At our traditional venue of the Somers Town Coffee House in central London, the Allstars began planning for the 2020 season with our AGM.

On the Allstars committee, Vivek Seth becomes our new club vice-captain, and Paul Burgin our social secretary – best of luck to both in these important roles for the club.

The day of an AGM wouldn’t be complete without stopping by Richard “Rocket” Stephenson’s very own pub – and here we are!

At the Parcel Yard pub in King’s Cross station, the Allstars and our other halves came together to celebrate another great season, and award the Allstars of the Year!

First recipient – Ash Rattan, for his great job organising the Paddington Rec nets and for the bowling performance of the season, 4-16 in our epic victory over the Gentlemen of West London.

Next, a more light-hearted award – Sirmad Shafique. He batted well on the Portugal tour, but as Haroon entertainingly told us, he comically almost missed it!

Next up – Sam Perera, our newcomer of the year and leading run scorer with 330 runs. He’s made an incredible impact in his first season with the club.

Our next recipient – club secretary Garreth Duncan, for our best ever season on the recruitment front.

Next up – Paul Burgin picks up an award, on behalf of his brother-in-law Nick Chadwick, for 17 years’ loyal service to the Allstars. We tried to get Chadders on a TV link from Switzerland, but it was past his bedtime!

And finally – the most deserving of awards, as Garreth presents the long service award to Haroon for 10 years’ fantastic service to the club.

North Middlesex CC, Sunday 15 September 2019.

Railway Taverners 222-4 (34.4 overs; E Reilly 92*, D Skinner 50, J Dasari 2-43) beat St Anne’s Allstars 219-8 (M Biss 75; S Perera 32; Thompson 31*) by 6 wickets.

Allstars debut: Matt Biss

Report by Garreth Duncan – Photos by Pete Cresswell

September brought a mini-heatwave to London, and a finish to the cricket season bathed in sunshine. At the Oval, England bowled out Australia to secure a consolation victory and a drawn Ashes series. On a beautiful day in North London, we competed fiercely in a fabulous, evenly matched game against Railway Taverners, but couldn’t quite get over the line as the Taverners avenged last season’s defeat.

Enthusiasm for our final game continued unabated, and we arrived with 13 players, club skipper Pete Cresswell kindly volunteering to umpire and score. The North Middlesex pitch looked in excellent condition, and I had no hesitation in deciding to bat first on winning the toss. Samer Hafiz, who had spent his last appearance padded up for 30 overs of the epic Cresswell-Rattan opening partnership against Mighty Wanderers, opened the batting with Matt Biss, finally making his debut after meeting us at the Paddington Rec nets. Having got used to the pitch (which played slightly slower and lower than it looked), they quickly stepped it up as Matt got his drives going and Samer pulled Staw over mid-wicket for 6 via a tip over from the the fielder. They had put on 36 before Samer was LBW to a ball which kept a bit low.

Sachin Singh started in sparkling fashion, whipping the ball strongly through square leg before he top-edged another pull of Shaw and was caught at fine leg. Jono Beagle continued where he’d left off against Crossbats as he joined his Cambridge team mate Matt in a handy partnership of 55. Jono and Matt know each other’s game well, and it was a bit of a surprise when Jono was run out – albeit to a superb direct hit.

Sam Perera has had an Allstars debut season to dream of – he will finish leading run scorer by a distance – and he looked in fine touch once again as he and Matt put on another 46 after the drinks break. But having played superbly for his 75, Matt pulled Mathias Winter to square leg. This brought about a mid-innings wobble as the return of the accurate “Jocky” brought the Taverners back into the contest. Steyn Grobler was lbw to another shooter, Dharani Ronanki cut Mathias to point and Sam became the second to pick out fine leg to leave us 174-7. Paul “KP” Bowman and Gren Thompson counter-attacked, Gren hitting his first ball for 6 as we finished the innings strongly. 219-8 looked like a decent score at the break, but we knew that we’d have work to do on a quick outfield.

After another delicious North Middlesex tea, we took the field. KP and Gren started well against openers Ewer and Vale, but despite two probing spells they couldn’t get the breakthrough. The spell of the day was, however, still to come. Jagath Dasari has had a great introduction to Allstars cricket this season, showing pace and control in every game he’s played, but a first Allstars wicket had still eluded him. Finally, he got his reward as he produced a fabulous spell, dismissing both openers – Vale edging a snorter to keeper Dharani, and then Ewer edging to Samer at slip in the following over to leave the Taverners 39-2.

Taverners are a strong batting line-up, and their skipper Reilly and Dave Skinner then came together in a partnership of 94, beginning slowly before going for it after the drinks break. Vivek Seth bowled tightly again, and finally dismissed Skinner to another sharp catch from Dharani after he’d passed 50. Sam struck in his final over to bowl the dangerous Spee. The Taverners still needed 53 off the last 4 overs – but by now the bearded Reilly was fully into his hitting arc, and was joined by Greg Powles. We gave it our all – but we couldn’t prevent them knocking off the runs with 2 balls to spare.

So the regular season ended in defeat – but it didn’t stop us from all enjoying a drink together as we celebrated another great season. The Taverners are a generous bunch, and treated us to a fabulous spread at the pub in Crouch End which gives them their name. We look forward to playing them again next season.

We will still end our season in style with our tour to Portugal – and we then have our end of season dinner on 9 November to look forward to.  Many thanks to everyone who’s played for us this season!

Marble Hill Park, Saturday 31 August 2019.

Crossbats 206-6 (33 overs: A Dubey 47, J Morgan 2-33, J Beagle 2-38, Shanmugan 2-53) beat St Anne’s Allstars 204-3 (35 overs: M Lo 62*, J Beagle 39, P Cresswell 33 ret ht) by 4 wickets.

Allstars Debuts: Jono Beagle, Martin Barker

Report by Pete Cresswell – Photos by Ashwin Rattan and Pete Cresswell

On an autumnal day at beautiful Marble Hill Park, Crossbats won the toss, and invited the Allstars to have first use of the flat, green artificial deck and lightning fast South West London outfield. The Crossbats were also fielding another XI across the Thames in Ham that day, impressive for a village side!

Accordingly skipper Pete Cresswell strode out to bat alongside debutant Jono Beagle, and the pair built a 62 run stand in 14 overs before Jono nicked off to the 2nd-to-last ball of Crossbats’ veteran Larry Gray’s spell for 39.

Jono Beagle, batting on his Allstars debut

Cresswell and James Morgan then accelerated, the Blenheim Blocker striking his first boundary of the season, dispatching a full toss through square leg. Morgan had managed 3 boundaries in his 14 before being adjudged lbw to a doosra from Avi Dubey, the Crossbats’ best bowler (and batsman) on the day.

That brought Matt Lo to the wicket, where he promptly dispatched his first ball for 4, and he and the accelerating Cresswell added 36 in the next 6 overs, Cresswell being dropped 3 times along the way as Crossbats struggled a little to cover the big field. Cresswell was then struck on the forearm off Srikanth, and retired hurt with the Allstars on 126/3 off 25. While Tony Grant was unluckily run out by Carter soon after, Sachin Singh joined Lo, and the pair smashed 69 off the final 8 overs. 204/3 seemed a handy score at tea.

All 9 Crossbats fielders on the boundary in the last overs of the Allstars innings!

Clouds began gathering during tea however, and with a couple of injuries in the bowling ranks to cover the Allstars took the field.

Crossbats’ opener Mark McAlpine (or “McHunt” as he was addressed by his teammates) went on the attack immediately against Shanmugan. But Shanmugan’s bowling improves with every Allstars game he plays, as he produced a superb ball to draw an edge behind off Stuart Skinner.  A rain shower then arrived and everyone took cover at 22/1 in the 5th. The rain made the pitch and outfield greasy, a tricky prospect given that no spikes were allowed because of the artificial wicket.

Unfortunately Sachin Singh slipped and injured his ankle in his delivery stride upon the resumption, forcing his replacement by our other debutant Martin Barker. McAlpine and Dubey immediately took the opportunity to attack, but Shanmugan’s excellent spell continued as he struck again at the end of his 4th over, bowling McAlpine. 49/2 off 7 was still a decent start for the Crossbats.

Crossbats’ skipper Carter then joined Dubey, and the pair played their shots against a damp ball and several injured fielders, adding 80 in 10 overs before the advent of Beagle and Morgan. Carter lofted Beagle to Morgan at mid-on who juggled the catch, ultimately trapping the ball between his knees. Morgan then sent Adam Skinner and Wright back in short succession, both having their off stumps cartwheeled as 3 wickets fell for 9 runs. When Sachin took a screaming catch at slip to remove Dubey for 47 the Crossbats were 152/6 and worried about their long tail.

However with only 53 needed off 13 overs, Venkatachalapathy and Sayers were able to take their time and use the pitch and outfield to their advantage. They had the odd nervous moment as Barker generated pace off his shortened run up, but ultimately got the Crossbats home with 13 balls to spare.

So after our narrow wins in 2017 and 2018, the Crossbats finally win another close game.  We look forward to seeing them next year.  We then decamped to the Crown, whose publican is a Crossbat, to help them celebrate a double-win Saturday.

A huge shoutout goes to Ashwin Rattan, who stepped in after a late drop-out on Friday, umpiring our whole innings and fielding at fine leg all day while nursing a broken finger.

We have one final game of our regular season to look forward to, against Railway Taverners, before we head to the sunshine of Portugal for our end of season tour in October.

East Brighton Park, Sunday 18 August 2019.

Zambuca Tigers 140 (40 overs; A Chauhan 64; P Bowman 3-13; M Langridge 2-24) beat St Anne’s Allstars 59 (36.3 overs; Brookshaw 3-6; Ryan 2-13) by 81 runs.

Report by Vivek Seth – Photos by Pete Cresswell

Allstars debuts: Roshan Herath; David Nandi; Jan Roussouw; Simon Hemelryk.

An (eventually) sunny afternoon saw the first encounter between my two truly tremendous village cricket teams: the London-based St Anne’s Allstars, and the Brighton-based Zambuca Tigers.

For much of the week leading up to the game, this author did not know which team he would be playing for. Both sides had seen fluctuating squad numbers caused by work clashes, injury, a Tigers game the previous day, and a desire to watch the final day of the second Ashes Test… Anyway, 22 players eventually arrived at East Brighton Park, theoretically ready to play a game of cricket. Jon Elsom would lead the Tigers, and me skippering the Allstars.

Heavy rain earlier in the day made it a definite bowl first day. With Elsom’s toss-losing reputation having continued, the Allstars went out to bowl. Paul Bowman and Martyn Langridge began the proceedings, providing the Allstars with pace at one end and guile at the other. Both proved to be reliable as ever. Bowman took the early wicket of Andy Clarke in the third over before Elsom and Nigel de Silva steadied the ship. De Silva in particular continued to find the boundary with ease before being bowled by Langridge for 17. That sparked a mini-Tigers collapse, losing two further wickets for only 7 more runs. Elsom was run out by a truly extraordinary throw from debutant Roshan Herath, while Langridge trapped Nick Straiton leg before to leave the Tigers 34-4.

Apurv Chauhan then launched his expected counter-attack with good effect, ably assisted by Al Tomlins who shored up the other end. The Allstars’ bowling change brought Sam Perera and debutant David Nandi to the attack. Both caused the Tigers problems. While Nandi was very unlucky not to take a wicket, Perera took the wicket of Tomlins which sparked another Tiger mini-collapse, going from 53-4 to 81-8. Adding to Perera’s wicket was a run out, an LBW from Sachin Singh in his only over (injury preventing him from bowling an extended spell), and a great ball from debutant Jan Roussouw whose pace and accuracy provided similar levels of ‘X Factor’ that Jofra Archer offered at Lord’s the same day.

That brought Joe Brookshaw to the crease who alongside Chauhan proved impossible to dislodge. I brought myself and Pete Cresswell on to try and change things but all to no avail. Indeed, getting Brookshaw and Chauhan out proved to be more difficult for Cresswell and I than keeping our floppy sun hats on. The windy conditions at East Brighton Park meant that the pair of us spent more time chasing after our own hats than we did running after balls!

Eventually, the return of Bowman to the attack helped bring the wickets of both Tigers but not before a fine partnership of 44. Chauhan was bowled for a truly impressive 64, and Brookshaw for 24. The Tigers were 140 all out, only ten minutes short of the declaration time.

Tea was very well received although my contribution of Mr Co-op’s Colin the Caterpillar birthday cake was no adequate replacement to the sadly-missing Elsom lemon drizzle. The number of doughnuts was especially welcome given the Allstars’ penchant for cake-heavy teas.

Buoyed by news that England were making decent progress in the Test, the Allstars went out to bat. Singh made a promising start, creaming a drive through the covers for 4, only to be bowled by Mahmood Alam the ball after. Soon after, Joe Brookshaw took the wicket of Cresswell with a truly unplayable ball that pitched on middle stump before nipping back and clipping off. It was Brookshaw’s 200^th wicket for the Tigers and a fine way to mark such a milestone. Indeed, Brookshaw’s bowling proved to be a constant menace throughout, eventually finishing with figures of 3-6 from 8 overs, including four consecutive maidens at the start of the spell.

Some quality Tigers bowling coupled with a pitch that was providing increasingly low bounce meant that batting was tricky for the Allstars. No-one was able to stay in for any meaningful time. Brookshaw quickly took the wickets of debutant Simon Hemelryk and Sam Macdonald leaving the Allstars 13-4 and battling for a draw. Herath and Perera helped steady things with a partnership of 25 before Perera succumbed to the typically menacing bowling of Si Ryan. Roussouw only lasted two balls before Ryan claimed him as his second victim.

With 20 overs to go, the Allstars were 40-6 with Herath and Nandi both at the crease looking just to bat time. Both looked remarkably comfortable until Herath was run out for 13. Yet more panic spread through the Allstars’ ranks with Bowman falling to Swapnil Vartak with 18 overs to go, and Langridge being caught off Elsom’s bowling with 15 overs to go. That left me (a specialist no. 11 for both the Tigers and the Allstars) and Nandi to try and see out 15 overs for the draw. Remarkably, we survived ten overs but not without several scares off the tidy bowling of Tomlins, Straiton and Clarke. However, with all eleven men around my bat (in a manner strangely similar to the one that Jack Leach adopted at exactly the same time to Pat Cummins), Tomlins took the final wicket with me hitting across the line. With the Allstars bowled out for 59, the Tigers secured an 81 run victory.

Both sides agreed that this was a very enjoyable day and a fixture worth keeping. Particular thanks to the four debutant Allstars (David, Simon, Roshan and Jan) for bringing their cricketing skills and sense of fun to the match – we would gladly have you back. My thanks also to the all the Tigers for being such tremendous hosts and for making the Allstars so welcome – we look forward to hosting you next year.