Hook Centenary Celebrations:

 
 
Hook Cricket Club’s century celebration games against The PCA Legends, all of whom had played for England in their younger days were watched by a large and appreciative audience, 180 of whom had enjoyed an excellent lunch where Ed Giddings, a controversial player in his early days, was an excellent host and the club’s young cricketers enjoyed the chance to chat to Monty Panesar, Simon Jones, Andrew Caddick, Owais Shah, Samit Patel andAdam Hollyoake before taking them on in two semi-finals and a final.
 
The cricket part of a great day for the club saw four teams of eight compete and with each team having two of the PCA Legends in their midst - with all the other 24 participants coming from Hook’s current playing squad and watched by Evan Martin, the doyen of the club who has been involved, man and boy, for almost 80 years.
 
Livewire MC Ed Giddings drew them out of a hat and so ‘The Storm’ had Samit Patel and Adam Hollyoake involved, Owais Shah and Simon Jones were allocated to ‘The Thunder’,  with Andrew Caddick and Monty Panesar included in the ‘The Fire’.
 
Mal Loye and Raife Hadley joined ‘The Lightning’, with the latter as a 19 year old top prospect playing instead of his dad Dean, who was unwell - but with Samit Patel sportingly agreeing to play in all three matches.
 

Semi-Final One - The Storm (80 for 2) lost to The Thunder (84 for 2)

 
With seven different bowlers who bowled an over apiece and a wicketkeeper in each team, Patel and Lewis Miller for The Storm’s innings off to a flying start, with Patel (21) and Miller (24) retiring at the agreed total of 20 before Owen Phelps joined the fray and Hollyoake created something of a stir by stroking four boundaries of the pace of former Glamorgan and England player Simon Jones.
 
He raced to 19 not out in only six deliveries and with ten from ‘Mr Extras’ it seemed that The Storm certainly had a challenging score.
 
But Owais Shah and Jacob Lay had other ideas before the latter fell to Daf Bowen with the aide of a Lewis Miller catch and Shay retired on 20. Harry Makepeace also showed good form wiythe bat as he struck three boundaries in 220 before retiring and Brad Flood (11 not out) and Brennan Martin 10, (caught behind by William Goronwy off Owen Phelps’ bowling) took them to within sight of victory before Simon Jones hit 5 not out to send his side ‘Thundering’ into the final!

 

Semi-Final Two - The Fire (53 for 5) lost to The Lightning (54 for 1)

 
The second semi featured lower scores as the bowling and fielding looked sharp as The Lightning restricted The Fire to 53 for 5 and strolled home as Mal Loye, Rhys Phelps and Samit Patel showed their batting skills.

Loye also featured with the ball as he shifted Monty Panesar for 7 runs and then had George James well caught by Rhys Phelps for a duck. Aled Phelps showed his team-mates how to bat with 20 before he retired with three boundaries to his name and Andrew Caddick showed he was more than just one of the beast England bowlers of his era with a four and two sixes in his 17 before Rhys Phelps pouched his second catch, this time off Callum Nutty.

Jack Phillips was bowled by Jake Wicks for a single as Chris Holder, Rhys Phelps, Callum James Brennan Martin and Smit Patel supported Loy (2 for 4) in dousing The Fire’s run-making capacity.

The Lightning suffered a set-back when Liam Miller departed for a duck, mesmerised by Panesar’s canny slow stuff - but then Loye retired on 20 (three fours and a six before Rhys Phelps (10) and Samit Patel (18) were undefeated as they flashed home with plenty to spare in terms of balls and wickets.




 

The Final - The Lightning (86 for 3) beat The Thunder (51 for 4)

 
The final was almost as one-sided as ‘The Lightning’ smashed 86 for 3 in seven overs and then limited ‘The Thunder to only 51 for 4 to set up victory by 35 runs.

Yet it looked as if things might be so different as Liam Miller (1) and Rhys Phelps (3) came and went very quickly but then the rest of The Lightning batsmen settled things down as Patel hit 19 before he was neatly stumped by Brad Flood off Harry Makepeace looking to blitz another big hit.

Then Mal Loye (21) and Callum James (22) maintained the momentum before retirement and Jake Wicks ended on 10 not out alongside 10 from ‘Mr Extras’ to set The Thunder a challenging run chase.

The Thunder’s  innings looked ‘clapped out’ very quickly as Owais Shah was adjudged lbw for a duck and then Jacob Lay (8), Harry Makepeace (4) and Brad Flood (7) soon followed against accurate bowling by the ubiquitous Loye, certainly the best performer by The Legends on the day, and Callum James.

Simon Jones showed he was more than an Ashes-winning fast bowler as he belted three huge sixes off Loye but had to retire on 22 - and it was left Brennan Martin and Chris Holder to add a few runs late on but still well short of their target as The Lightning showed their day’s play overall was more than just ‘a flash in the pan’!






 

Legends’ Pen Pictures:

 

Steve Newell – The England Legends Manager

Steve is also the Marketing Manager for ASICS UK and a director of ECITO Sports Company. He played his cricket at a high level just short of county level and has been involved with the PCA Legends since he was a founder member of what is now a huge organisation.

“This is by far the furthest we have been in the South-West,” he told PembrokeshireSport.co.uk “and some of us stayed at the new hotel in Milford Haven and a few travelled down from London this morning.
“We have been made very welcome, especially by Jamie (Phelps) and everyone at Hook Cricket Club.
“They have made a lot of money for their chosen charity and we are thrilled that we could play our part in their big day.”





 



Ed Giddings - MC for the Day

Ed Giddings played four test matches for England as a controversial right-arm fast bowler with Hampshire, Surrey and Warwickshire where he took 12 wickets against New Zealand, Zimbabwe and West Indies. His job on the day at Hook was to keep everyone informed and entertained and he certainly did that with comments, his organisation of a ‘Heads/tails interlude (which made a huge suit for the ‘2Wish Charity’ and a highly amusing auction section.
 







Monty Panesar - Left arm spin bowler

Surely one of the most popular figures who played in 50 test matches and took 167 wickets, and 226 one-day internationals (24 wickets). He formed a great spin partnership with Graham Swann and had seven-wicket hauls against South Africa and Australia - and once took 11 for 210 in one test against India. He only scored 220 runs in his test career at an average of only 4.9 but who could forget his match-saving test match where he and Jimmy Anderson held out for ages to deny Australia.
 













Simon Jones – VERY fast bowler

Served Glamorgan well for years before finishing his career with Worcestershire and Hampshire and in 18 tests collected 59 wickets, plus another 7 in eight ODIs. An integral part of the Ashes’ win in 2005 with a best haul of 5 for 44 at Trent Bridge. Said to have bowled one of the ‘Balls of the Century’ to dismiss Aussie skipper Michael Clarke but suffered from a freak accident in a test match at Brisbane where he ruptured his knee ligaments. Undoubtedly one of the Welsh ‘greats’ of cricket.
 









Andrew Caddick - Right arm fast bowler

‘Des’ played all his county cricket for Somerset and in a distinguished career of 62 test matches he took a massive haul of 234 wickets, as well as 69 more scalps in 54 one-day internationals as he used his 6 feet 5 inch frame to good effect. He was a star in the 1997 Ashes as he grabbed 24 wickets and claimed seven wickets in a single innings on other occasions against South Africa and
Australia. In 95 test innings as a tail-end batsman he had a top score of 49 not out
 








Malachy Loye -Right-handed batsman

Known to all as ‘Chairman’ and an imposing batsmen who used his 6 feet 3 inch frame to good effect as he hit the ball very hard, especially in limited-overs cricket - and is still recalled for his slog hit for six against Brett Lee. Mal played for Lancashire and Northamptonshire and was the England batting star in the 2007 T20 World Cup. Mal was also a useful off-spin bowler as a bonus.
 









Owais Shah - Right-handed batsman

Played for Middlesex (1995 to 2010) and Essex (2011-13) and made his debut for England in 2006. He also played against Pakistan (top score of 62) and Zimbabwe, making his one-day international debut against India in Mumbai.
 









Adam Hollioake - Right-handed batsman

Played for Surrey and was captain from 1997 to 2003, including three county championship winners’ medals. He played in four tests for England and also 35 one day internationals where he was skipper for 14 of them – and in 2003 was chosen as one of Wisden’s top five cricketers. The only cricketer to fight professionally in mixed martial arts and boxing!
 



















Samit Patel - Slow left arm bowler & right-handed batsman

Played his cricket with Nottinghamshire and in six tests claimed seven wickets as well as 24 more in 36 Odis and 7 in T20’s (18 games). Had best figures of 5 for 41 against South Africa and hugely popular around the world as an excellent defensive bowler in limited-overs cricket. Samit was also a useful batsman with a top score of 42 in test match cricket.

 







Dean Headley – Right handed batsman

Followed the family tradition by playing testy cricket but sadly was unable to play on the day because he was unwell – but his talented teenage son, Raiffe, helped out with ‘The Fire’ and did a good job too!
 





Final word with Jamie Phelps

Jamie would be the first to say that he had a tremendous amount of help from his team mates and friends at Hook CC.

“When we started out we soon realised what a big challenge we had set ourselves but everything worked out really well and I would like to say a huge thankyou to businesses, nearby clubs and individuals who took tables for the lunch, offered raffle prizes or anything else we needed.

Even the weather was kind to us and best of all we not only celebrated our centenary in style but we also raised a five-figure sum, the exact amount to be announced later, for a fantastic charity in ‘2wish’!