Optimists Cricket Club

In the end, the Walferdange Optimists CC eased to victory over the Duck and Ferrets CC in the Luxembourg league final, but the result should have been closer. Batting first on a beautiful autumn day, the Duck’s innings was built around a 98 run effort by opener/captain Brad Mole but none in his team was able to give more than temporary support. This was down to some testing bowling from the WOCC team, who never allowed the Ducks to cut loose. Nevertheless, a target of 213 off 40 overs was always going to be testing; the quick outfield notwithstanding.

WOCC’s made a steady start to their reply so that at drinks they were nearly half way to their target with three wickets down. However, after the break both Paul Monico and Joost Mees were given lives, with some regulation catches put down. It was on these errors that the game turned as the pair then went on to score more than 70 runs each as they saw WOCC home with seven wickets and three overs to spare.


Picture: Joost Mees steers the ball through the covers

The LCF league final is on this Sunday 27th from 1pm. Come down for the end from about 5pm!

The Luxembourg national team has left today for Cyprus for this week's ICC Europe 4th division championship. First game is on Tuesday 8th September. Scores updated every five overs on: http://www.icc-europe.org/EURODIV4/index.shtml

With relegation assured, the first team put in a lacklustre performance against a Royal Brussels who are still in the hunt for the league title. Click on Fixtures for the match report and scorecard

The Optimists will play in Division 2 of the Belgian League in 2010, after failing to secure a win at Mechelen which would have kept hopes alive going into the final game at Royal Brussels.

In a game reduced to 36 overs per side by heavy morning rain, Optimists batted first and posted a decent score of 203, largely due to a fifty from Tony Whiteman, 28 from Joost Mees and brisk middle order runs from Taral Desai and Nishith Gandhi.

As in so many games this season, however, the reply from the opposition opening batsmen was immediately destructive, with any balls in the hitting-zone carted to the boundary. Despite a clutch of very late wickets, Mechelen cruised to the target with several overs to spare.

OCC 1st XI passed another milestone on its sorry 2009 campaign. In thrashing the Optimists, Ostend CC established two new league records: highest team total of 411 in 45 overs and highest opening partnership of 292. Scorecard and match report under Fixtures.

The boys from Gent, came all the way from Gent to have a knock on our beautifully prepared ground. The grass was short, the field flat as a chapati, and there was a feeling in the air that the 2nd eleven would finally win a match. It rained a bit in the morning, but, as so often in Walferdange, there was no rain to be seen during play.

Skipper Will Stock won the toss, and elected to bat first. After a slow start, loosing opener Simon Norcross early, runs were coming at a pace of 4 an over, thanks to a semi-solid partnership of Mohit and Piers Hampton. After their real bowlers all had bowled about 5 overs, they put on their secret weapons : Nikki and Charles. Two absolute mystery slow bowlers. They cut through our middle order like a warm knife through butter. Saran Narayanan, Jeroen van der Knoop, Robert Deed, all wanted too much, and all got out cheaply by being caught. Skipper Will and Sriram Venkatachalam made a brave last stand, adding 60 something to our total. In the end though, Mr Wide was the highest scorer. OCC had a total of 215 to defend.

Gent started batting with part-time batters. Our bowlers kept them below the required run rate, and wickets were falling nicely. When finally a proper batsman entered, the run rate picked up a bit, and we did not take our chances to get him out : 2 drop catches in the slips, one at 3rd man. This guy had 9 lives, and he knew it. He stayed in till the end, scoring a handsome 90 something. Regrettably to admit, Mr Wide was also a big contributor to their score. With 3 overs to spare, they reached the target.
All in all, a good day of cricket.

Jeroen van der Knoop

The 1st XI lost to an eminently beatable Greens CC on the return leg of their BCF campaign. OCC once again failed to post a competitive score with the bat and never gained control with the ball. Greens CC coasted home with 11 overs to spare. Seven matches played and only one victory this season means that the 1st Team are staring relegation in the face, unless something miraculous happens.

Scorecard and full match report will follow in Fixtures.

The Optimists entertained a touring English side, Salix CC from around the West London area, this past weekend. Two 40-over games were played over the Saturday and Sunday with the Optimists coming out on top on both days.
On the Saturday, following a heavy nights drinking the previous night, Salix decided to bat first. A decent batting side, they managed to post 179 off of 38 overs (reduced as a result of a short rain break). A special mention for Aanand Pandey, who bowled beautifully and took four wickets. Some poor fielding, and a top edge off of the loosener by West (the unlucky batsman unaware of the bounce that can be achieved on the Walfer track) and two of the of the opposition batsman narrowly missing out on 50’s proved to be some of the more entertaining moments of the innings. The Optimists set out in chase of the target with some early big hits. Amazingly, no OCC batsman made a hugely significant but all made it into double figures helping the side cross the line in a close run game.
Sunday’s game proved to be a little more one sided. After another nights drinking Salix, again, decided to bat first. Salix’s innings was helped along by a nice innings by Kulasingham, who made 74. Although he was dropped several times along the way including a rather comical moment when Deepak was bowling, encouraged the batman to sky the ball straight upwards, called to take the catch only to be out-shout by wicketkeeper Andrews who failed to make it to the ball (oh dear;-).Salix were eventually bowled out in the final over, setting the Optimists 190 for victory. OCC set about their target with the Opening partnership of Andrews and Arvind Pandey. The two of them made an opening partnership of 100 off of the first 20 overs. Pandey was eventually dismissed for 34 but, Andrews went on to retire after completing a swashbuckling century. The remaining batsman knocked off the final runs with some more big-hitting allowing OCC to win by 8 wickets and with 10 overs to spare.
The whole weekend was played in a tremendous spirit and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We look forward to welcoming back Salix or maybe visiting them in the near future.

The 1st XI were unable to chase down 219 runs in 45 overs against the Antwerp Indians and settled on reaching the target of 175 for maximum batting points. Scorecard and match report in Fixtures.