Mogs past, present and future arrived at the President's dacha for a sumptuous pre-match BBQ on a slightly overcast afternoon in Sussex. The day also witnessed the first appearance of Stuart and Gayle's beautiful new daughter Neve, and new recruit Richard Jones. Having tucked in gratefully to the plethora of meats, cheeses and beers on offer, the players headed off to the ground in Rottingdean. With the sun emerging from the clouds and beating heavily down onto the ground, Captain Hewitt won the toss and elected to bat.
In the absence of our regular openers, Lewis, J. was promoted up the order from no.10 to accompany the captain to the wicket for the opening over. On a difficult pitch, the duo struggled to find their form against a briskish attack, and Jo soon lost his bails with just 2 to his name. Tharpy joined Alex at the wicket, but the going was still tough, with Alex flashing two fours narrowly over the slip-cordon. Tharpy attempted to restore some normality to proceedings with a trademark four over point, but Alex fell soon after for a scratchy 21. Tharpy continued to play his shots whilst Stuart found his feet, but was cut off in mid-flow for 27. Darrell returned to the pavilion soon afterwards, cursing himself after being bowled for a duck. Lewis, M. threatened a return to his destructive best with a couple of good connections before succumbing to a yorker from Rottingdean's seemingly innocuous 10 year-old first-change bowler, and was soon joined back in the clubhouse by the Chairman.
The run-rate had now slowed considerably, with all the batsmen struggling to generate the power required to put the annoyingly slow bowling attack to the sword. Stuart, however, was still providing plenty of solidity and was working the ball around as best he could, and he was joined by Pilau, who set about attempting to hammer everything into the pavilion clock with mixed success. After Stuart departed for a stalwart 29, débutante Richard Jones arrived at the crease, having not played cricket in about a decade. He tried to rediscover the form of his under-11 career, but was stumped for 1. Colonel Parker used his experience to guide some well-timed fours down the slope, while Pilau was still searching for the middle of his bat. Helped by some charitable fielding, the latter fell for 22 off 15 balls, after a well-taken catch at long-off by the Rottingdean captain. With two minutes to go before the scheduled declaration, Parker committed suicide-by-run-out, leaving the Mogs with a vulnerable total of 156 to defend.
The Mogs retired to the pavilion where a tea of traditional sweets and savouries was served. The controversial introduction of fresh fruit was in principle welcomed, but in practice widely ignored in favour of the chicken tikka sandwiches and jaffa cakes.
Keen to atone for their performances with the bat, Darrell and Jo ripped into the Rottingdean top-order, with Jo having their opener caught by Tharpy at slip. Not to be out-done Abbott responded by sending the bails spinning with magnificent yorkers twice in succession. The Mogs at this point were hopeful of victory, but the Rottingdean captain and their solid-looking left-hander shored up the oppo's innings. Lothar was finding some turn from the far end, but was not helped by three dismal overs from Pilau, who was soon replaced by Hewitt. After the departure of the Rottingdean captain, their no.5 decided to go aerial, but he was caught at point off Matt before doing too much damage. However, Mogs had few runs to play with, and the left-hander was looking completely untroubled by everything the bowlers threw at him, though a strong lbw was turned down, much to the chagrin of Matthew. Despite the loss of wickets at the other end (one apiece to Briggsy and Hewitt) and the re-introduction of Darrell, he guided Rottingdean to a comfortable victory in the final over, finishing the job with a typically immaculate off drive and 95* to his name. By contrast, it was widely agreed in the pavilion afterwards that it had been an abject performance by the Mogador Wanderers, who deservedly lost by three wickets.
Report provided by Peter Rice.
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