Captains’ Blog #2 – Telegraph!!!! – by Sam Brooks

Telegraph!!!!

A well valued phrase to the scorer, Hugh Henry, when players on the field are wanting an update.

Many of you won’t be privy to the Anson St. George group chat with the many voice notes of regular updates on the play each week.

I know Taggs is a massive advocate for these and will occasionally run comms when he’s present.

I thought I’d give an update to the regular readers on how the season is going for Anson St. George in 2024.

Taking up the baton

Leading up to the start of the cricket season many Ansoners alike joined together at the usual AGM followed by a curry.

The AGM saw the members elect the club’s officers and it was announced that incumbent club captain, Mitchell Gilbert, was taking some time out to travel around Asia on a 6 month hiatus from the UK!

Upon this announcement the baton was handed over to me to lead the troops this season.

All I can say is, firstly, I’d like to hear from Mitch in a post on the blog and, secondly,  I haven’t the foggiest idea why these gents I call teammates voted me in as captain. Maybe Hugh handed out a few too many John Smiths at what is traditionally a dry AGM.

Over!

Underway at last

Anson started the season at home in very damp conditions which saw a low scoring game against Chadwell Heath Lions that unfortunately ended in defeat.

A spirited effort defending 63 runs, we managed to get them 7 down but ultimately the team’s total wasn’t enough.

But in true Anson tradition (win or lose on the booze), we have a team debrief after the game, where it’s always a fight to offer a beer around to the lads and nominate the week’s dick of the day.

Not the greatest start to captaincy and I’ll go further to say the team has definitely been missing Mitchell’s batting in the middle order to help us build a fighting total or chase down scores.

Thanks to our guests

There’s been a lot of unsung heroes in the team this year, so I wanted to shout out all our guests helping make up the numbers and on some occasions being pivotal in matches.

Most Sunday cricket teams also suffer with maintaining 11 regulars each week.

Availability can dip for a number of reasons so having a wealth of contacts to call upon is fantastic.

We added another Brooks to the history with my cousin Rob proving more than useful with the ball in his 2 games thus far.

Experimenting with many new faces and adapting the strength of players mixed with giving everyone a game will be a big factor on results – we’re all first team players here though!

Champagne moment

The team bounced back with a couple of comprehensive wins over Willow Herbs and Stanford le Hope which kicked started our season. Then came Anson’s 200th draw in a time game against Chigwell, which felt bitter sweet as we should’ve won that game. Only having 9 players in the end meant we settled for a draw.

The champagne moment of the season thus far came in this game. Billy took 5 wickets on a rain affected pitch, but his 5th wicket was exceptional cricket all round.

Billy charged in and bowling a lovely length nipped one away to get the outside edge. With the ball keeping very low Leegee at wicket keeper managed to boot the ball up on the full and with an outstretched parry from Charlie at first slip, flicking it over the bar where Luke Lovell leapt backwards like a salmon to complete an all action catch!

My description gives little justice to the superb skill displayed by the boys.

Out!

Next, we had an away fixture against Basildon with both teams in great spirits and fairly evenly matched. Lee Gilbert carried his bat in fine style and lots of players chipped in to a respectable total of 203 in our innings before an excellent bowling display all around from Steve Redway, Paul Evans and co, got the team to a solid win.

The fixture against East Ham was a tough one, as they battled to 101 all out on a very sticky wicket at Cromer Road before a mixture of poor batting and straight bowling defeated Anson in a low scoring game.

Personally getting caught on the cow corner boundary to a one handed grab hurt.

Catches win matches

Favourite game

Hornchurch Athletic has probably been my favourite game as captain this season. We won the toss on a lovely pitch and batted first. Myself and Jim scored 69 each with lots of contributions from the boys saw us get a total 221. Just to add Jim hit his 11th Anson 6 with a lovely pick up over deep square.

No matter how beautifully Billy, Dave and Paul seem to bowl, their wickets column never mirrors the efforts they produce. I know Steve will also echo this sentiment. The welcome return of our Tank, Thomas Ansell, resulted in a team hat trick in his opening spell, before Charlie Brooks mopped up with 3 wickets. It was a gorgeous day for cricket and having Kingfisher on draft was an added bonus!

I’ll round off my spell by saying as a team we have been a bit hit and miss so far with 5 wins 3 defeats and 1 draw.

Heading into the second half of the season, the lads are battling each game to firstly win for the team whilst earning some personal milestones for the club’s history.

There is some unwarranted but hard fought competition with for Duck Trophy this season too. Billy and Charlie are battling that one out at the amusement of the rest of us.

Over Over

Cheeks