History
2007
With 3 games to go, Taplow first team were 37 points behind the all conquering Penn &
Tylers Green. 2 weeks to go it was down to 30; one week to go it was 20 and on the last day
we won, they lost, we out scored them by 21 points and won the league by a point! Hooray!!
2007 will be remembered as the year Will Midlane captained his side to the successful defence
of the Chilterns league title as well as the cup. A consecutive double for the team who had never
won the top division since 1975!
Penn were certainly a good side; we lost only 2 games all year, they just happen to be both against them!
But before we start feeling sorry for Penn it should be noted that they completed 2 more games
than we did; they seemed better able to dodge the appalling weather we experienced this summer.
Where they clearly went wrong though is the patently negative way they sat on their points lead
once they built it up. Penn would put their opposition in and chase down whatever target was set.
Every week, Will would chose to bat, hope that his side got maximum batting points and then attempt
the difficult task of bowling the opposition out in whatever time was left available.
We attempted to win nearly all our games the hard way over the last couple of months.
So I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating William for his achievements
but also for everyone who has played cricket for Taplow in either of the league sides this year.
It was a genuine club performance this year. Stuart Peters lead the second team to a sensational
first half of the season, winning 6 out of the 7 completed games. He then had to cope with the loss
of many of his original band of players as they covered for those unavailable in the first team
during the second half of the year. In the final analysis the first team won 9 matches, the second
team won 7. A fine achievement I'm sure you would agree.
2006
Well 2006 was all about the first team. Taplow won the league in its inaurgural season back in 1975, and
then we waited another 31 years before doing it again. 2006, Taplow finally are league champions.
A look at the averages shows that the batting was led by Nilam who really missed out on getting an easy
1,000 league runs but I don't think we should hold that against him! The team was brilliantly led by
Will Midlane who got the most out of a very good team. He also managed to retain the league cup again
which now feels like our own property having won it 4 times in the last 5 years.
What about the second team? No comment, as I said, 2006 was all about the first team!
2005
Second place behind the all conquering Englefield Green was the first team's reward for a season
largely without the availability of Chris Batt. Nilam scored 757 runs which earnt him the league
batting award. William Midlane led his team on the field to another cup final win and proved himself
an intelligent and imaginative captain.
The second team found themselves in all sorts of trouble with only a few matches left. Affected by
injuries and retirement they rarely looked like stringing even a couple of good games together. In the
end a couple of wins at the end pulled us out of the relegation zone but a much improved performance
is hoped for next year.
2004
2003
The first team's return to the top division sees them end up runners up to Wraysbury but they manage to beat them in the cup
final and so retain the John Midlane Memorial Cup. The second team also manage to retain their championship title, bit tight though,
only winning it on the last day when Wraysbury failed to win their final match against Little Marlow.
Congratulations to Chris Batt who won the first XI league bowling award.
2002
The first team bounced straight back into the top flight! In fact the whole club excelled themselves. The first team were champions of their league,
the second team became champions of their league with a week to spare and to top it all, the club won the League Cup as well.
2001
Disaster struck the first team in 2001. Having won their first two games, putting them at the top of the table, they then put
a remarkably dull string of draws together split with the occasional defeat. Fortunately, only one team were going to be relegated
from the First Division in 2001 and throughout the year Littlewick Green found themselves proping the league up.
Typically, they then went on to get maximum points in their last two games and at the end of the last game we found ourselves
bottom for the first and
only time of the season - sufficent times to get relegated of course. If you look at the table you'll notice that we lost fewer games
than everyone else, but since you don't get any bonus points for a "losing draw" (and we seemed to specialise in those), it
all sadly adds up to Second Division cricket next year for the 1st XI.
Happily, our form hadn't deserted us in the League Cup competition. We reached the final for the third time in four seasons,
just falling at the last hurdle, against Amersham Hill, at an attempt to repeat the success of 1998.
The 2nd XI could have done better but at one stage they were also looking down the barrel of the relegation gun. A terrible run
of matches in July and early August saw them collect just 29 points in 5 games (4 defeats and 1 abandoned) destroying all the good
work at the start of the year. Happily, they managed to recover with a good points scoring run in although that series of matches
in the middle of Summer probably cost them a comfortable position in the top three.
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