The Mogador Wanderers recorded another remarkable victory on a glorious late Summer's afternoon at Ewhurst's picturesque ground. A strong Mogs team arrived (well most of us did - the Lewis brothers being a touch late) to find the pitch being rolled and it was of credit to Ewhurst that the pitch was playable after sustained rain for what seemed like the last 5 weeks.
We lost the toss and found ourselves bowling first in a 40 overs match. Abbott & Briggsy both bowled well, with Abbo snaring 2 wickets & Briggsy one. Joseph & Jimmy took over and both bowled excellent 8 over spells, which again kept the run rate in check and Joseph picking up skipper Mead (20) courtesy of an overhead catch by the ever-reliable and stick-thin, Tharp.. It is worth pointing out all of the Mogs fielding was excellent both in terms of the catches taken and general ground fielding. This can only be attributed to the fact that Ewhurst does not have a pub in the village and the bar was not open before the match!
Alex replaced Joseph and picked up the useful wicket of Gilchrist (Ben not Adam unfortunately) for an excellent 67 before retiring with a hip injury and Tharpy & Abbo finished their innings off with disciplined bowling aided by good catching with Parker's stumping of Cation (29) the highlight.
A tremendous buffet tea was served with bread, ham, cheese, fruit & cake allowing all Mogs to build their own teatime Scooby Snack. Unfortunately the delicious tea did nothing for our batting with Lee, Fairclough, Lewis M, Moss, Tharp & Hewitt all failing with Nick Pritchard (4 for 11) doing the bulk of the damage. The support bowlers were not of the same class however and Joseph Lewis joined Jimmy Honeyfield at the crease with the score at 74 for 6. Both batsmen looked immediately at ease and slowly but surely the scoreboard lost its ugly look as boundary followed boundary. With the score at 126 Joseph was unluckily out and everyone present felt that the match had possibly swung back in Ewhurst's favour. Not Honeyfield who went berserk and finished on an excellent 74*. The first over in the 8th wicket partnership went for 13 and the second for a Mog record total of 32 with the first five balls of the over all being sent sailing miles over Long On and Long Off in a breathtaking display of power batting. Could Honeyfield rival his fellow left hander Sir Garfield Sobers and hit 6 sixes in an over? Unfortunately not but by then, the damage had been done with Abbo cover driving the winning runs, which resulted in the Mogs staying for a good hour and a half after the match with our most genial hosts. For the record the Ewhurst boys were a great (if not slightly noisy) bunch of lads and they have asked us to arrange this fixture to take place earlier in the year so that we get the best possible chance of the game taking place and the fixture not taking place on the same weekend as their rather dangerous sounding Club Prize giving.
Author - Hewitt
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