Murder Mystery Night 2011

See the Cluedo Characters in the Photo Gallery link.

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Stubton University Challenge 2011

The winning team, Scumbag College :- Kate & Martin, Tom, Paul & Penny  

Stubton University contestants, with 'Lady Questionmaster' Lois   (photos- MartinC )  

The Stars & Stripes flying over Stubton to Celebrate 'Thanksgiving Day' on 24th November

photo by Claire Brainerd 
 

 2010 - 2010 - 2010 - 2010 - 2010 - 2010

Stubton's First Annual Cricket Tournament

Sunday 27th June 2010 at Stubton Hall.  

Fenton Road Team Captain's report.  

 Thoughts from the Pavilion  

 As I stand here gazing over the pristine wicket and tree lined grounds my thoughts return to the afternoon of the 27th when cricketing history was made in Stubton. The first to grace the field were the largely untested Brandon Road team, while scoring was slow on the whole, Brandon Road built up a credible score with Sally Key the top scorer with a staggering 5 wides for 11 balls. Outstanding catches by Callum and James ensured that Brandon Road were not in a position to pile on the runs, with top batsmen Mark and Brian not being able to contribute to the score, which at the end of the innings totalled 21 for 4 wickets.

Fenton Road then graced the field with Hugh and Gillie opening the batting and scoring a very credible 11 runs between them ( 4 wides). Hugh played a tactical game securing double runs on each successful stroke, thus ensuring he faced the bowler as often as was possible. Sadly Gillie was run out and so not able to build on her emerging confidence with the bat. Other high scores were achieved by Callum (4 runs and 5 wides) and Penny (2 runs and 1 wide) culminating in an outstanding total of 33 for 3. Claypole Road fielding an experienced team demonstrated a skill at the wicket rarely seen outside of Trent Bridge. with Tom and Andy ( a recent signing from Newark) piling on the runs and achieving 13 runs between them before retiring from the field unbeaten. The opportunity to capitalise on this score was sadly dashed when the Claypole road's star of the crease was caught by Rob Thorton, sadly Cherry returned to the pavilion for a duck. With Kyle stumped, Bayley clean bowled and Neil failing to rise to the occasion as captain (undoubtedly because of the pressures of leadership) Claypole Road found themselves scoring 25 for 5 wickets at the end of play and leaving a "window open" for Dry Doddington to snatch a place in the finals.

Dry Doddington Road fielding an enthusiastic but largely untested team did every thing possible to pile on the runs against an onslaught of precision bowling by Tom, Neil and Andy from Claypole Road. Despite a sterling effort on the part of Martin to run his wife out on the first ball, sense prevailed and the umpires brought some dignity back to the game through a sensible application of the rules, as a result Lois was able to stay at the crease and score a resounding 2 not out. Special mention must go to Karen who did everything possible to make sure her runner (Cath) was not over taxed on the field of play, this was achieved by snatching two wides from Neil's high velocity onslaught from the pavilion end. An excellent partnership between Maddie and Martin allowed a further 3 runs to be added, leaving Peter Stokes with the challenge of scoring 7 runs from one ball to snatch victory from defeat, it was not to be, a score of 17 for 3 just was not enough to beat that achieved by Claypole Road.

The play-offs were a delight to watch and once a new "wide" rule had been introduced, the time at the crease was limited for the older members of the teams. The young side fielded by Brandon Road really tested the ability of the bowlers to put the ball on the end of the bat, with inspired batting by Elliott and Georgina building an early total of five runs between them. An excellent innings by Mark "Hamstring" Proctor built on this score with a further 6 runs which had the fielders running in all directions as he sought the boundary on every occasion. However the consistent bowling by Martin gradually eroded the ability of the team to score runs and they finished with a credible 22 for only one wicket. Dry Doddington sensing victory had a good start with runs being added by Sam, Geoff and Rob all achieving more than one run each. However the return to form by Paul following a protracted lay off with a bad neck ( nearly two hours) meant that wickets tumbled with three intrepid batsmen falling to his precision bowling. Again Peter was called in to save the day but could not get willow and leather to connect and as result Dry Doddington scored 16 for 4.

The final .....what can I say? Once we had managed to get Sally off the pitch, leg injury at silly mid off in the previous game..... Claypole Road batted first with highly consistent performances from both Andy and David pushing up the score. An unfortunate fumble by Paul meant that Andy's time at the crease was not curtailed. Contributions from Kyle, Bayley and Alan helped move the score on and on the last ball, a single snatched by the captain, the team finished the innings on 24 for one wicket ( Kyle caught by Steve) leaving everything to play for as the light began fail. Fenton Road playing a very tactical game slowly chipped away at Claypole Road's credible score, however by the fourth over things were beginning to look somewhat worrying and it was evident that I,as the team captain, needed to pull something out of the bag despite some success on the part of Tom who at short notice had taken over from his brother. The partnership of Steve and James in the final two overs will probably live on for ever in the record book of Stubton cricketing history, Steve making an impressive 8 runs (not a wide amongst them) and James' four runs being snatched as singles from a formidable Andy. The final stroke by Steve piling on three runs and resulting in a score of 26 for 1 for only one wicket (Janet caught by Andy) and with 8 runs in hand. As the victorious team ran to the pavilion surrounded by a cheering crowd, I as captain took time out to reflect that perhaps it would have all been different if I had walked out to the crease rather than staying at the side of the pitch, leading the team to victory by tactics and shrewd team selection!

An excellent day was had by all, great fun, great team work and most important of all yet another example of what an amazing place Stubton is to live in.                                                                

          Paul.  

Dry Dodd Road Team Captain's report.  

Thoughts from Doddington’s Captain:  

Doddington vs Claypole

Running out my wife on the opening ball of the match perhaps not the best start for Doddington Road (or my marriage). Fortunately for us, the Umpire called a wide, so relief all round. The team then got into its stride and the runs started to mount up. Some great innovative wheelchair batting from Karen, and a new cricketing term coined in ‘wheel before wicket’. A solid performance from the rest of the batting squad left Claypole Road with a dizzying 18 runs to beat. Which they did. Quite quickly.  

 Doddington vs Brandon

Refreshed after tea, and skillfully managing to win the toss, we put Brandon into bat first. Brandon opened with their ‘junior’ team, but despite Rob’s best efforts at ‘sledging’, their resolve held firm and the runs finished well over the twenties when batting had finished. In return, Doddington’s batsmen put up a mighty resistance, and were arguably moments away from victory, when Brandon’s star bowler, ‘Bomber’ Bratton, came out of retirement, and the rest, as they say, is history.                 

                                             Martin C.  

 Brandon Road Team Captain's report.  

Tales from the Brandon Road Team  

The Brandon Road team in true spirit of getting everyone involved fielded both the oldest and youngest team members of the tournament. The Captain was a little relaxed when planning and soon learned that bowling required a lot of skill that not many of us possessed. (Well done to Martin S for taking on the role of bowler in the first round). Had I read the rules properly (which I think I was involved in writing way back in May), I would have realised that it was important to know whether anyone could actually bowl or wanted to bowl; and that I needed 6 bowlers (who made that rule up – I must have dozed off at that bit?) However, that was not the only schoolgirl error which led to us losing the first game to eventual champions Fenton Lane. The fatal mistake was relying on Paul B (Captain’s husband no less) to be there on time to help us. He did get there eventually, deck chair and wine hamper in hand and promptly began to spectate (and drink). He had excused himself due to a neck injury earlier in the week, but luckily as the wine numbed the pain and his competitive nature got the better of him he was soon enjoying coaching the not so avid football fans, myself, Sally K and Row, in the art of bowling at tea / football break.

The cricket clearly was exciting, as most of the players were keen to get back, and therefore miss the end of the football… We went into the next round with a new strategy of putting the youngsters into bat first – Eliot, Lena and Georgie scared the opposition. Injured Mark limped on when Eliot retired and whacked a few balls just enough to keep Georgie and Lena running and sure to sleep well for a week. Unfortunately our secret weapon remained a secret as Kath missed an opportunity to bat – mainly due to the success of the youngsters and some very friendly fielding by the Doddington Lane team. Tom S was a great all rounder for the team and was the only player to have a go at anything and everything. As we went to field, Rowena did us proud with her newly found bowling skills, as did Paul B, with his well established drinking skills. He drank enough to numb his neck (or to avoid an uncomfortable night sleeping in his jeep if he didn’t manage to redeem himself for his lateness). It was only then we really appreciated the bravery of Martin S our reluctant first team bowler. Paul B and Rowena managed to limit the runs of the opposition and lead us to victory. Full advantage was taken when we lost a key fielder – Sally P not to be outdone by Mark’s earlier injury pulled a muscle in her leg and had to be wheeled off. Luckily one of the other team had a wheel chair and Jean’s rapid response and excellent first aid skills soon had a bag of vegetables strapped round the offending leg. (Hope it gets better soon Sal). Anne ‘far too nice’ Birkenhead forgot that her priorities were the team and also stopped fielding to assist Sally in the application of frozen veg. Luckily Sally’s husband knew where his priorities were and carried on, complete with pulled hamstring, for the team – nice one Mark! (To be fair he did think Sally was just having a rest…!)

It was a great afternoon thanks to everyone for taking part – even if it was just to come and laugh. Great planning Mr Snook and attention to detail as always and that only leaves the umpires who did a brilliant job keeping us all in our places, the scorers (I still don’t get it!), the caterers for keeping us fed and watered and of course Kent and Claire for the stunning location.  

Julie. 

Cricket Action

Team's in action. Pictures courtesey of Stephen Brewell and Gary Senior. Click on image for action shots.

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