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National Indoor Cricket Deaf Super Four 2007...

Author - Ron Young, Head Coach of ECAD

Click here to download a PDF copy of this tournament report

England Cricket Association for the Deaf
National Indoor Cricket Deaf Super Four 2007
Edgbaston Cricket Centre, Warwickshire CCC,
Edgbaston Road , Edgbaston, Birmingham,
B5 7QU. Tel: 0121-446-3633

Sunday 7 October 2007

Deaf cricketers from all over England appeared at the Warwickshire County Cricket Club's Edgbaston Cricket Centre to take part in the first Indoor Cup Finals for deaf cricketers. The 4 teams taking part represented West London , Croydon, the West and the East. 6 umpires were on duty, organized by and including Brian Goodall, the Secretary of BACD (British Association for Cricketers with Disabilities), as well as his daughter Sarah Norell who was to act as official scorer. Sarah is taking her level 2 in BSL and was looking forward to working closely with deaf people and cricketers. Two completely new players were introduced to everyone, Simon Gray from Manchester and James Higgins a sixteen year old from Hampshire. The Chairman on behalf of everyone welcomed them and hoped they would enjoy the day.

Ron Young, the Head Coach for the National team of ECAD squad was in attendance and with the aid of Sula Gleeson, ECAD's official interpreter, and with the agreement of the umpires, he explained the rules and gave an insight into playing indoor cricket.

The Cricket Centre at Edgbaston is large enough to have two matches played at the same time side by side. The teams representing the various teams are shown below and once the captains had tossed the coins the games commenced.

Croydon one the toss on court one and asked the West team to bat first. On Court Two the East team won the toss and asked West London to pad up first.

On Court One the very strong West side that includes three current international players batted very well and reached a very competitive total of 154 off the 10 overs. 20-year-old James Dixon scored a well-constructed 44 not out well supported by the Chairman of ECAD, Stefan Pichowski who made 31. For the Croydon Team, Mike O'Mahony, a current cricket and football deaf international, along with the captain, Colin Maile had the East team very nervous at one stage but when they were both run out, the West team ran out winners by 55 runs.

On Court Two, the West London team decided, they new better than the coach on how to play the game and decided to crack the ball in the air to all parts of the court. Unfortunately in indoor cricket one can be caught off 3 of the walls and the ceiling. This proved the downfall for their batting. Out for 46 off 5 overs, three players caught off the roof. A strong and confident East team with two current international players Chris "Harry Potter" Hughes and Andrew Wood moved to the next round looking forward to being the eventual winners.

On Court One it looked initially as if West London were going to pull off a shock holding the West Team to 104 in the allotted overs and this was largely due to a magnificent 56 not out from James Dixon again in top form. Unfortunately the West Teams bowling proved too strong and Blyth Duncan finished with two overs one wicket for only six runs.

On Court Two a real shock took place. Although the East scored a formidable 141 with good contributions from Harry Potter and Andrew Woods, Croydon won off the second of last ball of the innings, thanks to a good knock of 30 from Mike O'Mahony, a superb gritty 44not out from the former England opening bowler Ross MacCauliffe and a glut of costly wides bowled by the East Team.

On Court One it was obvious that the East Team had not recovered from having just been beaten by Croydon. The West Team hammered their bowling to all parts of the Court and with the help of 60 wides scored the biggest total of the day 176 for the loss of just one wicket. Four batsmen retired and Blyth Duncan came back in to finish on 41 not out. Despite useful knocks from "Harry" and Andrew Wood the East Team were well beaten by 93 runs.

On Court Two Croydon were going from strength to strength. They scored a useful 133 for 3 from the overs and despite a useful partnership between former international player Simon Lycett and one of the development players Neil Magdani, West London were always behind the rate and finished 36 runs short of the Croydon total.

These final results in the round robin meant that the West Team would play the ever-improving Croydon Team in the Final whilst the East would play West London to determine which team would come third.

A fascinating game took place on Court Two to determine third place. It looked as if the East had claimed the victory when West London needed 17 to win from the last over. Unfortunately 5 wides were bowled in succession and West London finished up in third place. Congratulations to the team and their young captain Neil Magdani.

The final took place between the teams who had shown they were the best two over a very long day. Croydon won the toss and invited West to bat first and thanks to some excellent bowling, especially from Ross MacCauliffe the former international and at one time the quickest deaf bowler in the world, some excellent fielding and some suicide running from the West Team the first innings score was only 103. This score was largely due to some controlled batting and good running from Stefan Pichowski who made 31 before running himself out with an over to spare. However young James Dixon stuck early by taking the wicket of Mike O'Mahony and it looked very difficult for Croydon. MacCauliffe had other ideas and batted superbly with good support from his team mates for 34 and just when it looked as if they might win, he stepped across his wicket to try and push it into the leg side for more runs, missed it and was rightly given out LBW. A win by the West Team by 17 runs and Champions for 2007.

The captain of the England Cricket deaf team, Umesh Valjee, had been unable to play due to an injury but had traveled up from London to watch the games and to adjudicate on the batsman, bowler and fielder of the Tournament. He said that he had thoroughly enjoyed the day and it had been useful for him not to play and to be able to stand back and watch the proceedings. He hoped that everyone would participate in future years to make the day an important one in the Cricket deaf calendar. He presented England Cricket Deaf fleece tops to -

Batsman of the Tournament - James Dixon (West)

Bowler of the Tournament - Ross MacCauliffe (Croydon)

Fielder of the Tournament - Neil Magdani ( West London )

Important thanks were expressed by the Chairman to the Umpires, the Scorer, the officials of Edgbaston and in particular Lucy Riding the ECAD, Secretary for all their hard work in making the Tournament such a success. He suggested that everyone attend the coaching that was going to take place around the country in the winter and to let all their deaf friends know about it and to encourage them to attend as well.

The Final between West of England and Croydon

The winning team, West of England

The excellent viewing area of Court 2 at Edgbaston Cricket Centre

Yours in sport

Stefan Pichowski
ECAD Chairman