BCCC  v  Roma Capannelle CC 

BCCC                             237-9  
Roma Capannelle CC   217           Won by 20 runs

PictureMan of the Match - Vish

Another narrow win for BCCC.  BCCC hosted the visiting Cappanelle CC team from Rome.  A team consisting of quite a few young as well as a couple of mature, talented cricketers like Alfonso and Max who have in the past represented Italy in cricket.  They also had a young 23 year old fast bowler called Morettini who is currently part of the Italy A squad. For us it was the welcome return of Johnny L who after spending 9 months away from the game made a welcome return to Barnes Common.

Once again our Barnes Common pitch played well and again like last week over 400 runs were scored on a sunny and warm English summer's day.  BCCC held their nerve and won by 20 runs.

BCCC won the toss and chose to bat.  The opening pair of Keith and Graeme started well and put on 45 runs before our VC was caught and bowled by a slower ball .. Keith took his time coming off the pitch as he could not believe what he had just done especially when he had just started settling into his usual, elegant self and was looking good. In and out walked Beri junior blaming the slow pitch and his Dad's new bat !! Next in walked Beri senior muttering under his breath to junior Beri as we crossed each other " Let me show you how it's done ".  Graeme and senior Beri put on another 40 runs before Morretini (also called the Italian Express) came back into the attack and managed to get past the strong defence of Beri senior, cleaning up his middle stump with an 85 mph delivery!  Next in was Phil who I think was looking forward to the BBQ so much that he left the field early after scoring 1.  Graeme scored a solid 34 before being out caught.  Nik came in next and was looking good to score another big one but was out caught after scoring 37.  Suraj held the innings together and ended up with a well grounded 39. Hard hitting Vish came in next with only a few overs left and hit two huge sixes.  Johnny with his finely tuned and tanned lower cheeks came in next.  He timed the ball like he had never been away for 9 months lying on the beaches of Spain whilst directing the ever popular 'Love Island ' TV programme to score a quick 15.  And lastly Andrew and Joe ended the innings not out on 10 and 5 respectively to help BCCC reach 237 in 40 overs. 

After a welcome and very indulgent tea break of scones and cake on the Common itself thanks to Andrew, Tanya and Lucy the Cappanelle batters started slowly as Man of the match Vish bowled quick out swingers to remove their top 4 bats and ended up with 8-23-4.  Ably supported by Suraj bowling his in swingers from the other end ending with 4-9-0.  Morettini hung around to score 23 runs. In walked Suresh who along with Scalco put on over 100 runs for the 7 wicket partnership.  We finally managed to break this partnership when Nik bowled him for 28.  Suresh carried on to score a fantastic 106 not out whilst wickets were falling all around.  Cappanelle needed 40 off the last 2 overs with Suresh still in full flow.  Graeme bowled the penultimate over giving away only 4 runs leaving Cappanelle requiring 36 of the last over.  They ended up being 20 short !!! A great bowling effort by BCCC bowlers ably lead by Suraj and Vish.  Joe - 5-39-1 . Adi-5-42-0. Johnny -6-33-0. Nik 4-28-1. Graeme 5-27-2. Sanjay - 3-22-0. After the game we shook hands and retired to the pavilion for a team BBQ.

BBQ was superbly organised by Andrew and Claudia with Johnny, Tanya and Lucy helping on the day.  The event went very well with enough food and drinks to go around between the 40 or so who turned up.  The two captains Leonardo and Sanjay said a few words to the congregation and we carried on drinking and eating food until the Italians had to leave as they had an early start the next day.  Overall the evening went very well and the club hopes to do a couple of these BBQs every year.  Thank you all to all those who attended as well as took time out of their busy lives to organise and make this event so successful.

Man of the match - Vish for his 4 top order wickets and breaking the backbone of the Cappanelle batting line up.

Catch of the match/stumping - Phil for getting to the stumps in a flash ..ok not in a flash but finally getting there to collect a throw of Joe to run out Kevin, one of their rising stars.