The Club Cricket Conference Yearbook 2020

Poor weather did for the next representative fixture against the Royal Navy CC, scheduled for the lovely Leatherhead CC, so the Conference’s next outing was an Under 25 match against London University at Winchmore Hill CC. London University were under the tutelage of CCC 2019 President Keir Hopley and elected to bat first on winning the toss in a declaration game. They were indebted to 72 by their skipper Aryan Jaine, who never got the strong support he needed to put a challenging total on the board. The Conference’s bowling was dominated by an outstanding spell of leg spin from former Kent 2 bowler Jan Gray (Sandwich CC) on debut. He returned figures of 7-45 as UoL were dismissed for 192 in the 52nd over. The CCC’s batting was littered with stroke makers and aggression and from the outset, appeared determined to bring the game to a close - one way or the other - as quickly as possible. Hamzah Ahmed (42), Muaaz Ali Ahmed (59, Waltham CC) and Bilaal Anwar (43, Loughton CC) all ensured the run chase was maintained at over 5 an over but none saw the game to its conclusion, falling to careless shorts. Despite that, the Conference secured victory in the 36th over, four wickets down. One of the CCC’s historic fixtures was up next as the visiting Australian Crusaders were hosted by the Conference at Teddington CC. The Crusaders have a Roll of Honour that could populate a full Australian Test team or two and so a keen contest was anticipated as the flipped on a balmy morning. Skipper Tom Phillippe (East Molesey CC) won the toss and elected to bat first in a 50 over contest. As it turned out, the Conference was indebted to a subliminal innings from Eddie Ballard (Bishops Stortford CC), an increasingly mercurial talent and CCC cap. The Conference, Ballard apart, struggled against Crusaders’ bowling but Eddie’s 154 made a nonsense of all other contributions as CCC closed on 293 off its allotted overs. A late burst of 34 from Jamie Southgate provided the next highest score on day when Ballard reminded us that when in form, he is a batsman to be feared with all the shots and more. The Crusaders reply was given a decent base by Noah Croes who got to 55 before succumbing to the wiles of Ranjit Singh (Bickley Park CC) on debut. Their efforts to maintain the run chase resulted in wickets falling at regular intervals, six of the eventual nine falling to spin. Quite incredibly, Ballard managed to chivvy skipper Phillippe into giving him a bowl, resulting in four overs of all sorts, 31 runs and infuriatingly a wicket to boot. The CCC rode out victors by 54 runs on an excellent day when new friendships were made and old ones relit……. At the beginning of July, Conference travelled down to Polo Farm, Canterbury to face Kent 2 in a double header T20. Though undefeated thus far, the T20 format against the County sides has always been the CCC’s weakest format, coming up against specialists within the pro staffs preparing for the T20 campaign. On the day Kent proved too strong in both games and won each match, by 79 runs and 6 wickets. It was the first time since beginning the double header format that Kent had won both games but the day highlighted the gulf in craft between decent club players and professionals who train in this unique format. Not one for the memory banks. The CCC returned to winning ways the following week when Bishops Stortford CC hosted us against a World Sports Exchange X1, made up of overseas players placed in league cricket clubs across the country for the season. Dominic Chapman (Bishops - 24 -