British Officers Cricket Club

Ready for the Season?

Tahir Maqsood — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:54:07 EDT

We all get tired by the end of November but come January and we get in Cricket withdrawal. Good news is that we will be playing cricket in few weeks.We have been practicing indoors and seem to have fair amount of enthusiasm. New members are injecting energy in the club. We have many challenges and need to perform much better this year. We need to establish ourselves as the main challeger in the new league. Why play in any competition if we don't want to win it and need everyone to have that mindset. Apart from the league, we will be taking part in the festival as usual. Sadly we have not been competitive in the festival over the years and we need to change that this year. Shaun Pollock will the chief guest and many of the regular teams will be returning. Overseas teams include 1-2 from Australia and 3 from UK. If we had this tournament in another town (Florida for example), we would be happy to spend the airfare and hotel money and pleased to play 5 out of 6 games. Sadly when it is in our backyard, we take it for granted and ignore it. If you fully commit to it, you will find it lots of fun. Consider it as a tour and enjoy all the days. Looking forward to a great year of cricket.

Practice at Star sports in Warminster on Sunday, March 17th at 9-30 AM

Tahir Maqsood — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:22:57 EDT

First two sessions were very well attended. Hopefully this will be the last indoor session. Everyone gets a better work out as compared to outdoor practices. Please join us

Time to gear up for 2013 season. Skippers, Practices and other Philosphical Issues

Tahir Maqsood — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:58:24 EDT

Gentlemen, Football is over, days and getting longer and it must be time for cricket. While cricket is our passion and it is exciting to think about a great day in sun and bar with friends, we have quite a few challenges ahead of us. After enjoying quite a few years of being in two leagues and playing lots of social cricket, we struggled tremendously last year. We could not get enough playing members to stay in GSCL and did not do well in PCL. With relatively weaker teams we fared slightly better in Festival (becoming more competitive every year) and in Delaware cup. We realized that we have very few members who can play both days or even consistently commit to play once a week. This alongwith many other factors including not coming to practice etc was the reason where we ended up. While we fully understand everyone's limitations due to work and family engagements, it is obvious that unless we fully commit to all principles of cricket and the club, we won't do much better this year either. Mr President requested nominations for skippers and vice skippers but response has been very poor. Reasons for apathy are usually a sense of hopelessness that nothing can change or a sense of comfort where we all feel relatively satisfied. Just playing enough cricket is not what we aspire for, we want to regroup and win this year. We have enough talent that if we apply ourselves, we can beat any team in the league. Need a few members to step up to the plate create a strong skipper's core. Skeppers have to lead by example and must fully commit to all functions of club (AGM, Annual Dinner, Joint committee meetings, Cricket committee meetings, Practices and other important social events to name a few). We don't have the luxury of 3 teams anymore as we struggled to even have enough players for one at times. All of us need to start practicing early this season and compete with the mind set of winning every competition we play in. Will request all of you to volunteer for skippers or nominate the people that you think will be good leaders (Please check with them first). Philosophical questions about number and structure of skippers can be raised as well. All the feedback will go to executive committee later this month who has to announce the final slate of skippers. In the mean time a Thirsty Thursday and curry party will be good venues to ponder these talking points and socialize with wonderful friends.

2013 Curry party at the Griffiths

Zafar Abdullah — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:33:26 EDT

Curry Party Details:
Indian curry (meat/Vegetarian), non Indian dish, dessert, drinks and an entertaining auction all for:
Single: $25
Couple: $40
Each additional see Single,
Start time : 6:30
Finish time: up to you
Address of event: 34 Linwood Avenue, Ardmore, PA 19003
Questions: Call Kenny 610 649 4662 or Z 610 389 1239
Dear BOCC
The 2013 kickoff event is at hand . Once again the Griffiths have generously opened their home to us on Saturday March 9. A full club and friends complement is expected to this annual and guaranteed fun event. This is a fund raiser fueled by gifts donated by members that are auctioned or raffled at the event. So two requests, please commit to the party by indicating on the survey and rummage through your garage or attics to find items to donate... New or slightly used that someone will be happy to take and store in their attic until next curry party. Thank you.

Executive Committee 2 Mar 2013 Meeting Minutes

Rajat Arora — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:52:47 EDT

Executive Committee 2 Mar 2013 Meeting Minutes Read more...

BOCC Membership Form - 2013 season

Chris Lawrence — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 06:53:14 EDT

New membership form for the upcoming season. As Tahir says it's time to gear up for the upcoming season. Please complete the membership form and send it in along with your check made out to 'BOCC' to Chris Lawrence, Treasurer, BOCC, 336 W Springfield Road, Springfield PA 19064 Read more...

Geezer alert!! OR a walk down the memory lane

Zafar Abdullah — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:59:11 EDT

I finally found time and CPU cycles to transform DVDs and other material from our past onto picasaweb our alternate multimedia distro site. Many thanks to Kenny and especially Craig Joss for documenting our past and sharing with me.
Want to see Tahir with a mustache (Roomana doesn't), or Gary Sobers or young Mike or a newly wed Mr. Treasurer... perhaps you want to peruse the Charlotte and Bermuda tours... something to re-live or learn how they used to do it... click on the subject!
Have fun...
z

New League (Greater Philadelphia Cricket League) update

Tahir Maqsood — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 01:42:40 EDT

After many smaller meetings, the first Annual General Meeting of GPCL was held at Desi Village on Saturday, January 5th 2013. Representatives from 17 teams attended. All teams are fully committed and 16 have made their initial payments. Quite a few other teams are also interested but we may limit it to 16 for the first year. I was elected as President and Ernie as Secretary for the new league. Waqas is Vice President, Mahesh Assistant Secretary and Terry Treasurer. Adrian Adams (Liberty), Ananad Subramanian (International) and Kamran Khan were elected as members at large. Great response from all area clubs and now we all have to make it successful. Will keep everyone posted with the developments. Join the discussion at facebook.com/groups/GreaterPhiladelphiaCricketLeague

President's Appeal /Fundraising

Ernie Precious — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 01:41:55 EDT

It is almost one month since we sent everyone a letter outlining the club's progress over the years and its short term needs to improve playing conditions at our ECG grounds. The response from playing members to my appeal for a monetary donation to the club has been disappointing so far. We have received 13 donations as of today, of which seven (7) are from 'old farts' (non-playing members, alumni, friends) and only six (6) from the current playing membership. Maybe you plan to send in your donation with your 2012 subscription, maybe you have just forgotten, maybe you think that others will pay and you don't need to? Whatever the reason, I respectfully ask you to send in whatever you can afford to help YOUR CLUB achieve the improvements that will benefit YOU. PLEASE, do it now! Send your checks to our Treasurer Chris Lawrence, 336 W Springfield Rd, Springfield Pa 19064. I thank you in advance for your generosity.

BOCC 2012 season ends for most members with the traditional Under/Over...

Krish Pusuluri — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:38:51 EDT

...and for others, the Quad Cup final is on Saturday. On a beautiful Saturday, with barely an inkling of the wet and wild Sandy, the die-hard members of BOCC gathered for a photo op and an opportunity for friendly ribbing. The signed up members who were a no-show did throw a spanner in our plans, but did not dampen the 8-a-side 16over affair. Tahir won the toss (the kind that he wins in Toronto!) and put the Overs to bat. Julian and T got off to a blazing start, with useful 20's from Rajesh and Chris as the Overs put up a daunting 115. The Unders chased it down in 13 overs, with 20's from Satish, Bhish, Rajat and Jay. Predictably, Bhish batted like a dream, T/Klaus bowled tight and the ball followed Rajesh like a horny teenager. Jay and Kenny did a fantastic job skippering the teams and are in contention for next year! All of us retired to BP for a beer and lunch, but no one took up Kenny's proposal to go back and play another innings. Not that anyone is keeping score, but I believe this is the 6th straight win for the Unders?

Another wonderful dinner event!

Zafar Abdullah — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:38:39 EDT

Thank you every one who helped make this event possible... special thanks to all of you who made it to the annual dinner - many of whom took on an hour + commute on the turnpike. Without participation there is no event, and no fun. Click on the "subject" to check out the fun times which included awards presented by a very special guest (Vanna), Ernie singing Delilah and Sunil and Satish belting out the bollywood oldies like they were auditioning for Indian Idol...
PS: Thirsty starts next Friday

BOCC WINS QUADRANGULAR CUP 2012

Satish Prabhakar — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:38:22 EDT

BOCC wins the inaugural edition of “Friends of Philadelphia Quadrangular Cup 2012”. Please click on the subject link to read a detailed match report

Toronto 2012 Batting/Bowling Stats

Krish Pusuluri — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:37:59 EDT

Our tour satistician par excellene, Dr.Richard Kanoff, has yet again done a great job in compiling the Toronto Tour 2012 batting/bowling stats. Please see attached xl file and click on the respective tabs. Read more...

Betty Reeves

Ernie Precious — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:40:30 EDT

It is with deep regret that I have to report the death of Betty Reeves. Betty has been an integral part of the BOCC since its resurrection by her husband Alfred and Peter Stone over 25 years ago. It is difficult to imagine a season of cricket without Betty. She will be sorely missed and I am sure that you will join me in expressing our sincere condolences to Alfred and their entire family over their loss. Funeral arrangements will be announced when known. I know that several of you are wondering what impact this news will have on the Toronto Tour. My personal opinion is that both Alfred and Betty would want the tour to go ahead, albeit with heavy heart, and we should proceed on this basis.

BOCC kick start quadrangular cup on a winning note

Satish Prabhakar — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:41:23 EDT

BOCC started the quadrangular cup on a winning note. We lost the toss and we were put into field on a very humid day. BOCC was up to the challenge, we opened our bowling with T and Ram who bowled a very nice line and often missing the edge. The Spartans openers Gaurav and Dev stood there like a rock without throwing it away. With the score slowly climbing and no wickets falling, we rotated our bowlers. Sushi got us the first break through and he got Gaurav the opener out for 32. Spartans were not giving it up easily even they lost only 3 wickets for 140. There middle order was scoring runs at 4.0 to 5.0 RPO. T-Maq came back for his final spell in the 29th over, cleaned up the middle and lower order with a 4-fer. Spartans were all out for 179 of 33 overs. The BOCC wicket takers were Tahir(4w), Sushant(2w), Satish/Umadhav/Jay(1w each). After a great tea by Sushi and Jay, we opened with Rohith and Jay. Our batting innings ended up being a one sided contest with BOCC totally dominating the proceedings. Jay and Rohith battled the heat, but did a fantastic job to hold both ends. Rohith in particular was merciless on anything short and the ball disappeared to the point or square leg boundary. After a big opening partnership of (125+). Jay was out for 50, his second of the season. This is the second time a challenge was thrown at Jay to open and he did not disappoint us both times. Rohith(81*) along with Vikram on the other end remained not out playing some beautiful shots and brought us home with 9 overs to spare. This was a fantastic start and a total team effort by BOCC just the way we wanted to start the quadrangular cup. Special thanks to Ernie and Alfred for cheering us through. Once again thanks Ern for such a lovely fast outfield. All of us signed off to BP’s to celebrate. Cheers!

PCL - hard fought loss vs. Knights

Jon Kennon — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 08:42:11 EDT

BOCC won the toss and batted in nasty hot and humid conditions. Made a decent 216 all out, with Sunil and Sri getting sixties. We messed up the final 10 overs, for the second week in a row having wickets in hand did not equate to a fast finish, as wickets fell too regularly. We needed 250 and should have got them. There were a couple of dodgy lbws right at the end, but still, some overly ambitious shot selection was the chief culprit. Fielding, we were well in it at the second drinks break, as they needed 88 off 13 with 5 wickets in hand, and their most dangerous batters were back on the bleachers. But as we tired we dropped/missed a couple of catches, and the guys we let off took Knights home. So, while not mathematically eliminated, in all likelihood we are out of contention for the playoffs now, and haven't really deserved them anyway - looking at the season as a whole.

As individuals and as a club we may need to think about whether we have the necessary desire for league cricket, as just showing up on (most) weekends for a run-around is not going to get it done as we all slow with age. Other teams take their preparation (practice etc) much more seriously than we do, and they are generally younger too. Not trying to be morbid about it, as a fun game of cricket is a fun game of cricket, league or otherwise, but the trend in our league play is not positive.

Team for Sun, 8/5/2012 vs North East CC

Jon Kennon — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 08:41:59 EDT

Start time is 11:00 AM. Click on the announcement subject to view the team.

Greatly Satisfying Toronto Tour

Tahir Maqsood — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:54:23 EDT

A tour that was almost cancelled due to very sad and sudden death of Betty and only had 11-12 players available, did not look very promising. In the end both these gave us some extra strength and we probably had one of the best tours to Toronto. We played our first game against Leg Trap with a heavy heart and did not do justice to our potential. John Hoyes and Krish opened the bowling but Jeff and Tyrone took advantage of rare loose balls and soon took the score to 82 in 10 overs. Jon, Sushi, Mike and I bowled well and in the end we were only chasing 246. We made a mess of that and apart from Bhishma's heroic 95, no one else batted well. Instead of going for his century, Bhish tried to win the game and got stumped to Keshwani while trying to accelerate the run rate further. This did not bring us down and our mood was certainly up beat while we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Amaya (Organized by Steve and Jeanette). Next day we were ready for Kookaburra cup. Jon Hoyes and Krish bowled great in their opening spell and rest of us gave nothing away and restricted them to 176. Shariq set the tone with 18 off the first over. Although he and Krish got out but Jon played aggressively and Bhish with great poise. Both remained unbeaten with their 50s and we won by 8 wickets. Dinner at Howard was well appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed by winners. We won the toss against Inverhaugh and put them in. They scored 202 and seemed very up beat especially after taking wickets of Sahada, Cyril and Ian. However Bhish and Shariq playing at 5 and 6 pretty much ended their hopes and it was great to see them bite each other in their frustration. Krish ended their misery with a big six aginst their trash talking quickie Vince. Their fake humility was savoured with some beers. They are great hosts in terms of giving us tremendous food but their attitude always leaves a bad taste and winning there becomes even more important. After winning the two crucial games we were much relaxed and batting skipper Krish opened the innings with Sahada and I. I enjoyed my batting time and ended up with a very surprising and lucky hundred. I was trying to steal Bhish's style so he decided to reverse his. His 50 in 19 balls and a solid 70 by Krish allowed us to declare at 276 in 51 overs. We bowled 42 in return and barely drew the game. A great hundred by Zamir kept them in the hunt and they had a chance to win it. We had some chances too but our bowling skipper Jon, did not play too aggressive and kept the game interesting. In the end it was a very well played draw and right outcome. Four days of heat and hard work deserved a big meal at Lahore Tikka house and that is what we did. A thoroughly satisfying tour after a very difficult start. Thanks all for being such wonderful sports on this tour. I am sure most of us are itching to go their next year especially Bhish, who scored four 50s and got out only once.

PCL: BOCC fail to chase 186

Jon Kennon — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 08:39:54 EDT

It seemed like we were past this kind of thing for this season. Bowled OK, fielded not horribly, in nasty weather. Batting started great, they were bowling too short, and Bhish and Shariq loved that. Then they fixed their lengths and (I'm naming names, so for the squeamish - look away)... Bhish skewed one high to cover, he had cramp and was fried. Shariq, Sri, and Raj all chipped the ball to short mid wicket - off the same bowler. Sushant faced too many dot balls for his liking and shanked one straight up to mid off. I was bowled by a straight one – indicative of my general lateness in playing every ball I faced. Yatin ditto. Tahir and Sathy nailed crisp drives straight at mid off. Amim was unlucky, his cover drive would have been a line drive six but for a terrific running catch. Rajat was not out. We are old, and were tired after 40 overs in horrible hot and humid conditions, the wicket was a bit slower than we expected, which may explain (not excuse) the amount of uppish drives. So, we play our way, plan A, and don’t adjust to conditions. We are a bit dumb about it, and we don’t have inexperience as an excuse. At least if we were inexperienced we would be much better in the field. The way you stop a mini collapse becoming a major one is to 'just stay at the wicket' yourself, rotate the strike, and see where you are at after 30, and then 40 overs. Its a grind, doesn't need to be pretty, and it doesn't happen with one glorious six over cow corner. We have three must-win games left now, so its win or go home.

In memory of Betty Reeves

Satish Prabhakar — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:09:44 EDT

Gentlemen, As announced earlier we have set up a Facebook spot for Betty Reeves under the BOCC club Facebook page timeline. Betty and Alfred Reeves represent the heart of the BOCC. For the past 26 years Betty has supported the club and Alfred in every way possible. Betty was a listener, an advisor, an endless supplier of food and drink, and she was the best natured and kindest person imaginable. Betty will be missed by all that knew her. In memory of Betty, Please use comments section under the posting in facebook to express your thoughts, experiences so that her legacy will last forever under the club timeline.

Anyone with a Facebook account or without one must be able to simply access the page and view the messages using the link below. For Facebook newcomers, In order to post on Facebook you would need an existing Facebook account, please create an account if you don’t already have one. To post your thoughts you need to first login to Facebook, click on the page link provided below, click on comments under the “In Memory of Betty Reeves” status, write your thoughts and hit enter and it should be saved. If this is complicated for you please send your thoughts in an email to either myself or Krish and we will enter it for you with credits to your name. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thanks

BOCC Facebook Page -- www.facebook.com/bocccricket

Club Committee Meeting March 25, '12

Ernie Precious — Mon, 07 May 2012 06:59:44 EDT

We held a Club Committee meeting, at short notice, at a cold and windy ECG on Sunday morning. Present were: Tahir M, Klaus B, Chris L, Ernie P, Satish P (by invitation). Apologies for absence were received from: Alfred R, Shariq K, Zafar A, Vikram D. Meeting opened at 10 am Agenda items were: Skippers and Selection Process: President's Appeal status: New Mats & Wicket: New Fencing: Scorer status: Curry Party Skippers & Selection Process: please read the announcement put on the website this morning by the Club Captain. President's Appeal: we have received $4,235 against a budget of $4,500 and a goal of $6,000. Thanks to those who have already donated and a plea for donations from those that have not done so yet. New Mats & Wicket: the mats will be delivered Tuesday 3/27 and will be stored in a lock-up controlled by the Park. We met with a contractor (third such meeting) to mark out the new wicket location on #2. The work of digging out the wicket will be done this week, weather cooperating. He will lay crushed stone on the base (rolled)to allow drainage which will then be covered with 6" of a smooth industrial grade asphalt which will be sealed. An underlay and the new mat will be installed by ourselves. The new asphalt surface is expected to last 10 - 15 years. (There are asphalt wickets in Canada that are in use that have lasted this length of time). New Fencing: we met with a contractor to pick out the two areas on the wooded side of the field where we want to install high netting (up to 15 ft high). The netting will prevent cricket balls from going through but will allow golf balls to keep going. This is to discourage amateur golfers from using it as a driving range! We are expecting to get cost estimates for the high netting this week. Scorer Status: it was agreed that the official Scorer of the BOCC should be granted a special non-playing membership status at an annual cost of $50. The constitution will be amended accordingly with an ECG approval. Curry Party: responses are disappointing, for various reasons. A survey will be set up on the website to get feedback on another possible date for the party (survey is already up, please respond). Meeting closed at 1 pm.

Out of form batsmen, read this

Jon Kennon — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:47:16 EDT

...To play at my best, I needed to get into good positions to attack. Why? Because when I was in position to attack, I was inevitably in a good position also to defend. But when I set out my stall to play a defensive shot - before the ball was even bowled - then I not only attacked badly, I also defended badly. Having the intention of defending caused me to be passive and late in my movements. The shot would almost happen to me, rather than me determining the shot...

Cricket Tips Website

Jon Kennon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:41:08 EDT

Funny, and instructive (converting starts versus game wins ratio)

Jon Kennon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:40:47 EDT

Spin Bowling, food for thought

Jon Kennon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:40:35 EDT

BOCC Tour to India in January 2012

Krish Pusuluri — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:04:27 EDT

Gentlemen, What better way to kickstart the 2012 season than BOCC's first tour to India? 10 days, 6 games at 4 international venues in 3 cities (Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore). Staying at prestigious clubs and playing against potential/retired international players. Vikram Dravid has done a fantastic job of lining up all the logistics, now all we need is for you to sign up. The goal is to get an assessment of interested folks by Sep 20th and determine if we have a core team to move forward. Questions? Thoughts? Send Vikram and me a note or talk to us.

The Psychology of Choking

Jon Kennon — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:31:26 EDT

Pretty interesting read.

Rain? What rain? BOCC beat Knights handily

Krish Pusuluri — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:19:23 EDT

Fortune favors the brave or the intrepid cricketer! Amidst the weatherman's dire predictions of a rainy day and ensuring that the opposition showed up, it turned out to be a great day for cricket. We reduced the contest to 30overs (although in hindsight we could have played 35) and lost the toss. With Kalim (in place of a certain Nadim, who gave up his spot since the GSCL was rained out so Kalim could get some practice), spewing venom from one side and Sathya nippy & very accurate from the other, we did not give anything away, before Kenny (4w) and the parsimonious Klaus cleaned the tail up. Knights ended up with 104/9 in 30vers. We chased the total down with 105/7 in 26 overs with Chris carrying his bat for 30+ and Kalim unbeaten on a very mature 20+. Sid claimed his first wicket and Dave bowled his first over for the club. Well done boys!

New Inning Foundation Gives To USYCA, Announces Matching Campaign

Krish Pusuluri — Sat, 14 May 2011 08:19:16 EDT

New Inning Foundation has announced a $500 donation to USYCA for the purchase of additional American Cricket Champ sets. This marks the third major gift from New Inning to USYCA in the past year, and demonstrates the foundations’ determination to support promising youth cricket initiatives.
Above and beyond the direct donation, New Inning will match, dollar for dollar up to $500, all direct donations given to USYCA from Saturday May 7 through Friday, May 13.
Click on subject for link.

A fantastic season opener

Zafar Abdullah — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 08:07:40 EDT

BOCC's 2011 kickoff event was a fun filled evening with fantastic curry, drinks and dessert topped only by the wonderful people - members, family and friends that were present. We missed a few of you at the event but you were all well represented by your colleagues. The food filled evening closed out with yet another exciting and hilarious raffle with an auction to boot! (Shariq outbid everyone and got the bird cage of his dreams!)
The evening would not have been possible with all the support that each and every participating member provided. However one family took the brunt of it all by hosting the BOCC which allowed us to reduce our cost and make some much needed profit.
Dear Griffiths (Teri, Kenny and Charlotte) thank you from the bottom of all our hearts!

Thank you everyone for attending, participating, supporting, working, providing food and or raffle items!
Please stay tuned for BOCC social calendar that should appear shortly and will provide you all with the dates you need to block out for the BOCC's fantastic off the field events.
z

Curry Party

Ernie Precious — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 07:39:04 EDT

Address: 34 Linwood Ave, Ardmore, PA 19003 6:30PM onwards

Gentlemen of the BOCC, March 12 is the first and biggest and maybe the most important social event of the year! We meet to renew friendships one with another, we bring guests, we eat and drink and we make money for YOUR club! Kenny G (and Terry, of course) has made the ultimate sacrifice in offering their house to all and sundry. The invitation/survey has been on the website for a long time now and most of you have looked at it and have said ' I'll answer that in an few days' time'. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!! The organizers need to have numbers of attendees if they are to provide food, drink, raffles etc and we owe them the courtesy of showing our commitment by indicating that we will be there and how many guests/spouses/sig. others we will be bringing along. $25 per person, $40 per couple, all the food and drink you can consume - seems like a helluva deal to me! PLEASE ACT NOW, SIGN UP, SEND YOUR CHECKS TO CHRIS LAWRENCE AND SUPPORT THE BEST CRICKET CLUB IN THE US!! The 2011 cricket season is just around the corner!

Treasurer's comment: Life is always easier for your humble Treasurer if checks are sent in advance of the event. Make checks out to "The BOCC" and send to my attention at 336 W Springfield Rd, Springfield PA 19064 and a note on the number of guests would be helpful.

Season finale on a winning note!

Krish Pusuluri — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:29:33 EDT

No better way to end the season than by showing the BOCC fighting spirit! On a slightly chilly Saturday, BOCC clashed against Villanova yet again. Nova won the toss, batted and racked up 172/9 in 35. We were playing 10-a-side. Klaus reached wicket # 501 in this match with his 4 wicket haul as JK, Mike, Baba and Amim picked up the other wickets. Our irregular keeper, Satish picked up 3 good catches and did a great job stopping the ball with dubious technique. Chris and Baba started off our chase and were back in the hutch in a flash, Chris out LBW to a dodgy decision, Baba loosing his off-stump to a wild swing. The JK juggernaut was just about to roll when he feathered one behind. At 17/3, things weren't pretty. Satish and I stitched a 90 run partnership (aided largely by an over where the bowler gave away 23 runs, 15 of them in wides!), before I was run out and the score at 107/4. Our October specialist, Amim, who has played the job of finisher the last 3 years that I can think of, joined Satish who was smoothly puttering along. The asking rate went from 6 to 8 and then 9, before Amim crashed two lusty hits to bring the rate down to 7. Satish reached his 50 and plopped one back to the bowler with the score on 159 and 2 overs to go. We went in to the final over needing 9 to win and Amim/Kenny at the crease. Two dot balls didnt do our fingernails any good, before Amim walked across his stumps and scooped an off-stump line ball behind square for a boundary. Another boundary followed to bring the equation to 1 run from 2balls. A leg bye followed and Amim's 37* had brought us home with 1 ball to go. Well done boys and a satisfying end to the season!

BOCC are GSCL 2010 Div II Champions !!!

Raj Subramanyam — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:29:26 EDT

We beat Shawnee by 44 runs in yesterday's regular season GSCL final game. Batting first, BOCC scored 233/7 in 40 overs (Negi 38, Shariq 64, Raj 49, Bayazid 26). Shawnee 189 a.o. (Tahir 3w, Bayzid 4w, Sunil 2c, Andy 2c) in the 38th over. Click on the subject to read the match report. Detail scoresheet can be found on the GSCL site at: http://www.dreamcricket.com/gsclnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=3971

GSCL T20 Championship Match Report

Raj Subramanyam — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:28:55 EDT

As promised, here's the match report - please click on the subject line. Detailed scores are available on the gscl site at:

http://www.dreamcricket.com/gsclnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=4102

BOCC AGM NOTICE (VENUE CHANGE)

Satish Prabhakar — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:28:05 EDT

Date & Time:       Feb-19-2011, 10:00am
Location:              Reeves Residence (Directions available under Venues)
                            Address: 1308 Pinewood Road, Villanova, PA 19085

Please click on the subject to view the AGM agenda. Please email me if you have any specific questions or concerns. I will reply ASAP. See you at the AGM. Thanks

BOCC's stats package is now available!

Krish Pusuluri — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:40:39 EDT

Please note the "Statistics" tab on the website. BOCC is now the proud owner of its very own stats package developed by our tech wiz, Umadhav. Here are a few tips on how to navigate the package.

Click on the "Statistics" tab on the website.
Choose the appropriate "Statistic Type" and the period. Hit "Show". Note that the tables are sortable by clicking on the columns.
To view scoresheets, click on the "Schedule" tab and select "2010" as the filter.
Clicking on the scoresheet for a particular match displays the scoresheet if it has been entered by the skipper.
Note that the statistics are driven off the scoresheets.
There are a number of enhancements in progress that will be rolled out over the next few months.

If you have any questions on scoresheet corrections or missing scores, please contact your skipper of the day. All skippers were provided access to enter scores 3 weeks ago and provided instructions/training. For general user questions, please contact me directly or email Satish and me, so one of us can get back to you at the earliest. We would also love to discuss any technical, vision, roadmap questions you may have, so send us your questions!

Mad Dogs Vs Kool Kenny

Tahir Maqsood — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:58:14 EDT

Kenny did not get to bat or bowl or field a single ball against the Prior. No one (even Kenny) would have placed a bet that Kenny will (almost) take a hat trick against fairly formidable Mad Dogs. But that is what Kenny was up to, after taking two wickets in two balls, we set a fairly aggressvie field for Neil Kimberly, who obliged by pulling the ball softly and straight to Kalim. Kalim had taken a much more difficult catch earlier but in his excitement dropped the ball and Kenny had to settle down with an alomst hat trick and 4 wickets. Winning the toss Mad Dogs did not hesitate to bat first. They lost their first wicket in 3rd over but then had a 100 runs partnership. Mike took the wicket of aggressive Prasannah and soon Keith went for a suicide run and was run out. Kenny happened to them after that and they finished with 162 for nine in 35 overs. Shariq and Chris started positively against an attack spearheaded by a very quick Simon who was bowling in mid to upper 70s. Chris lost his middle stump to a wonderful in cutter after making 17. Shariq and Krish batted very sensibly and defended against a very accurate Simon. After he was taken off after 5 overs, runs began to come easily. Shariq hit two sixes and just when he was ready to take off, Simon took a very well judged catch in the deep to dismiss him for 37. Krish played very sensibly, just like last week and got to his 50 and built another good partnership with Dil. Just when we were about to over take their total, both Krish and Dil perished for no goof reason. Not much to worry as both Rajat and Bayazid played sensibly to win the game by 6 wickets. Both the teams played a very good game of cricket and friendship was further cemented by beer (?) at Gullifty's.

GSCL victory and new skipper for T20 tournament

Tahir Maqsood — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:25:21 EDT

Congratulations to Shariq for making to the PCL semi finals with a Gypsy team and to Raj for creating a team that went undefeated and also won the championship game as well. It takes a team to win the games and a strong and dedicated leader to create a team that can win. Raj did a tremendous job throughout the season and is ready for a well deserved mini break now. Negi has filled the void while Sri was busy with Arjun, studies and visiting family services. He is ready to test his skippering skills and on Raj's recommendation, Negi will be the skipper for T20 tournament. Please contact him about all GSCL related matters so they can be addressed promptly. Congratulations to both the league skippers again and thanks for all the hard work

BOCC blank Hillside 2-0

Krish Pusuluri — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:56:13 EDT

Boy, I have been itching to announce that! Especially after the last two seasons where we were at the receiving end. On Sunday, we batted first, racked up 247/4 in 35 overs. Kaleem and I had a good start, ticking at 6 an over before The Dream got a drifter from the opening slow bowler Zaman to knock off his off stump with the score at 40 in 6 overs. Probably the only good ball Zaman bowled during his spell of 1/39 in 6overs. Dil found himself edging an outswinger from the other opening bowler, who was consistently moving the ball at a decent pace. Vetri at 4 played well for 27 as we went in to the drinks break at 93/2. Soon the one bad stroke he played saw him back in the shade. Satish came, looked good during his 7 but decided to find the point fielder who was fielding bare feet. At 135/4 in 25 with Baba coming in next, I was picturing a score of 225, and Baba did not diappoint as he lashed a fiery 45ball 73* as we finished on 247/4 with Baba and I deciding to retire around the 33rd over. We knew we needed to get their top 4 bats and the rest should be relatively easy. Klaus and Baba opened the bowling, and Klaus picked the first wicket in the 2nd over. But their #1 (48) and #3 (46) were looking increasingly confident and we decided to bring on the Demolition Man Kaleem to break the partnership and boy he did! Rearranging the furniture of their Guyana probable in his first over to finish his 1 over spell. Once Ben picked up 2 in 2 balls, we went thru the motions giving everyone a chance to roll their arm. And in the process unearthed a decent bowler in Dil! Hillside ended up on 141/7 in 35 overs. As always they were a great opposition to play against. And the BBQ later in the evening was a fitting end to yet another successful Hillside weekend. Special thanks to Kenny for manning the BBQ.

On Saturday, Hillside batted first scoring 200 in 35, with Klaus and Z picking up 2 wickets and two of their players retiring when they reached 60. Chasing, Ian played solid for his 90*, with Z and Dil chipping in with 28 as we won comfortably. Be warned that next season Hillside will be back with a vengeance as they had difficulties fielding 11 this time around. And we will be ready!

Staten Island wins a good game

Krish Pusuluri — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 05:28:11 EDT

The Staten Island team, in keeping with their tradition, showed up at 1:15pm for a 1:30pm start. We won the toss and decided to bat noting the 9 players they had on the field, although Dave Sonnet fielded for the first 17 overs. Ian (22) and Suhada (41) slowly but steadily, with a plethora of extras, started us off well before the middle order decided to take the day off from batting. Other than a fighting 43 from JK and a late order charge from Murtuza(17), no one else got to double-digits. SICC kindly allowed us to bat 12 and even that generosity didnt help us much as we finished on 192 in 35overs. Surprising statistic, 8 of the 11 players were bowled! Right in the last over, the SICC's number 11 showed up and who batted at #4 went on to torment us with an unbeaten 50, aided by our reluctance to take his catches. Their other opener Tony slogged his way to a 50. JK, Murtuza(1w) and Vetri(1w) bowled well but SICC easily romped home in the 32nd over loosing 4 wickets, in no less measure aided by a wayward skipper with 2/27 in 3 overs. The saving grace was the fantastic tea served by JK and Satish, followed by the BBQ in the evening! Better effort this weekend???

Special thanks to Merry for keeping score as well as encouraging us!

Wrap-up message to all U.K. Tourists

Mike Thomas — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:01:39 EDT

Gents, just arrived back last night and surrounded with the aftermath of unpacking and two weeks absence.

Just wanted to pass my congratulations to all participants for gelling so fantastically into a formidable team with such depths of social stamina!!
I will attempt a retrospective of the many highlights and memorable moments when the dust finally settles. Suffice it to say that I think our final day said it all. In the morning after five hours spent in the pavilion company of the naked poster-children of Britwell Salome CC and their keg, that the morning's punting with Bondar-the-Pole should be followed by such an incredibly exciting last-gasp victory over S. Oxford Amateurs CC at Queens College, only to be followed by arguably the best End-of-Tour-Dinner ever, speaks to the icing on the cake that summed up the experience! Let the record show four wins, one winning draw, one rain-affected near-tie :-)), one loss and only one match rain-abandoned with the aforesaid party-lovers at Britwell Salome!

Thanks in particular to Chris Stubbs for all his great local organization, Merry for devoted scoring duty and great wardrobe :-)) and our occasional guests who fitted in so wonderfully. From all the farewell commentaries, one of the best UK tours ever - well done everybody!!!

Onto 2012 perhaps, in the middle of the London Olympics????

Mike

BOCC beats Prior for third squeeker in a row

Jon Kennon — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:16:17 EDT

BOCC lost the toss at Prior and were asked to field. In spite of the oppressive heat and humidity, and a nasty rash of dropsies (one guy Rajash, 5 times), we dismissed them for 120. It really could have been more like 70, but the beneficiary of our charity made over 50. T and Gurdish were the pick of the bowlers.

120 sounds easy on paper, but we can't seem to read too well, and we dug ourselves a big hole to be 8 for 80 after about 28. No mystery bowlers, just some tight stuff, and excellent ground fielding (they too had the drops disease - it might be catching? I'll get my coat). Then T joined skipper Shariq and restored some sanity to proceedings. These two calmly put on about a 50 run partnership to steer the ship home with 6 overs to spare. Not sure why we are having this trouble chasing low targets, but at least we are coming out on top these days, and hopefully that speaks to some change in the character of the club. Man of the match, with his captain's knock (46 n.o. maybe) was Shariq. T was next best on ground. Click here for scoresheet

BOCC trounce Shawnee by 265 runs (yes 265 runs)

Raj Subramanyam — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:05:14 EDT

Brief Scores: BOCC (won toss, batted first) scored 368 in 40 overs, losing only 4 wickets (Ahsan 91, Sunil 81, Negi 78 and Bayazid 58*); Shawnee 103 all out in 27 overs (Mitul P 3w, Mike 2w & Ben Smith 4w – including a hat-trick)

Click on the Subject for detailed scores.

The details:
Right from the 3rd ball he faced, Ahsan was on song today. He cracked it for 4 and never looked back. He faced 56 balls for a belligerent 91, studded with 5 huge sixes. When he was bowled, the score read 122 for 1 in only the 14th over.
But then Negi joined Sunil, who took over from where he left off the last game. Negi and Sunil put on another brilliant batting display and their partnership of 142 runs in quick time gave us the launching pad to mount a total in excess of 300. Bayazid played very well in the end, hitting 3 huge sixes to finish unbeaten with 58 runs. When the carnage was over, the BOCC score showed 368 for 4 wickets – a GSCL record, and surely a club record as well. A total of 8 balls were lost by Shawnee and the scorer (Lambie Jones-Khan) complained that the PCL score-sheet only had room for 350 runs!

Shawnee’s innings:
When the BOCC took the field, the hard-to-satisfy skipper told the team that the job was only partly accomplished. The remaining task was to bowl the opposition out in much less than the allotted 40 overs. Well, the team stuck to the task again – that’s what First Division teams do – and Mitul got two wickets in his first over. When Mike was brought on, he got two in his first over as well. Barring the odd partnership, and the dropped catches, Ben chose his last over to stamp his mark on the game. He got # 8 caught at the mid-wkt boundary, then a beauty to bowl a left hander middle stump off a lovely leg spinning delivery; # 10 took his back foot off the crease and was stumped smartly by Shariq, giving Ben his first league wickets for the BOCC in the form of a hat-trick. # 11 got a leg side wide first up, but then gave Ben the charge, only to miss the ball and give Shariq his second stumping of the day. That made it 4 wickets in one over for Ben. League wickets rarely come in such a cluster!
Shawnee were bowled out in 27 overs.

This was a crunch game for us, since Shawnee was the last of the first round games. Each team plays the other 7 teams twice (one home and one away). We had prepared very well for this game, since Shawnee played with us in GSCL-I last year. So now we have beaten all the other 7 teams once. 70 points it is, and our victories have firmly ensconced us on top of the table.
On another very hot 95 deg day, all of us, including Shawnee, were entertained to some wonderful tea by Mike Thomas and Vik Dravid.

Some of the team members are off to Toronto and the rest of us will have a relaxing weekend; the break should do us good and help us get recharged for the remainder of what is promising to be a very historic cricket season.

PCL: we chased down 223 to go 4-0 in June

Shariq Khan — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:05:07 EDT

Lehigh 223/6 in 40 overs; BOCC 226/7 in 38.3 overs.

We lost the toss and were put into field. JK (1w) & Tahir (2w) got the early breakthroughs (10/2 in 6ov.) but the 3rd wicket stand of 139 between Nazeer (66) and Shailesh (63) set the platform for LCC to finish strong. [Keeping up with the Fifa refs, a couple of outs not-given went our way, including a brilliant one-handed grab by T in the 1st slip.] However, Kishore (46) was the only one able to take advantage of the foundation as two brilliant run outs by Zee (yes Zee) and choking bowling by Amim & Tahir saw LCC stumble to 223/6 in 40 overs.

Our reply was exactly what the skipper had asked for... Chris (63) & Krish (11) opened the batting and steered us to a safe 40 in 7 overs when Krish was run out on a direct throw. Ian was the next to go with a pull across the line. JK (25) hit the ball nicely and helped us keep up with the RRR but lofted one to extra-cover to see us at 89/3. Chris & I steadied the ship and got us to 152 with some lofty hitting off of Kishore (5 ov./52 runs). Chris was extremely unlucky to be given LBW. I soon followed trying to win the game in one over at 41. However, Rajat (31*) and Amim (17) did not miss a beat and continued to take charge of the game – with Kishore being the main victim. Taking full advantage of the batting powerplay, they got the run rate down to 24 runs in 5 overs (from 78r in 72b). After Amim departed and a short stint from Zee (4), Rajat and the new closer (T) saw us through in the 39th over with 3 wickets to spare. [T didn’t need to use Mike this time around :)]

On a very hot day, and a solid batting track this was a complete team effort both in fielding and batting execution. [Chris & Rajat were the men-of-the-match although only one of them gets the coveted PCL prize.] After a disastrous (0-3) May, we had an undefeated (4-0) run in June to climb back to 4-3. Special thanks to Merry for scoring.

Tour update

Zafar Abdullah — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:51:40 EDT

Game 1: BOCC lost by approx 25 runs against Leg Trapp chasing 259. Krish 78 Satish 48 (Machhi Power!)

Game 2:

BOCC win our 6th straight GSCL game by 6 wickets

Raj Subramanyam — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:01:07 EDT

Today we scrapped hard to win a really good game of cricket. 510 runs were scored in the match, making for a truly entertaining spectacle! Combined Islands (CICC) won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a hot (very hot) day. Inspite of the heat, we bowled quite well, but dropped too many catches. Riley, capitalized on them, and scored a century for CICC. Bayazid (Baba) and Mike were the pick of the bowlers. Ben "the leggie" had a good first outing and bowled 5 good overs, but saw two catches grassed off his bowling. Somewhere around the 25th over mark we realized that we would have to bowl the full 40 overs, and so we switched over to containment. But CICC still managed to put up a commanding total of 254 runs. The pitch was a very good one to bat on, the weather was still very hot and we were confident in our ability to chase down the target. But we had to have a plan and bat out of our skins to win this one. The plan was to have the top 4 batters score about a hundred in the first 20 overs, and the middle order would get the next 125 runs, with about 30 extras expected from the opposition. Sunil and Negi opened the batting and started off in blazing fashion. We scored 63 in the first 10 overs, and were 72 when Negi got an unplayable outswinger to be out caught behind for a well-made 38. Karthick, the #3, picked out long off and was caught brilliantly for 8. At 90/2, Sushi joined Sunil and they stitched together a brilliant 121 run partnership in only 17 overs. All they did was play the singles and doubles, and hit the bad ball for boundaries. Gatorade flowed freely and an iced towel was always at hand, but these two put together a valiant, scrapping match-winning partnership. When Sushi finally holed out to long on, after a solid 59, the game was in our pocket. With Sunil nearing his century, Bayazid joined the party and slowly settled in. 44 required in 9 overs. In the 36th over however, Sunil went for a big hit and was unfortunately bowled for a chanceless 99. Shariq and Bayazid finished the game in the 38th over.

Today's victory showcased the value of putting a price on your wicket, battling through tough conditions and playing out good bowling. There was the odd maiden, but our batsmen did not let it affect their concentration. Negi, Sushant and Sunil put on a masterclass in batting today. Sunil's temperament, ability to keep the scoreboard ticking, willingness to steal the extra run even when he was at the crease for over 30 overs simply showed the determination to win. This is why we are the only team in the GSCL this year with a 100% win record. Next week, we take on Shawne at ECG on Sunday.

Click on the subject for complete scorecard.

v. First State

Klaus Bondar — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:28:51 EDT

Oh the storms, the wind, the hail, the driving rain, the lightning ..... What storms? Do these weatherman get paid or is it an amateur hobby? Apart from a few percent of humidity and a 3 minute shower which was so light that half the players didn't even bother to move to shelter, it was a delightful day. Special mention to Amim for being second there, and for staying til the end though he had an engagement to attend (match fee will be paid later!) Special mention to three players whom Raj found: Tushar, Aniket and Vikram would be welcome additions to the ranks of the BOCC. Special thanks to Scottie and Abir whom the First State captain graciously lent to us to even the teams to 10-a-side. Oh, blimey , I won the toss, so was responsible for making the right call regarding quoi faire. Though I preferred to bowl while the ball could be shined (remember the threatened deluge), I was persuaded (isn't that what captains are supposed to avoid) to bat first. Umadhav and Aniket got us off to a fine start - we were on about 50 until Aniket succumbed in the 10th over. Umadhav and Amim continued to move us along nicely until the half way point (game reduced to 30 overs (remember the storm which we were led to expect). After the brief break we all chipped in to take us to 164 with oomph to spare after 30 overs and about 41 wides. Richard a nice innings of 9 n.o. along with KB who doubled his score for the season with a three. Our bowling was quite good. Amim started at the bottom and gave up not too many, Vikram came medium-fast from the top end and so the bowling rotated, wickets going to Kenny, Abir, Aniket and Bondar and ..? Managed to contain them in the last few overs though they was looking to 'it us out of t' park. All out in 30 for about 15 too few. A really nice way to spend a Sunday. Well done lads. It was a great team effort with every person contributing in a real way. Oh, did I mention Amim's two great catches, one of them one-handed as he ran in from cow corner both times? Oh, did I mention Amim's hat-trick?

Kind reminder

Shariq Khan — Tue, 25 May 2010 09:57:36 EDT

All,

Not that any of you would, but please remember that the information posted on the restricted area of the web site is not to be shared with folks outside the club. This includes teams for coming games, match reports, documents, your login information, etc. Being a member of BOCC comes with a set of responsibilities that includes protecting privileged information.

Thanks, Shariq!

We lost to Liberty CC in a thriller

Shariq Khan — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:12:21 EDT

[I tried to write a report for 2 days but couldn't as it hurts too much, so here is the short/crude version]

We won the toss and put LCC in. Tahir bowled a choking opening spell and even though we took wickets regularly (Raj [3w], Thommo [2w + 4 chances], Rajat [2w] and Tahir [1w of dangerous Q] were on the money) they were able to put up 215/ao in 32 overs. Our fielding was spectacular, as Krish, Negi and Kalim took some very tough catches in 50-mph winds. (Pre-game practice paid off!)

Our chase got to a hiccupy start when we lost Negi & Krish in the 4th over. Raj (81) and I (51) put a 100-odd run partnership but once I got out, Raj was left all alone to get the runs as we lost Nadim, Karthick & Kashif on regular basis. Final stand was between Kalim (12, 3rd highest) and Raj, but once Raj got out to a diving catch in the 39th over, our day was over. Probably the best innings we have ever seen Raj play (and I have seen many!)

BOCC Over-23 beat Atlantic Under-19

Krish Pusuluri — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 07:49:14 EDT

Sorry for the late report! Driving to the ground, we saw some 10 kids at ECG-1 and probably 20 more enthusiastic lil ones at ECG-2! The U-19 coach was keen on us batting first and we grudgingly obliged. :) Their opening bowlers (incl. a certain Kalim) were nippy but slightly erratic as Extras scored rapidly in the first 7 overs. Shariq, Negi, Mitul, JK scored 20+ each. The highlight was the battle between the Ahmed's. Facing Kalim, Nadim crouched in to a pull shot and top edged the ball onto his helmet as the clanging sound caused some anxiety before everyone realized Nadim was fine and the trash-talk from the sidelines inspired Nadim to swipe a couple of 6's and a few boundaries (a la T20 style), powering us to 189 in 35 . The U-19 used as many as 12 bowlers and of course their ground fielding saved another 20-30 runs. Since they had around 18-19 players, their coach requested that we try and give everyone a chance to bat. And we decided to bowl all 35 overs at a minimum even if they were all out earlier. After a delicious tea by Kenny and Nadim, we took the field. Their 15 and 16 year opening bats were a pleasure to watch, especially the Kiwi kid Cameron, who definitely looks like a future national player. Nice balance, good footwork (although has a propensity to play off the back foot) and a classic bat swing with high elbow. Kenny and Mike picked up two wickets each as Tahir ensured everyone bowled. Mike, unsportingly I thought, caught and bowled Kalim just as Kalim was getting in to his zone. U-19 was all-out for ~120 but we bowled two additional overs so their last two players could have a bat. All in all a fantastic day of cricket that left everone smiling and content that the future of USA cricket is in able hands!

Youth Cricket Update

Mike Thomas — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:02:19 EDT

Gents, the attachments are shortly to be emailed to every club in a 50-mile radius of Philadelphia. Much effort has been invested this winter to translate a wish into action. Please read and if you can, please get active for cricket in your own communities! Hope you will find the History notes interesting! In addition, Coaches are needed to craft a weekly roster through the summer - midweek afternoons or evenings and/or perhaps weekend mornings. A coaching manual is under development and it lends itself to many specific "skill/drill pods" that nearly anyone with experience of playing could lead. I don't need you to commit to a weekly regime, just an indication at this stage that you would be happy to be called on once a fortnight, once a month, 2-3 times a season, or whatever might fit your schedule. Now we don't know whether we shall see 15 kids or 50, or more. At the high end we will be scrambling and I shall return to the well! However for now I just need to get a feel for how much support our membership can give - so please email or call me (even if its "regrets"!). Thanks everyone! Mike T.
Attachment 1: Letter to Editor
Attachment 2: Handout Summary

Happy Birthday Alfred

Shariq Khan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:30:42 EDT

Click here for Photo -- photo courtesy New Castle CC; cake courtesy Betty Reeves :)

BOCC Constitution

Krish Pusuluri — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:51:12 EDT

Gentlemen, This is the updated BOCC Constitution as adopted and approved at the AGM on 02/27/2010. The older Constituition is also currently available in the documents section till 03/31, if you need to compare before being removed. Read more...

Annual Dinner and Awards Night

Tahir Maqsood — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:53:38 EDT

it was so much fun that I forgot to report about it, many apologies. Ernie and Z competed for the most laughs and both did a tremendous job. Alfred made sure that all the awards were there. CL and JK made sure that members were enticed with happy hour and we could start on time. Everything went well and so far no complaints about the awards either. Now for the folks who could not attend for various reasons, here are the winners.

Cricket awards (Decided by the Cricket Committee): Best Batting, Sri;Best All rounder, Raj; Best bowling, Kalim; Most Wickets, Klaus; Rookie, Gavin

Service and Recognition awards: President's Award, Shariq; Spirit of the club, Kenny and Supporter of the year, Lambie.

Thanks to all the members for making it such a wonderful evening. Special thanks to the spouses and new members attending for the first time.

BOCC Win the Atlantic Cup

Zafar Abdullah — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:53:30 EDT

What a thriller! Who would have thought that the Atlantic League could have produced such a gripping play-off finale? Come to that, who would have thought that any match would be stirring all involved to such a fever pitch on Nov. 7th? Read more...

Match Report by Mike Thomas

Tahir Maqsood — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:53:21 EDT

BOCC reach ACL Final
Against all odds of weather and other alarums, the ACL semi-finals duly took place on Saturday at ECG. A fine event too, it turned out to be, with the cameradie of 43 players (the BOCC only managed 10 on the day!), immaculate outfields courtesy of Ernie’s Friday-night Zamboni, a magnificent tea between (kudos to Tahir and Bonnie Thomas) and two close-fought matches.
Collegeville won the toss and viewing threatening skies and a soaked outfield, elected to invite BOCC to field in the intermittent, fine, misting drizzle. Probably an advantage to the BOCC, boasting as it was a fairly social XI, comprised of 80% bowlers and 40% batsmen!
Setting a fine example, skipper Tahir (5-0-14-2) snatched two early wickets to cause Collegeville to bat with early caution. In true Festival spirit, Tahir then proceeded to bowl seven bowlers in all, though aided by some quite un-Festival-like ruthless efficiency in the field, where nearly every chance in the air was safely taken. Kalim in particular took two very well-judged catches. A Man-of-the-Match performance was provided by Gavin Bastiampillai, to whose flight and impeccable length Collegeville had no answer. His third wicket accounted for the dangerous Kanish (22) and at 54-5 after 16 overs, the BOCC looked firmly in control. On balance, all the BOCC bowlers dealt better with a desperately wet and soggy ball than the batsmen fared with the slow outfield which allowed just one boundary in their innings.
Stout resistance from Mahesh (17) and Kartik (18), founded on some aggressive running, allowed Collegeville to inch forward to 96-6. Gavin was not to be denied however, and rounded off a second spell to finish with 5-16, while Klaus parsimoniously chipped in with 4-0-10-2 at the end.
110 all out in 32 overs – a manageable target perhaps, despite a somewhat fragile-looking batting line up. The BOCC badly needed their top order to succeed – and how well they responded. Shariq (18), Nadim (23) and cementing his MOM accolade, Gavin with a technically superb 25 took us to 73-2. But then it was 86-4 and with Tahir and Bobbi at the wicket, there was that well-known frisson of anxiety amongst the troops. Strange how the team brain responds! Tahir and Bobbi were looking confident, running well with one’s and two’s, but the light was beginning to fail and the opening quicks were coming back: within minutes on the sidelines, Kalim, Kenny, Thommo and Klaus were all padded up and looking nervous.
It was to be the BOCC’s day though. Neither incumbent ever looked in trouble, and Tahir having a true skipper’s innings in making 14* and an increasingly belligerent Bobbi (12*) saw it home in the 31st. over.
A Final and a fine Cup to play for therefore next Saturday. Lets all turn out and give our team great support – it will be November and a long, long boring winter is coming! MT 11/2/09

Awards Dinner/Trophies/AGM

Ernie Precious — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:50:37 EDT

Annual Awards Dinner

I encourage all members of the BOCC to attend the Annual Dinner on November 21. You have already paid for a large part of it with your annual sub and it will only cost you another $10 to be there. Spouses and significant others only cost $10 also. Wine and beer cost $1 each while soft drinks/sodas are free. We have an excellent buffet arranged (25% vegetarian) with hors d'oeuvres during the cocktail hour. It is a fun evening dispersed with humor, reminiscing and good company. Please do come along and socialize with your club colleagues and friends.

Trophies

I am asking all recipients of trophies from the 2008 season to please bring them to the ECG Club House on Saturday, November 7. If you can't be there personally, give it to a friend who will be there. We need all of the trophies for the engraving of the 2009 winners.

Annual General Meeting

We will be holding the AGM in late February 2010 on the morning of the Curry Party. Date to be advised.

Membership Information

Shariq Khan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:23:22 EDT

New players are welcome to apply to join the BOCC. Come to nets at Haverford College on Wednesdays after 5:00 pm (weather & light permitting.) After two nets you may apply to join the club using the Membership form; also familiarize yourself with our Club Constitution as it is very important for our membership.
Those who wish to learn the game may come along but preference for batting and bowling will go to members and those playing in upcoming matches. At the moment we have 70 playing members so that it is not possible to guarantee matches! (some games are over-subscribed and to get onto the league side you will have to be a strong player.)
Note that we are interested in players who will stay with the club for at least a season and who will contribute to the social side - this means coming for after nets or after game to a restaurant/pub for drinks (non-alcoholic is fine - we want your company!).
Usually there is one league game and couple of social/friendly game each weekend. The cost of joining the club is $150 which includes a club shirt and tie, thereafter its $125 per yr.

Pcl: we won handidly against LVCC

Yatin Modi — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:32:48 EDT

BOCC 222/9; LVCC 150-odd a/o.

BOCC won the toss and batted, Sunil and Negi getting us off to a solid start, with Sunil hitting some strong drives, the best a lovely six over cover. He went half heartedly at another though and picked out deepish midoff. A wicket later JK joined Negi and they slowly ground LVCC into the damp clover, staying together for 129 runs before both fell quickly. At that point BOCC were about 190 with 5 overs left. The rest of the BOCC batting played unselfishly against the clever bowling of Kishore, and we scrambled to 222/9. A very good score on a stopping pitch, with a very thick damp outfield.

LVCC seemed to have given up really after that, and didn't really go at our bowling, which was very disciplined, giving few free runs away. By drinks the game was over, with LVCC only about 30 runs for a couple of wickets down. After drinks, Bobby continued his fine spell, troubling the batters with his wobblers, and ended with 3 wickets, which would have been more with just a little luck. He did get some help from Thommo, who pulled off the catch of the season, diving to his left at short cover, onehandedly snatching a hard drive out of the air. Wickets fell pretty regularly during the middle session, and at the last drinks, with two wickets to go aand about 150 needed, it was wrap-up time. The aging legs of BOCC however, after a long very humid day, and some good hitting from Silesh, LVCC's number 8, conspired to keep us waiting until abouth the 38th over to wrap the game up.

Another first for the Club – BOCC win ACL opener

Mike Thomas — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:18:51 EDT

In another first for the BOCC, ECG saw Dynamic CC visit for our first Atlantic Cricket League game. Not only that, but the first time the BOCC had put out three league sides in a single weekend. Read more...

A day of records for the BOCC - an ACL thriller

Mike Thomas — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:18:40 EDT

Forbes Field in Delaware is a pretty easy ground to score 220-230 runs on. A true, dead wicket of slow bounce punishes anything dropped short, while a lightening-fast outfield rewards all firm hits. To score substantially more though needs either talented batting, or some pretty inept bowling. Alas, first in the field against Dynamic CC (not with the greatest batting talent), it was the latter that held the key to their monumental score of 307-3. Ouch!! The motley and continuing assortment of short balls, long hops, half vollies, full tosses and wides made the /Dynamic's operners look good, though in truth, many runs came from edges and cross-batted slogs. 50 came up in seven overs and slowly, a perfect storm evolved Read more...

Best Week Ever

Tahir Maqsood — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:18:34 EDT

I can not recall such a tremendous weekend in BOCC cricket history. First a record second innings total and record win while chasing 307. Highest second innings total before that was 290 while chasing 405 against Tigers. Then a comprehensive win against good friends and rivals Knights. Last but not the least, a very encouraging and morale boosting win against championship conterders Wanderers. It was significant as we were not full strength, we were playing away and it keeps us in the race for the championship (what else should we play for?). Congrats to all the skippers and vice skippers but above all to the players who made it happen. Great wins and hope for more next week. Let us come to practice tomorrow and celebrate afterwards.

Lehigh Valley CC puts one over BOCC

Krish Pusuluri — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:07:24 EDT

To put it mildly, it was an interesting day! We arrived at the velodrome ground to see archery competitions in progress. After a 30 minute wait, we ended up heading to the Haines Mill ground, where we lost the toss and took the field for 30 minutes, followed by a 1 hour break as a soccer match took place. And during this 1 hour break, quite a few of the ex-Lansdale CC players showed up (Kishore, Atul, Raj, et al) to play for LVCC. There was grass growing on one side of the pitch and we used only one end to play! Not that we complained as we didnt need to change ends or field settings! Did I mention to add we had only 9 players (incl. Mike's brother-in-law Peter) in the morning? Frentic calls by Kalyan to his friend Dheeren, who drove from Hillsboro, and we had 10 in the field. LVCC kindly provided an extra player as they had 12. We managed to restrict LVCC to 163 in 35 overs which included a hat-trick by Mike (Kishore being the 3rd wicket) on his way to a 5-wicket haul. About our chase, the less said the better. Other than Jon Hoyes (58) none of our batsmen wanted to bat, and we folded up for 134.

LVCC were great hosts, but the last minute game definitely made it hard to coordinate. Moral of the story: Please sign up for the matches in advance. Even a NO will do, but sign up. :)

BOCC fights one out against Masters CC

Shariq Khan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:39:07 EDT

Our batting was seriously challenged against the startup MCCH as their opening bowlers restricted us to 33/3 in 14 overs – accredited to some accurate line-and-length on their part, and bad shot-selection on our part. Gue (23) and Karthick (15) led our recovery from 63/5 to 94/6 in the 28th over. Another flurry of wicket losses and BOCC was 99/8 in 31 overs. (Dire situation from a skipper’s perspective.) Walked in our own version of the “wall” and with some smart shot-selection and running Dravid (21*) and Thommo (14) saved our day to get us to 140.
Defending 140 meant this was not a 40-over game. We had to get them out. Fortunately, our opening bowlers were equal to the task. Gurdish was unplayable and Raj struck twice in his first over to put MCCH on the back foot. Amim (2w) kept the pressure on and at water break MCHH was 30/2 in 13 overs. Mike (3w) struck in his 1st over and got Roland on a superb catch by Ameer. We brought back Gurdish (thanks Raj), and he struck twice in the next over. Some cleanup work and MCCH were bowled out for 67.
A superb, total team effort and as good as a win I have ever witnessed with the club. Click for scoresheet

AGM 2008 Agenda

Satish Prabhakar — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:22:05 EDT

Gentlemen, As announced earlier the AGM is on Dec 13th @ Cynwd Club. Please click on the subject to view the AGM agenda. Please note today is the last day for sending any new proposals. Proposals need to be seconded too. Thanks.

Annual Dinner Announcement

Zafar Abdullah — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:42:46 EDT

The Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony is at hand. All members with their significant others, VPs and good friends of the club are invited to be part of the end of season big bash. This year's event will take place on Saturday November 8th 2008 starting time 7:00 PM at the historic Founder's Hall on Haverford's Campus. Please send your check ASAP - your humble Treasurer thanks you. Read more...

BOCC win a high scorer against SICC

Krish Pusuluri — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:54:26 EDT

We lost the toss (as usual) and Staten Island CC had no hesitation in putting us into the field. Their opener, Ben, thwacked some lusty blows on his way to 136 before having his stumps uprooted by a Amim special. Our bugaboo, dropping sitters, came back to haunt us and some pretty insipid fielding saw SICC post 219/4 in 32overs. We tried 8 bowlers (Anas and Javed missed out, sorry boys) and were largely ineffective. Chasing 7 an over is always tricky, no matter how conducive the pitch is for batting. No worries, Vik got things started with a boundary to get the chase started in style, and carried his good form with a solid 57 as we were always in sight of the total. When Vik departed in the 17th over, we still needed another 116 in 15overs. Enter the Animal Amim, who mixed some sublime batting coupled with brute strength to finish the game with a six in the 30th over, helping himself to 80 runs in the process. Our final score...224/2 in 30 overs. Good win team!

Mike the "Dogs" Killer

Tahir Maqsood — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:54:19 EDT

Wily wolf Mike was involved in 8 out of 9 dismissals and we just enjoyed the mastery. Winning the toss Mad Dogs generous skipper Neil Harrison (our ex club member) allowed us to bat first. Shariq and Ali gave us a good start and Vikram, Peter and Mike made some quick runs towards the end. We finished at 157 and in the end that proved enough. Mike started with a run out and then took a very good catch off my bowling. JK bowled well but without much luck. They played Ali's initial overs very carefully and tried to hit Mike. This allowed Mike to take three quick wickets. Jealous of his success and to give Mad Dogs and other club members like Eijaz a game, we took Mike off. We could not keep him away from action as he took a catch of Shariq's bowling. Seeing that we just brought him back to the attack and he finished Mad Dogs innings by snapping the last two wickets and they were all out for 131. Peter did a very good tea and also took two very good catches. Kenny could not play due to his illness, hope he is feeling better.

Hillside down BOCC 2-0

Krish Pusuluri — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:14:36 EDT

Despite battling 50's from Vik on Saturday and Z on Sunday, our lack of firepower in chasing was evident as we were blanked chasing 238 on Saturday (reaching 200) and 197 on Sunday (reaching 155). The bright side was that the tea's were fantastic and Hillside turned out to be a great side, who played hard and drank beer harder.

Fall Cricket

Tahir Maqsood — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:14:32 EDT

Last weekend was the perfect cricket weather and soon we will miss both the cricket and good weather. We only have 13 available players for two very good visiting teams from Staten Island and Mad Dogs. Please make yourself available otherwise we may have to borrow from other area teams and that is not good.

Competitive cricket is over for us though we won against Knights last Sunday but a freak loss to a relatively weak Hawks team kept us out of Semifinals. As suggested by Nadim we were playing against Knights October team as they seem to have different players for each game. We won the toss and elected to bat. Raj batted brillintly for his undefeated 97 and batted for 35 overs. It was mixture of caution against some accurate bowling in the beginning and some majestic aggression towards the end. We finised on 173 and needed to bowl real well aginst Sohail, Jay and other area cricketers. Kalim accounted for Jay in his first over and we got two more quick wickets. However Sohail did change the complexion of the game and threatned to take it away from us (yet again). JK made him hurry on his backfoot and ball went on to hit his stumps. That was the turning point and afterwards Vik with 3 wickets and Raj with 2, made sure that they don't have any chance of a comeback. We won by 30 odd runs. Well done ten member team (handicap 15-20 runs in the field) and hope we can take the late season form into next year's GSCL and local competitions. Did I forget to mention that you guys need to sign up for the coming Saturday's games.

Collegeville CC are PCL Champions

Shariq Khan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:27:30 EDT

Congratulations to them on behalf of British Officers.

BOCC 1-0 in D-Cup

Jon Kennon — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:58:56 EDT

On an extremely hot day, BOCC won the toss and batted against Villanova, Vik and Amim having a good opening stand, and initially turning the strike over very well considering the oppressive conditions. Raj joined Vik and they too had a good stand, until Raj had a rush of blood after hitting a six. Rajat and Vik struggled a bit, as Vik was knackered by this time, and chose to fall on his own sword somewhat. JK came in determined to up the running, and promptly caused Rajat to be runout, stuck behind the bowler on a quick single. Shariq joined JK and another productive partnership saw us to 172-4 after 35. Tahir and Raj opened the bowling and had early breakthroughs, one for Tahir was a lovely catch by Raj at gully, and one for Raj a sharp one at midwicket by Satish. The bowling was rotated quite rapidly, as it was still brutally hot, but the wickets came fairly regularly, and Nova never truly threatened. MOM Vik bowled a great long spell to capture 3 wickets, and they ended about 30 runs short, with 8 wickets down.

Barbecue Bash Feedback

Nadim Ahmed — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:58:48 EDT

Thanks to all for contributing to such a fantastic evening. It was wonderful to see such a terrific turnout, and was a good sign for future club social events. (Tahir was definitely the Grill King!) Special thanks to Vikram and Ashwini for their gracious and abundant hospitality in hosting the event, and also to lil' Arjun for being such a great host!

General fixtures announcement

Krish Pusuluri — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:06:42 EDT

We had to cancel Hillside yet again, lack of members and the goal to have folks attend the BBQ, forced our decision. With abundance of games locally, traveling for social games seems to be a dying tradition, which is a cause for concern since our primary ethos is social cricket. As can be seen from this weekend's only game, we have signed up for the Delaware Cup as opposed to playing in the PCL T20. This gives us the flexibility to involve a wider membership as also an opportunity to play against different teams as compared to PCL.

BOCC vs Knights

Jon Kennon — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:31:15 EDT

BOCC won the toss and batted. We started very badly, not adjusting very well to the slow damp pitch and outfield, and the red stone Knights were using as a ball. Then Sushi played a really well paced innings (73no), and in partnerships mainly with Satish and Thommo, saw us to 149. That was plenty as it turned out, as once Yatin bowled Jay around his legs(!) for not many, they were never going to threaten. We crushed them by about 70 runs. We took all our catches. Sushi picked up 3 wickets to complete a nice day for him, he probably got lucky when he got home too.

Message from Sateesh "Very-nice-eh"

Krish Pusuluri — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 07:30:51 EDT

Folks, Apologies for not making it to the ground before leaving Philly. Without car I could not move anywhere and I could not rent a car in time which killed my mobility. On top of it I had to vacate the apartment by that Sunday. Enough about excuses, I would like to thank all BOCC for the hospitality and friendship during the last 2 seasons and definitely miss you great bunch of guys. I have moved to Sacramento, yet to settle in a place. Though I found a cricket team here, it will not be the same as BOCC, my home team. Please post my message to all and if any of you guys are in Sacramento give me a buzz.
My personal id: var_sat@yahoo.com
Cell# 610-350-7156

Updates

Tahir Maqsood — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:30:33 EDT

Half the club did not show much interest in 20-20 or social fixtures and appeared thirsty for some competitive and proper cricket. Bearing that in mind we agreed to participate in Delaware cup that will start in two weeks time. GSCL knockout and 20-20 is still a mystery and we will consider it when we get the schedule. PCL 20-20 will start in two weeks as well. They are some good social fixtures against Toronto, Mad Dogs and Hillside and that gives us a fairly full late season. Tentatively we are committed for PCL 20-20 but depending upon the feed back, that can change as well. Please keep your skippers posted with your views. Tomorrow we will have our last Thursday practice of 2008 season. College will take over after this week and if there is enough interest, we can continue with Monday practices. Vikram's pool party is in two weeks and a trip to NY to play against Hillside is on the same weekend. Don't get in the fall mode and stay involved.

BOCC win against Lehigh CC

Mike Thomas — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:39:20 EDT

Is it possible to win comfortably and ugly at the same time? Read more...

Reality Check

Tahir Maqsood — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:22:30 EDT

After two fairly comfortable victories against fairly inexperienced teams, we were feeling quite confident. Though Collegeville does not have much depth in their batting but we did not take early wickets and they won the game by 8 wickets. We seemed casual and overconfident in our batting and our top order collapsed against decent but by no means extraordinary bowling. Sri was bowled playing a defensive stroke, Raj chased a wide ball and Shariq played all around a full pitched delivery. Jk played with caution but Gurdish and Vik departed quickly as well. After seeing Harish and Charlie off, Jk relaxed a little and played a shot withhout moving his feet and got out for 23, making us 59-6. Yatin and Sushant played well and later Ali and Karthik also kept the innings going. We played full 40 overs for 127 runs. This looked decent but by no means intimidating to any opposition. We had to bowl exceptionally but we did not deliver in that department either. My first two overs were hopeless and though Gurdish bowled well but did not get any wickets. JK, Sri and Raj all bowled well but without any success. Ali troubled both Kumar and Chandan but we could not take our catches and they had an opening partnership of 100 runs. Yatin coming in late bowled with fire and Sri took a very good catch to dismiss Chandan, after he had completed his fifty. Another consolation late wicket and some late pressure made us feel a little better towards the end. We lost this game mostly due to our poor batting and to some extent our lack of penetration in our bowling. This year very few members have come to practice and this was evident when we were batting as we were struggling against some fairly straight forward bowling. Most of us are fairly average and social players and without hard work we look very mediocre against good teams. If we have to compete at a good level, we need to work hard and play with more dedication. See you at the practice.

Knights avenge PCL defeat in a friendly game

Krish Pusuluri — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:22:13 EDT

To cap off a losing weekend, we lost the friendly to a fairly decent Knights on Sunday. Knights put on 222/6 in 35overs, aided by Chaminda's 85, his highest against BOCC, aided by 7-8 dropped catches. In reply, our batting never really took off until Deepak(35) and Omer (74*) strung together a 100+ run partnership to take us to 166/6. On the bright side, we batted the entire 35overs and denied them an outright win. Report from the skipper here...

Back on Track

Tahir Maqsood — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:47:00 EDT

After a few close losses in PCL, we got back on track on Saturday by beating Blue Hens comprehensively. On a hot and muggy day, the hosts decided to field first after winning the toss. Raj and Krish soon made them realize that they mean business and punished every bad ball. They kept the run rate around 6 runs an over and shared an opening stand of 186 runs. Raj after making a remarkable century (first ever at Blun Hens by any player) was the first one to go. Krish had separation anxiety and followed him soon. In an effort to increase the run rate we lost some quick wickets and finished at 244 in 40 overs. It was a very good total at a fairly big park and Blue Hens were never in contention. Yatin took the first and JK the second wicket fairly quickly. Ali and I accounted for the next five wickets and Rajat ended their misery with last three wickets. Krish also took three catches and Ali took two good deep catches. Thanks to Cyril who came to watch the game and to Lambie who kept a perfect scorebook. It was a good day for us and we are back in the play off mix again. Still need to win at least two of the last three games to ensure a place for the quarter finals. View Scorecard...

BOCC slide past Villanova CC in Turbo Cup

Krish Pusuluri — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:46:50 EDT

Villanova won the toss and put on 138/9 in 30 overs, Raj picking up 3w and Sateesh, Yatin & Amim 2w each. None of the Nova batsmen really got going as our bowlers applied pressure and were backed up by almost spotless fielding as we held on to difficult catches and looked aggresive in the field, for the most part. The hot and humid conditions translated to bowling changes and 3 players donning the keeper's gloves. Although Nova are an enthusiastic bunch in the field, chasing 138 should have been a relatively comfortable total as Sunil laced 3 boundaries in the first over to get us going and set the pavilion's mind at ease. A wicket in the second over evened things out for Nova. Raj and Yatin chipped in with 20's as we were in control needing 9runs from 3.3overs with 5 wickets in hand. Krish decided to make the game interesting by throwing his wicket away and ducks by the next three batsmen meant our last man, Sanjay, went in with 5 runs to win in less than 2 overs. A couple of wides and crazy running saw us through with 4 balls remaining. All through this fiasco, skipper Shariq (with 36*), at #6, was playing a very responsible innings and keeping a cool head, biffing the bad balls with glee. Well done skip! We decided to stir things up for Alfred & Betty, who had come down to watch a good game of cricket!

BOCC takes another nailbiter from Shawnee

Jon Kennon — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:29:31 EDT

BOCC lost the toss and were put in the field. Bowling with little impact initially, and 'supported' by the usual sloppy fielding, we were looking down the barrel of a huge target at the first drinks break. In the second session, very nice spells from Ali, Sri, and Mitul tightened things up again, without managing to make large inroads into the Shawnee batting order. The final 10 overs yielded 90 runs, thanks to the wickets in hand enabled slogathon. The final score, 4/234. The run chase started badly, with Deepak playing across the line to a slower delivery to be caught at midwicket. This was followed by a superb partnership between Mitul (98) and Amim (68). Both played their best innings' of the season, with magnificent lofted driving the major feature for both, Mitul also pulling the ball with extreme prejudice. BOCC were put into a very safe position by this pair, until a flurry of wickets added late drama. Ali remained calm though, and in combination with several others, got us to the final moment, at which point Sushi, facing his first ball, sent it straight into the treetops, to give us victory by 3 wickets, with an over to spare.

Cricket in Philadelphia

Jon Kennon — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:10:24 EDT

Apparently we are famous - includes video of BOCC vs MoBay. http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/?inc=article&id=356&x=pitch-perfect&_c=a-e and also... http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jun/10/ussport.cricket - nice one, Arthur!

Rain saves GWIA

Jon Kennon — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:08:05 EDT

BOCC were asked to switch venues this/next week, so after many phone calls, we made the long drive up to Bloomfield NJ for our last 30 over game until August. The weather started out fine and humid, and after luckless captain K lost another toss (7 in a row, none yet won this year), BOCC were asked to field - go figure. After a wild start with the opening few bowlers struggling with the swinging white ball on a dead pitch (1/82 in 10 overs), Mitul, Yatin and Sri all bowled great spells, running through the bulk of the batting order. Kalim and Amim wrapped things up well to have GWIA all out for 173, a really fantastic recovery. Our chase began badly, with Sunil falling early, but JK and Mitul had a good quick partnership of about 50, which put us in front of the required rate, with clouds looming. A couple of quick wickets put the brakes on, and as a result we fell behind the asking, when the skies opened in the 14th over - game abandoned (15 required for a result - timing is everything), and after 30 minutes of soaking we swam for the cars, making an opportunistic stop at Shalamar to make the trip worthwhile. This shared result puts us 2.5/3, and in with a very good shot of making the semi finals in this competition, with just 2 division 2 teams left to play.

BOCC ambush Collegeville CC in Turbo Cup

Krish Pusuluri — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:07:52 EDT

Winning the toss and batting first, we reached 156/9 in 30overs against a full strength CCC bowling. At 18/2 in 8 overs with our new opening pair back in the hutch, we did a good job scoring 100 runs between the 9th and 20th overs, aided by a couple of 30's and a plucky 20 from Peter. With only two frontline bowlers in Klaus(1/28) and Vik(2/15), we needed the team to fire in the field. Both of them choked the scoring as CCC were at an identical 18/2 after 8overs. Rajiv "show-off" Mallick plucked a one-handed catch at backward square leg to get things going, as Omer (3/33) and Karthik (2/32) applied the brakes further. Vik was unplayable throughout his two spells, picking the crucial last wicket as CCC folded for145 in 27overs. Man to man, we were outmatched by CCC. Yet, the commitment exhibited by all the 11 players more than outpaced their individual contributions. Well done boys, and remember the mantra "Have fun."

Basher somehow managed to have a perfect scorebook between quenching his eternal thirst and egging us on in his own inimitable style! Klaus had everyone in splits by calling a wide off his own bowling even before the umpire could make up his mind.

Toronto Tour

Tahir Maqsood — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:10:44 EDT

Great response so far for Toronto tour. Now we have 13 players available for all four days and 3 for three days. Current selection formula is,

Number of games= Number of days available minus one. This way we have 45 availabilities for 44 possible slots. This is very close to a perfect number with only one extra availability and so many factors can fix this easily. Time to get excited and talk about social events. Will update if there are any changes and please drop in a line if there are any questions.

BOCC 2-0 in GSCL30 comp.

Jon Kennon — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:10:34 EDT

What should have been a simple victory turned into the tensest of games, in the end squeaking home with one wicket in hand. BOCC lost the toss again (what is it with these heads-less coins?) and again were asked to field (so the coin toss is purely academic), we bowled well, with the bowlers assisted by some good fielding, a low bouncing pitch and a velcro style field. We had them all out for 76 in 20 overs - Yatin 4/16, JK 3/22. Really the less said about our chasing effort the better, their bowling was quite good, though nothing extraordinary, but we lost wickets with monotonous regularity. The only one to stick around was Satish P, who made a determined 21, finally undone by his dodgy running between the wickets. Sateesh V got us home with a hoick over midwicket, and a relieved Thommo at the non-strikers end. History records the result, not the details, so a great win - if memory serves me correctly!

BOCC lost to Haverford by 4 wkts

Shariq Khan — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:10:29 EDT

Put into bat first we scored 196/9 in 40 overs. Yatin [48*] and Raj [40-ish] were not so well-supported by the rest of our batting cast even though they dropped 10+ catches. In reply, Gurdish (was unplayable) and Kalim (2w) [just keeps getting better every game] started us off very nicely. Yatin (3w) removed Kamran in the 15th over to restrict them to 54/4. However, despite Raj bowling really well, our 5th bowling option became our weakest link -- along with my inability as a skipper to get Sohail's crucial wicket. Sohail (84*), to his credit played a calculated and careful innings and hit the winning runs in the 38th over. A tough loss that will be hard to forget quickly as our next PCL game is not until 7/12. Sorry T!

BOCC lose to Collegeville in Turbo Cup

Chris Lawrence — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:10:23 EDT

The less said the better about this match as an overmatched BOCC side lost heavily to Collegeville. After I lost the toss (again) Collegeville chose to bat and piled up 223 in their 30 overs as our lack of bowling depth was cruelly exposed (Klaus apart who bowled really well giving up only 15 runs off his 6 overs). Having to chase at almost 8 an over was always going to be almost impossible as apart from Sunil and Sid (who continued his 6 hitting) with a brace of 30s there wasn't much to write home about about with the batting as BOCC were all out for 130 in the 28th over. As Tahir would say, all the more reason to recommit to regular practice

An overall losing weekend for BOCC

Shariq Khan — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 07:51:35 EDT

Saturday we lost to Knights CC by 6 wkts (BOCC 129ao)
Sunday we lost to Eclipse CC by 75 runs (ECC 268, BOCC 193ao)
Recurring theme: dropping catches! (5+ on Saturday; even more on Sunday)

BOCC beat Prior CC by 5 wkts in PCL

Shariq Khan — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:18:26 EDT

Prior won the toss and elected to bat. Prior scored 191 in 40 overs with Vish Shahade scoring a century (114) while Satish Varanasi took 3-34 for BOCC. Nadim Ahmed had 3 catches for BOCC. In reply BOCC scored 192 for 5 in 35.2 overs with Nadim Ahmed remaining not out on 41, followed by Jon Kennon (34) and Raj Subramanyam (34). Nadim was adjudged Man of the Match for batting and wicket keeping performance. View scorecard...

The epitome of a happy spring

Zafar Abdullah — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:08:36 EDT

Although it was ridiculously cold today, we had a wonderful game!
Germantown was short a few people and BOCC came to rescue by providing two players and the game was on. In BOCC skippership tradition I lost the toss and they chose to bat. GCC scored a respectable 139 in 35 given their line-up. Almost everyone bowled and some spectacular catches were made (Pe'ah). After a wonderful lunch and Master's review, we went in to bat with style and put up solid initial runs thanks to Alberto Raffo and Gue who seemed to be on fire but got out to a great catch in the covers - a blazing shot was snapped up by the GCC's squash coach for 20 runs. Raffo made 46, support by me with a 41 everyone else pitched in as well and we ended up winning with a few overs to spare! In great GCC tradition we retired to the bar where we were treated to a few rounds of liquid sustenance which brought an end to a wonderful day of playing cricket with age old friends! It is going to be a wonderful summer!
z

First Blood

Zafar Abdullah — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:53:07 EDT

The weather was in the 40s, windy and bone-chilling. Cousin's won the toss and batted their entire 35 overs making 158. George, their 1 down, made 60 odd. Almost everyone bowled well but Amim's bowling stood out the most. He got the first 5fer (5 overs 2 maidens 17 runs and 5 wickets) of the season. Fielding was good and some brillaiant catches were held to remove some dangerous batting. We chased 159 pretty comfortably, thanks to a quick 50 not out from JK, Shariq - 29,Vik - 17 not out and Amim - 11 not out. Well done boys!

Titans 1, BOCC 0

Krish Pusuluri — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:40:01 EDT

On a beautiful day that defied the weatherman, we surrendered "meekly" with only one batsman getting to double-digits. We lost the toss and a strong East Coast Titans put up a competitive 184/8 aided by our generosity in the field and some good batting by their skipper(who got a fifty) and one of our ex-BOCC players. Sushant picked up 4 wickets, Peter 2 , Rajat/Sateesh 1 each. In reply we were shot out for 60, thanks to some injudicious shot selection. At least the rust from the winter hibernation has been dusted off and there can be no more excuses! We owe them one.

Are you game ready?

Tahir Maqsood — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:38:38 EDT

Gentlemen, spring is here and first game of new season will be on April 5th. We have had few practice sessions thanks to JK and we will have another one on Sunday at ECG. We can begin to practice every Monday at Haverford as well. Time to get your whites out and get ready for the season. Please pay your dues if you have not done it already and begin putting your availabilities as well. PCL will have their annual meeting on April 5th and hopefully they will announce the schedule soon afterwards. GSCL promised the schedule by mid February and I hope that we will get it by mid April (wishful?). We do have festival schedule and almost 8 players are already fully committed for the all the games and other fun social activities. Jonty Rhodes will be playing for us on Friday and the festival dinner will be on Saturday. Toronto tour dates are all finalized and August will be the UK cricket tour. Lots of cricet ahead of us but are you ready? Put your availabilities in and we will know.

PCL AGM

Zafar Abdullah — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:44:24 EDT

From Mike Thomas:
PCL AGM: Noon, Sat April 5th
Address:Woodlawn Library, Twenty20 West Ninth Street,Wilmington, DE 19805

Teas for this weekend's game

Zafar Abdullah — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:16:15 EDT

NOTICE TO ALL PLAYING MEMBERS:
No teas will be provided for this weekend's social games so please bring your own sustenance for the 20 minute change over between innings. Water will be provided. There will be an outing to Brother Paul's for a brief social post game. More on the topic of tea later... Krish and I will inform our guests of this decision made by the cricket committee (quorum). Any questions? Then please email or contact Tahir, John and/ or me.

Cricket Committe Meeting

Tahir Maqsood — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:13:30 EDT

Under the new constitution the first Cricket Committee meeting was held on Thursday, February 7, 2007. Since the meeting was held priorty to Thirsty festivities, members were diligent about not taking too much time and active agenda was taken care of by 7PM. Highlights are

-GSCL: Early start to the season and a longer season with more games in Knockout tournamen. JK and Sri have been in touch with the league officials and discussing all the key issues. They are also in touch with all the key players and planning for interesting practice drills. More information to come from their office close to the season.

-PCL: Two teams have pulled out and two to four teams are on the fence. Fines, special favors, increased charges and quite a few other minor issue resulting in dissatisfaction. Future of PCL not very clear right now but BOCC is very much committed to the PCL and have paid the dues. Considering the uncertain future of PCL and fewer members able to paly two games, proposal of second BOCC team in the competition was unanimously voted down. Discussion about six regular PCL players keeping their spots if they are performing well and five open spots to GSCL players ensued. No final decision made at this point. Email sent to Shuja encouraging an early AGM meeting. Will keep everyone updated with the developments.

-FESTIVAL: Jonty Rhodes will be the chief guest and will play for BOCC on Friday morning. Haverford College won't be taking part in the tournament for the first time. Some discussion about 6-7 fully subscribed members playing all the games and other spots open on the basis of merit ensued. No final decisions yet. Will update.

TOURS: Dates of all three tours finalized and on the web now. Members encouraged to take note of this and try to come to most if not all the tours. Zafar to poll all the members about their possible availability pattern.

PRACTICE: Will discuss with Haverford authorities and keep everyone posted. Separate practice schedule to be announced later.

SECOND ECG PITCH: Great enthusiasm about the second wicket, Mid to late March probably the best time.

KIT: Apart from wicket keeping gloves, nothing else needed. Ernie made aware.

Committe Members Present: Tahir, JK, Sri, Shariq, Z, Krish and Satish. Intruders: Klaus and Ernie. Alfred sent his apology.

Annual Dinner 2007 and Game Pictures

Tahir Maqsood — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:56:59 EDT

Last order of business ... enjoy the pictures!

BOCC AGM 2007-Minutes

Mike Thomas — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:56:48 EDT

From M.T: Gentlemen, please find attached the Minutes of the BOCC AGM held on December 2nd, 2007, which include the elections of Officers for the 2008 season.
Since that event, the new Club Committee has recently met and full Minutes of that meeting will be published shortly. A key item on this latter agenda was the selection of captains and vice-captains for the 2008 season and I am pleased to report the following outcomes in the interim..

There was considerable discussion between Club Committee Officers and individual members.
Some 20 different names were considered in depth arising from direct or indirect nominations.
The Club Captain was most diligent and objective in his own researches, in canvassing for nominations and in his presentation of recommendations.
The Club Captain was most diligent and objective in his own researches, in canvassing for nominations and in his presentation of recommendations.
In the event, the same names were on all the Committee's lips and I am pleased to report that the following selections ALL gained a unanimous vote and support from the whole club committee.

GSCL Captain - Jon Kennon
GSCL Vice Captain - Sri Ramanathan
PCL Captain - Tahir Maqsood
PCL Vice Captain - Shariq Khan
Social Captain - Zafar Abdullah
Social Vice Captain - Krish Pusulari
Congratulations to all, and lets make the 2008 season one to remember!
Mike Thomas"

Cricket Anyone?

Shariq Khan — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 03:27:45 EDT

October issue of the Smithsonian Magazine has a detailed article on cricket in America and talks about the contributions of the BOCC, Alfred Reeves and the C.C.Morris Library. Following is an excerpt:

Sitting at a long wooden table in Haverford's C. C. Morris Cricket Library, the largest collection of cricket literature and memorabilia in the Western Hemisphere, Alfred Reeves, 81, is dressed in an immaculate blue blazer. Reeves immigrated to the United States from his native Yorkshire in 1978 and eventually settled in Philadelphia. "I went for a walk one evening near the Merion Cricket Club [near Philadelphia], and I was sure I heard a cricket ball and bat," he recalls. "So I put my whites on and climbed over the wall of this famous cricket club, dropped on the other side and said, 'I just arrived from England. Do you mind if I join in?'"

Read the full article here...