>
Bishops Stortford see report>
Letchworth/Osterley see report>
West Herts see report>
WGC see report>
Harpenden see report>
Hertford see report>
StevenageCockfosters see report>
WestHerts see report>
Welwyn see report>
Sawbo / West Herts >see report>
N Mymms >see report>
Millhillians >see report>
Hemel >see report>
Harpenden >see report>
Hertford >see report>
Stevenage >see report>
The 1st Eleven
The 1s ended in the year in fine form. They finished a creditable 4th place in the league and with a young team another year older there are high hopes for further improvement. The Becker Cup success in September, was arguably the clubs proudest moment so the seeds are there for sure.
Firstly, the good news is that overseas star Kash Weeraratne returns for a second season after he had a fine end to his domestic season. He comes over fresh from his best bowling season for Ragama CC as well as the lynchpin of the 20/Twenty winners, where his hard hitting enabled his team to breeze through to the final and win it at a canter.
The other major new recruit is Guy Thatcher a wicketkeeper who has played the majority of his cricket in the Cambridgeshire leagues. Guy is a class act behind the stumps as his CV boasts both Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire amongst his clubs so this for me is an ideal replacement for Scott Fraser who has departed. In fairness Scott was excellent last year, but Guy can more than make up for that loss with his sound keeping abilities.
The Bar will also be boosted by the improved availability of both Gavin Baker and Andy Colquhoun. Gavin I understand has been allowed to play club cricket instead of school cricket and Andy, fitness allowing will be a massive addition as for the last three seasons we have only had his services for around 6 or 7 matches a season. This will certainly boost the new ball attack and if both available we will have a very strong and much varied attack.
On the debit side we have lost wicket keeper Scott Fraser who was excellent last year but for one reason or another has departed to pastures new. The club have also sadly lost Tom Coughlan from the 1st eleven squad and I for one wish him well. Paul McGee has also called it a day, well he did last month but you never know with Macca as he could quite easily turn around and change that at a drop of a pair of underpants.
So the bowling looks sound and with the dependable Jared Norman and Mike Palmer to aide the natural striking talents of Kash, Gavin Baker, Dean Dass and Lenny Cooper we have a fine and well balanced side.
Despite the retirement of Paul McGee the slow bowling department will be dominated by Paul Barker and Nesan Jeyaratnam. Paul who was set to sign and play Minor County Cricket for Cambridgeshire after being shunned by Hertfordshire had a great return last season and he will be looking to improve on his 36 league wickets as well as nipping out 7 in the formerly known Becker Cup. As for Nesan his bowling will improve by getting more overs as was shown in the last league game at North Mymms where he picked up his first ‘5-for’ for the club. Both lads are fine strikers of a cricket ball and are whippets in the field and this is where Bar can get a start on every other side.
The league looks a harder prospect than that of last year. Although we say cheerio and best of luck to Radlett, West Herts come down and they will be far, far harder opponents than that of the Semi Final in mid-August. Promoted from Division 1 are Millhillians and Harpenden, the latter for me will find it very difficult to survive.
The last thing I would say is I am a little disappointed to see we have only managed to bring in 1 new face over the close season. Yes, we have Kashie returning, along with Guy to keep wicket, but I am surprised that despite our County Cup success and healthy league finish nobody seems to want to up-sticks and come and play at The Walk. However when another club resorts to scandalous measures in turning young players away from the club, questioning the clubs behaviour as one, then it’s a sad day. What has to be said is that one club can only play with 11 players in a side – by many peoples maths the promises they are making its now 16-a-side game.
For me I think it will be a good achievement for us to better what we did last year hence I will say we will finish top 3 and will retain the County Cup……..you heard it here first.
2nd Eleven
The 2s have had a change at the head of the side and they are now run by Greg Hodge who has taken over from Dave Pett who skippered his troops for the best part of 11 seasons. Dave did a remarkable job from taking the 2s from being a talented team on their day, to arguably the best 2nd XI in the Saracens League.
The 2s have lost Tom Coughlan but will benefit from the improved availability of Dave Breeze who will murder attacks at that level if he is given the licence to go out and attack – that is of course if he isn’t poached into the 1s.
The boys still have the all-round talents of Mark Taylor, who had his best year with the bat for years and will look to improve on his wicket haul from last time around. Of the other bowlers, both skipper Greg and Charlie Hodge will look to take the new ball and great things will be expected from Charlie in particular, who will now benefit now from the silly rule that made him have to come of after 7 overs. I’d also like to think Paul McGee will slip in a few overs at varied times throughout the season and I would never rule out a return of a couple of games for Mark Ilott but you never know. If those two fellas do turn out, no matter how sparodically, then it would boost any side in the league.
On the batting front, the boys have been boosted by the return from the prolific Addy Mehta back from India and hopefully the lack of responsibility will enable Dave Pett to concentrate more and more on his batting and I expect him to be high up in the league averages, not just the club ones.
Again the start is important and the sooner they get the first win the better. As starts go, they have a hard first couple of games but then have a run of four or five games where they will be heavily fancied to win. You never know, 2 good results will give the boys a great cushion to push on and a winning team is a harmonious team, well it should be anyway.
For Greg I wish him all the best and I for one would expect everyone who plays under his stewardship to support him all the way. The boys did excellently well last year in finishing joint 7th but with the loss of a couple of players and the first eleven squad not exactly over-loaded or down to the
‘bare-bones’,
as Harry Redknapp would say, then a similar finish would be an amazing achievement.
I therefore predict the 2s will finish in a comfortable 10th position.
3rd Eleven
The 3s also are under new leadership and that in the name of John “never knowingly short of runs” as he was christened last season Lewis. John was a stalwart of the 4th eleven and got stacks of runs but has now stepped up 4 leagues and that on its own will be a stiff task, let alone run the 3rd string. However John was far, far too good for Division Ten and will of course back himself to step up to the plate and lead from the front as I am sure he will do.
On the player front, Ravi Vigh has left the club and joined Old Albanians and the loss of ex-skipper Dave Rock who will miss large parts of the season as he is busy ruining decent levels of football and as that season finishes later and later and seems to start earlier and earlier then his availability will be sparse at best.
On the bowling front, there will still be the evergreen bowling attack of Neil Raisborough (hopefully back fresh from injury after he missed the last third of the season) and Rupert Pyrah who between them simply get shed loads of wickets. If the two of them alone get close to 100 league wickets then the boys will be home and hosed. Dan Brown proved in a 2nd Eleven match against Leverstock Green that he can bowl at a far, far higher level so his progress is essential.
On the batting front, John Lewis comes in to bolster the top order where again hopes will be heavily placed at the door of Rob Daley who constantly appears at the top of the averages. The 3s in the past, certainly in the batting department have made it a real team effort with everyone capable of getting a quick 20 or 30. However, I would expect more from young Luke Owers who had a fair trot at number 3 last year and didn’t really score the amount of runs his ability and the position deserves
Last year the boys were excellent and managed 8th place after numerous promotions and this after suffering 4 abandoned matches, finishing just 17 points off 4th place – This year I think they will finish top 6, bravely pushing for promotion.
4th Eleven
Paul Kennedy takes over the reins from the new President Ian Breeze, who for me did an amazing job with a mix of both kids and dads alike.
After gaining promotion from Division 11, I am afraid I cannot see back to back promotions as they have lost John Lewis to the 3rd Eleven and I believe they have lost Julian Brauer who has returned back to Australia, although I may well be wide of the mark on that score. Those two are a massive loss to the team as John Lewis scored runs till they were coming out of their ears and Julian took both wickets and runs.
However, they still have the finest looking man in club cricket, so he says anyway, Roy Metsealaar and a group of young lads who will benefit from being a year older and ones who constantly played in a winning team nigh on every week. They also have the likes of Haydn Rogers who took a lot of wickets last year and given the greater responsibility he should thrive. That’s also not forgetting the skipper, Cheeko, who to be fair has played the Bernhard Gallagher role of late (non-playing captain) and he still has the ability to take a lot of wickets as he is certainly what’s known in the Horse Racing world as a decent old horse who has taken a massive drop in class and should take all the beating.
The boys do have Dean Barker returning who did remarkably well last year. Deano, who should be participating a lot higher up the food chain for my liking, destroyed sides with his nagging bowling and then struck the ball to all parts and its on Dean’s fitness and availability on where the boys finish.
Come what may, for my four pennyworth the 4s will do well to finish in the top 12.
5th Eleven
Under the captaincy of Bertie Anderson, the 5s should be looking to pi…sorry storm the Division.
It was only administration that stopped the promotion from happening last season and with more people on board to assist should the need arise, then I have no fear Berties Army will win the Division.
With Steve Moore being able to concentrate on his cricket rather than running around trying to find players at all hours, I am sure there will be a few corkers to come out of the woodwork ready for the promotion bid. Bertie alone is too good for that level and should be looking to back himself to score runs every week.
As for the rest of the boys, it depends on selection availability and the amount of drop-outs. I for one cannot stand people dropping-out midweek let alone on a Saturday morning so it’s an unenviable and thankless task but the teams that will be put in front of them wont be in the same class and I can see them winning it by a country mile.
As long as the boys dot the i’s and cross the t’s then they will win the league.
So there you have it. A lot can happen in four months of cricket. There will be a lot of beer drunk, there will be a load of boll……debate spoken and no doubt there will be many talking points.
All I hope is that everyone can say they did a little bit better than last year and if that’s the case then we will have another great year
Fred
2006
April
Letchworth/Old Albanians > See report >
Reading/Cockfosters > See report >
May
Wembley/WinchmoreHill > See report>
Hertford/WinchmoreHill > See Report>
Sawbo >See Report>
June
WGC >See Report>
Hemel >See Report>
Knebworth >See Report>
Stevenage/Sawbo >See Report>
July
N.Mymms >SeeReport>
Hertford / Mymms >Report>
Sawbridgeworth/Eastcote >Report>
Radlett/Stevenage >Report>
August
WGC >Report>
Hemel Hempstead >Report>
Hoddy WestHerts >Report>
Knebworth/Presidents >Report>
Stevenage >Report>
North Mymms /Hemel Becker Cup final >Report>
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