Devon Dumplings v ANNUAL REPORT
Monday 10 October 2016 at AGM
P19 W11 L4 D1 Can/Aban3
I am pleased to be able to present my fifth report as Keeper of the Records. I am delighted that the overall results are improved over last year with a 69% success rate in all matches played to a finish but with only a 56% success rate in the all day games that were played as planned. We did however win the one all day game reduced to an overs match by rain.
We had four fewer fixtures arranged than in 2015 largely because of a change in the attitude of schools to the importance of sport as opposed to exam revision. We only lost one match to the weather in its entirety and had to abandon just the one during play. The third cancelled/abandoned game was that against Somerset Stragglers who failed to be able to raise a side for the second year running.
Our third Oxford Tour went well with us playing all three matches, winning two and losing one. It gave the opportunity for a number of more distant Dumplings to turn out for us with four managing to get to Oxford when an appearance in Devon had proved impossible! One change of note was that, for the first time, tourists were allowed to camp at the ground saving campers over £100 per tourist. This made touring more affordable for our younger players.
Of the 10 planned “all day” matches 9 were played as such with none cancelled/abandoned, 5 won, 3 lost and one drawn. The remaining match was played as an overs game with a start delayed by rain and was won well by Dumplings.
In terms of batting and bowling the weather helped the bat with six centuries by Dumplings versus two centuries against us, both in Oxford! We had just the one “five for” by Kenton Vos with 8 for 70 against Free Foresters!
The six centuries were scored by four individuals; two each for Kenton Vos and Patrick Rowe and one each for Corey Sinclair and Divan Marais. In addition the 57 Dumplings who batted in the season scored 22 half-centuries between them, with six of them scored by Corey Sinclair. Also of note is that Paddy Rowe’s two centuries were both unbeaten although on one he was “retired out”. Our top scorer was Corey Sinclair with 687 runs.
66 players turned out this year, 2 fewer than last year. 39 only played one match. Only three played more than 10 matches and only nine more than five. Nine of the 66 “did not bat”. This year Bernie Wilson played 15 times, batted twice and was not out twice with a total of one run and a top score of 1*. I think that may be another new record for him! We had 40 bowlers, only 5 of whom bowled 25 or more overs, with 4 bowling more than 40 overs. 9 took no wickets and only 4 took 7 or more wickets in the season with all four taking double figures. Our top wicket taker was Adriane Immerman with 20 wickets.
Thank you to our scorers and match managers. The former, and in particular Wendy and Derek Hardy, sorted out the play-cricket records of each game and all but three match reports had already been done by our managers! That is a record as I only have to make up those three but at least I umpired two of the matches! Two days work for this report rather than the eight of last year.
Finally my personal highlight of the season was the chasing down of Incogniti’s 307 for 9 declared (which included a magnificent fifth wicket partnership of 241 for them with their number six, Alex Drew making 167*) by Sam Ewen (81) and Divan Marais (135*) bringing the match home at 311 for 3 with ten balls to spare in the last 20 overs! Divan’s knock was the highest by a Dumpling in the season. Dr Peter Jolliffe, Keeper of the Records,