Dear all,

Please find attached the Agenda for this year’s AGM (.doc and .pdf formats). Due to uncertainty around COVID-19 restrictions, and to ensure the safety of our members, this event will be a “Virtual” meeting using the “Zoom” application which I am sure many of you have become familiar with over the last few months.

The Committee sincerely hope that using this format will enable as many of you as possible to attend. Meeting details and password etc will be sent nearer the time.

Information on how to use Zoom can be found on their website with support & a FAQ available.

I look forward to seeing you at the AGM.

Canewdon CC 105ao - D Deadman 5/16, S Jackson 2/1
Mount CC 107/3 - S Johnson 52no
Mount win by 7 wickets

On a cold and windy late September afternoon, this extraordinary season drew to a close with a rearranged home fixture against Canewdon. The game was postponed from early season due to the COVID-19 lockdown, and would now mark not only the final match of 2020, but also the Skipper’s final match in charge.

Before proceedings got under way, and to mark this emotional and sombre occasion, the President presented the Club Captain with a special gift – a hat in the shape of a sheep, with a bat handle attached as a memento of simpler, happier times! Aah Bridgetown! I never scored a run there.

Anyway, to the cricket. Canewdon, who had been on the receiving end of Mount’s biggest ever win earlier in the season, lost the toss, and were asked to bat. In the earlier fixture, Canewdon’s batsmen had imploded, scoring just 38 in pursuit of an always unreachable target of 294. Today however was different. They started well. Very well. Duffin and Foley opened the bowling, as they had done so many times before, and whilst tidy, they rarely troubled the openers who accumulated 40 without loss from 10 overs. Dan Deadman and Justin Montellier were the first change pairing and for once, this didn’t seem to do the trick – well not to start with at least. The visitors reached 63 without loss before “Deadly” Dan started to work his magic. 63/0 quickly became 70/3 as Dan took 3 wickets for 0 runs from 9 balls which included a double-wicket maiden and an incredibly sharp catch by Jamie Lambert at mid-off that many of us would have been happy to get out of the way of at the best of times, let alone on as finger-chilling a day as this. We had to then wait another 4 deliveries for Dan’s 4th wicket. Obviously inspired by Lambert’s catch, Deadly took a blistering caught and bowled on a day when everything seemed to stick – at this stage anyway! With wickets tumbling, “Monty” came to the party, bowling their no. 8 in his penultimate over. Deadman than took all the polish off his day by securing his 5fer by bowling a small child, first ball. As the child returned sobbing to the pavilion, we congratulated Dan on another excellent performance with the ball, whilst marvelling at his cruelty. There was no option but to remove him from the attack and send him into the deep to think about what he had done.

Lambert replaced Deadman, and on a day when some incredible catches were held, he quickly fashioned a chance which resulted in an easy, gentle looping catch to Monty at cover – a formality. Apparently not! Monty somehow managed to spill the chance and soon began to explain at great length why it was a much more difficult chance than it looked. The President replaced Monty at the Pavilion end, and once again proved that he is woefully underbowled. A maiden followed by 2 wickets in his second over gave him figures of 2/1 and left Canewdon 9 down with 105 on the board. This soon became 105 all out as Lambert, wisely deciding that he was going to have to do his own catching, took another excellent c&b to close the visitors’ innings.

A routine chase was made even more so by a chanceless and unbeaten 50 from Steve Johnson, who then politely retired. His opening partner, Montellier, had promised us Calypso cricket and instead delivered Calippo cricket. Seeming to bat with an ice lolly rather than any willow in his hand as time after time, he marched down the wicket to play another defensive shot, failing to get the ball off the square once. He was eventually bowled without scoring – perhaps still haunted by that dropped catch. Andy Abel and David Mackay kept things ticking along before Paul Offord and Toby Duffin saw us home by 7 wickets.

A comfortable win and a very pleasing way to close the 2020 season and my stint as Captain. It has been an honour and a privilege to Captain Mount Cricket Club, and I am incredibly grateful to every single player who turned out during my 3 seasons at the helm.

I am very excited about handing on the baton to the new skipper who I know will do a great job and I look forward to announcing my successor at the AGM.

Old Westcliffians 205/6 (35 overs) – V Vayalveettil 2/31, P McKeon 1/19, N Smith 1/5
Mount CC 208/4 - N Smith 62, S Jackson 60, V Vayalveettil 45
Mount win by 6 wickets

Old Westcliffians vs Mount at Chalkwell Park is always one of the most enjoyable fixtures of the season. With many of the participants knowing each other well from playing together, or against each other, in league fixtures involving Westcliff and other local league sides, the game always has the right mix of competitiveness and friendship.

Birthday boy and Captain for the day, David “Mackie” Mackay received numerous birthday greetings and gifts from his teammates before the game and, suitably hydrated, headed to the middle for the toss. Old Westcliffians’ Skipper, Pete Shaw (himself a former Mount tourist and team mate to many Mounties in Westcliff colours over the years), won the toss and elected to bat. Vijay Vayalveettil and Toby Duffin opened the bowling for Mount, and both bowled beautifully. Vijay struck with just his second ball sending “the other” Steve Johnson back to the pavilion without scoring with Mackie taking the catch behind the stumps. Vijay proved a threat throughout his spell whilst at the other end, the luckless Duffin deserved better for his efforts – finding the Mount fielders in unusually poor form and failing to hold their catches. The swirling wind didn’t help matters but “The Viking” could feel justifiably aggrieved to see 4 decent chances put down! Bullen and Hickey survived to provide some stability to the Old Boys innings before Bullen was run out and Vijay struck again in his fourth over, this time bowling Hickey. Fosh replaced Hickey and Paul McKeon and Foley replaced the bowlers. Metronomic and economic, McKeon soon sent Fosh on his way for 10. This turned out to be his only victim which seemed scant reward for 5 excellent overs which cost just 9 runs. At the other end, the wind conditions and Foley’s twirly filth threatened to create mayhem but instead these factors negated rather than complementing each other and a forgettable spell from the rapidly aging Club Captain was soon called to a halt. David Colwill and Kam Khan were now paired at the wicket for Old Westies and began to up the scoring rate with a combination of power, placement, and a little luck. Khan soon got to his 50 and, to his great credit (and our great relief) decided to retire. Colwill soon followed suit, reaching his 50 and retiring as soon as he reached 59! With overs running out the game became rather scrappy, the returning Foley and Noel Smith taking a wicket each as the home side looked to build a total. A late burst of aggression and power from Shaw in the final over saw him put a dent McKeon’s figures. With Old Westcliffians finishing on 205 scored from their 35 overs, both teams would have been reasonably pleased with their efforts.

What does a newbie want from their debut? For some, its to make an impression – score big runs, take wickets – man of the match stuff. For others it’s just to avoid mistakes, go unnoticed, don’t mess up – be competent, if not spectacular. For an opening bat, going unnoticed is not an option and so it proved for new Mountie, Josh Glester. For his first ball, Dave Bullen bowled and Josh picked the ball straight away. Surmising that it was straying down leg, he elected to sway slightly to off to let it pass, no shot offered, expecting the thud of ball into ‘keeper’s gloves. Imagine his surprise when a totally different ball to the one he saw arrived! This one started on middle and stayed there. The sway to off was the same, but the result – middle stump knocked over - was quite different. An excellent start and one that his teammates barely mentioned for the rest of the afternoon. Welcome to the club Josh – and please don’t worry! We’ve all got tales like that to tell.

In at 3 Captain Mackay. 10 runs quickly accumulated before deciding that as skipper it was the right thing to be bowled and let others have a knock. Jackson was joined by Smith and these two built a tremendous partnership, seeing off anything tricky and punishing anything loose. Each passed 50 and, in the spirit of the game, retired as soon as they reached 60! There was still some work to do but a rapid fire 45 from Vijay, ably supported by cameos from Martin Hare, Mike Boyce and the returning Anish Lukose saw us home with 6 wickets and 7 overs to spare.

The win was duly celebrated in style – by some more than others! Hic!

Good evening all,

First, an apology for the radio silence since the end of the season. Work commitments have rather curtailed my cricket duties of late but here’s a quick round up for you all.

&zMatch Reports**: Please find attached match reports for our final 2 games of the season, vs Old Westcliffians (20th Sept) and Canewdon (27th Sept). More great performances to close-out an impressive season.

AGM: The AGM will be held on Sunday 6th December (time tbc). At present, due to COVID-19 requirements, this is likely to be a “Virtual” meeting and in this case will operate via “Zoom”. Whilst this is unusual and we would of course prefer to see you all “in the flesh”, this will likely make it easier for more people to attend and I would urge you to do so if you can. There will be a number of important topics covered and appointments made. Further details to follow including agenda in the coming days.

End of Season Awards Dinner: We had hoped to have held this event in November but Lockdown 2 has prevented this. However, we now plan to hold this event (dinner, awards, raffle etc) as early in the New Year as possible. More details once the picture becomes clearer.

I hope you are all keeping well and look forward to catching up with you soon.