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Blog headlines

  • 14 Sep AVCC v Huddersfield YMCA
    22 May 2020

    The weather forecasters say that Autumn officially starts 01 September.

  • 8 Sep Urchfont v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    On a glorious sunny September day, we came to the end of our season against Wiltshire opponents

  • 1 Sep AVCC v Collingbourne
    22 May 2020

    With the sun still shining, and thoughts of winter still long away, AVCC entered the final stretch of the season at home against local rivals and friends, Collingbourne.

  • 20 Jun AVCC v Collingbourne
    22 May 2020

    Returning to our home ground of Garston Field, we were greeted with hard rain, chill winds, and a most un-summer-like evening to play cricket.

  • 11 Aug Wilton v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    A strong squad was assembled for this match which had a little edge to it stemming from a minor altercation from earlier in the season.

  • 25 Jul Bishops Canning v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    Not a huge amount to say as we lost fairly convincingly.

  • 16 Jun Shrewton v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    After a morning full of showers, rain and wind, our seniors graced the pitch in warm sunlight where our juniors had gleefully played in the morning (yes, Collingbourne and Avon Valley U-11s beat Steeple Langford at Shrewton in the morning).

  • 9 Jun AVCC v Wilcot
    22 May 2020

    The return match! The re-match of warring village titans and local rivals…with Wilcot visiting our home ground at Garston Fields.

  • 2 Jun Avebury v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    This last Sunday we entered June to typical British weather….cold winds, driving rain, grey skies…..

  • 30 May Collingbourne v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    We turned up with a scratch 11 hastily assembled and completed with 30 minutes notice at Collingbourne - in many ways our sister club as our youth are combined as a team

  • 26 May Chitterne v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    We made our annual pilgrimage to the good gentleman and good friends at Chitterne on a rainy, overcast Bank Holiday weekend

  • 15 May Wilcot v AVCC
    22 May 2020

    We turned up on a beautiful sunny evening on the well prepared track of Wilcot (thanks to their Peter Williams for doing so), to play a strong Wilcot team with several 1st teamers in the line up and the local vicar leading the batting and bowling.

  • 12 May AVCC v Marden
    12 May 2019

    Good win today against Marden to win back the Richard Cox Cup

  • 1 May FOSS v AVCC
    1 May 2019

    Our usual season curtain raiser…and played on the plateau of Amesbury, with the charms of the usual biting wind even though the evening was largely sunny and mild.

 
 
Friday, 22 May 2020

16 Jun Shrewton v AVCC

After a morning full of showers, rain and wind, our seniors graced the pitch in warm sunlight where our juniors had gleefully played in the morning (yes, Collingbourne and Avon Valley U-11s beat Steeple Langford at Shrewton in the morning).

New venue for AVCC and Shrewton is a memorable ground….raised pavilion, bar, odd shaped field and lots of trees and bushes surrounding 2 sides. This was only our second fixture against Shrewton who are a top side. We took the field with an unexpected team. Joe Wookey looking resplendent in AVCC kit, and had volunteered to play (wife on holiday), and we had a new face - Adam Pithouse “fresh” from 48 hours of alcohol sampling, plus new season regulars - David Battison, Stephen Flower and Matt Dancey; plus long time regulars Tim Gent, Bruce Carter, Michael Rae (still with broken toe), Peter Williams and Graham Newland (turned up late as playing football for Wiltshire in the morning). So Tim was put in charge today. It was also good to see Dudley Perrin come along and support. It’s always good to have a travelling fan base. Shrewton batted first. Michael Rae and David Battison gave them a warm welcome. Their opener, Brewer, was in commanding form and having been dropped on 9 proceeded to whack the ball with great pace around the ground. Their first wicket went down in the 6th over to David Battison, caught. Michael Rae got their number 3 first ball caught by Joe Wookey. 43-2. Obviously, wanted to make Joe feel at home and want to play for us more often. Brewer continued to smack us around and the next breakthrough was courtesy of Shane Williams and another Joe Wookey catch with the score on 84-3 in just the 12th over. 84-4 next overs Adam Pothouse got an lbw decision on their new batsmen who looked like he did not fancy Adam’s pace. Obviously the 48hrs relaxation therapy had loosened Adam up and his fast bowling looked quite formidable. Shane struck again in the next over, courtesy of another Joe Wookey catch. 3 up…..could be a record for AVCC. 85-5 in the 14th over. Looked like we could be in with the advantage until Brewer and T Plank cut loose. We had to endure until 157 before Graham persuaded Plank to dance down the wicket and Bruce Carter made a smart stumping. 157-6; 26 overs gone. Brewer and their new batsman, Newbury, then cut loose hitting 6’s and 4’s. Joe came on and was treated without respect with some mighty blows….we lost 3 balls in an over as a result…..but Joe came back as the fine cricketer we know he is and took both batsmen’s wickets in close order…..Brewer on 99 (hope he was fined for 100 avoidance…although a supreme innings and well batted), and Newbury for 37. Stephen Flower bowled well and economically for no rewards, Matt Dancey bowled their no.9 with a hostile looking delivery (good hostile spell) and we mopped up the tail with Peter Williams taking the last wicket, with his first ball, courtesy of a catch by Graham. All out for 210 - in 34.1 overs - and much less than we were expecting at stages in the match. Just over 6 an over to win. We went to tea, thinking the total was gettable on this pitch and wicket. We had chased higher successfully and so were full of confidence. Tea was great,…..lots of good sandwiches, cake (Black Forest Gateau - not sure I’ve seen that since the 1970’s), quiche, etc. A good 5 star tea and much appreciated. Shane and Bruce opened for us, and unfortunately, Bruce came back to us at the end of the first over courtesy of a dubious high looking lbw without troubling the scoreboard. Shane hit 2 4’s in succession with his first 2 balls faced and looked confident as joined then by Tim Gent. Tim and Shane got us off to a solid start, slightly below run-rate with no alarms until Shane was bowled in the 9th over for 15. Good knock. 40-2. Tim was joined by Michael Rae, our centurion of last week who looked bold and confident. The score pushed quickly to 65 when Michael was caught and bowled by T Plank for 13. So out strode Joe Wookey…..and expectations were high….. Joe calmly established himself and dominated every bowler faced. Plank was hit for 14 by Joe in his next over (1 mighty 6 and 2 good 4’s) and he was off. The scoreboard started to tick along until Tim was lbw by G Plank having scored a fine 36 featuring 4 well struck off drives each for 4. 113-4 in the 22nd over. No alarms. Oops, Adam went 7 runs later without opening his AVCC account, and 120-5 sent alarms in the pavilion going. Stephen Flower steadied the ship keeping Joe company and also adding 14 good valuable runs until out in the 29th over with the score on 150. No problem….David Battison in next…..but unfortunately, all looked daunting when David was back with us same over, 150-7. Now, the pavilion grew tense and quiet. Matt Dancey, against his old team-mates, came in to keep Joe in business. 153-7 off 30 overs, 58 required off 5 overs….11.6 an over…looking tough. 5x6’s, 4x4’s from Joe, and a well struck drive from Matt for 4 (Matt finished on 5 not out) and we were winners…211-7 in 34 overs exactly. Wow….what a finish and what a display of power hitting from Joe when it counted at the death against their best bowlers, Joe scored 107 not out…our 5th century as a team and Joe is not our 4th centurion (3rd on the honours list with this total) and was richly deserved as a strong innings, well paced, calm and always in control. Well batted and just made the difference in the end. We don’t see centuries for 3 years and we then have 2 in 2 games……..who wants to take bets on next week’s game….Joe Wookey vs Simon Campbell vs Michael Rae vs ?? Jeremy Richards ?? Mouth-watering……be at Rushall next Sunday to see the slugfest….. It was our first victory versus Shrewton who are a strong side. A first win on their ground for us on our first visit, and an incredible ton from Joe. The whole team played well and everyone contributed with runs and wickets. Good to see and be part of. All in all, a very good day of cricket. We left the ground wondering (a) could we send Joe's wife on holiday more and (b) coming up with devious plans to stop Joe scoring as many next week when he captains the opposition……thinking photoshop and Facebook…….