Undeterred by Wimbledon fortnight weather the Mogs assembled at this leafy venue in well-heeled West Surrey to take on our old friends, who were once again led by Tim Drake but short of his promising young leg-spinning son away on a schools tournament (much to our relief). Light rain persisted for nearly an hour into our innings, upsetting Tim's calculated risk of putting us in. But it then cleared and by 6pm we were bathed in mellow sunshine. Little did we know that it had rained all afternoon in Reigate and all points south and east.
Tharp and Freeland got the innings off to a fast start against some loose opening bowling with Tharp uppercutting a 6 over cover and finding a few more gardens. When the Mogs took over the ball search in the dreaded garden past bucket, Abbo's worst fears were realised by the appearance of the legendary Hound of the Baskervilles (actually the size of a small pony according to Huge who was bringing up the rear). His bark proved sufficient to see them off without testing the bite.
The bowling steadied a bit and the two heros matched hearty blows with more cultured strokes to take the score to the 90s before Tharp lofted one too many and departed for 43. Turner added a brisk 20. The Chairman after a scratchy start helped himself to a jug-evading 49, announcing to all partners that he no longer does 3s (except possibly when he is the striker). Freeland's admirable innings was ended at 73 as he risked a pull off a straight one which kept a bit low. Hewitt wasn't quite middling it but achieved a brisk 26. Whereupon our newest potential recruit Justin Bridge, all the way from the Land of the White Cloud, dug 14 years back in memory to show a cultured bat for an all too short while, bowled so that his fellow Kiwi, Graeme, umpiring, was unable to help him. But he had time to raise a minor frisson with an unsuccessful attempt to run out the Chairman. Welcome to the Mogs! A few blows from Jimmie Honey and Abbo brought a reasonable declaration at 233 in 42 overs, the pitch being a mite less true than last year, after the rain.
A fine tea served by two young blonde sisters (from Siberia?) was garnished with fruit and topped off with cream donuts from the US via Harrods from birthday boy Justin.
Fielding on the upper side of the ground was considerably easier following last autumn's levelling work. Philip Tosh knocked his second ball over Abbo's head for a straight 6 and we wondered whether we might be put to the sword again by him, but Abbo had his revenge. Keith bowled an excellent economic spell from the other end. EH stayed in the hunt awhile thanks to 50 from Mark Procter, although he could not really dominate. Jamie had two good spells from the pavilion end, eventually collecting 4 for 35. The odd expletive escaped at one point, but no, he was calling himself names for a particularly random delivery.
Honeyfield bagged 3 for 37 from the other end to set the scene for the mighty lobs of Furns - 1 for 16 in 4 including a maiden. Alex helped himself to 1 wicket but only bowling 4 overs must be conserving his energies for extra-curricular activities, like gardening? Ben was made to rush around collecting leg-byes and wayward throws, but kept tidily with two good catches. Only the Chairman dropped a catch - an easier one than some. But he pocketed two including one flat-batted first-ball swish in the covers that was so quick that no-one really saw it, even the catcher who might otherwise have dropped his hands at the last minute. Remember tho', it hurts less to catch it.<p/>
We mopped them up for 173 in the 41st over with 3 to spare - satisfying revenge for last year even if their middle order was a little weaker than usual. One footnote - due to Peter's opportunist double-booking we provided both umpires, for which EH were duly grateful . Thanks to Steve and Graeme and to Humph for his usual immaculate scoring.
MWCC Stats