On arguably the sunniest Sunday of the year, the Mogs gathered at Headley's lovely ground for Ploughmans & Black Velvet as is custom between our old friends and ourselves. Winning the toss, captain Lewis won the toss and elected to bat, knowing that Honeyfield & Hewitt were going to be a bit late after a golf tour of Prague. Rice & Lewis J opened up and it was the latter than snared our 1st wicket. He also snared Headley's 2 & 3 and in an excellent opening spell of 7 overs - he took 3-28. Abbott replaced Rice, one wicket ahead of Hewitt in the race to the bowling cup and in a disciplined 6 over spell he was unlucky not to add to his tally. Freeland & Tharp came & went, also bowling good spells without reward however Headley were never able to put their foot on the accelerator due to the good bowling and quality of the Mogs fielding, particularly by Charlie Lee. Hewitt had his chance to catch up Abbott and draw level which he did when the Dark Destroyer himself clung on to an excellent over the shoulder effort off Hewitts 8th consecutive long hop. This was Hewitt's only wicket however and Lewis replaced him and bowled an excellent spell (2-19)to keep Headley's score down. Abbott was given 2 overs at the death to win the bowling cup and he duly delivered, bowling Banks and Headley declared on 168 for 8.
After an excellent tea, Freeland & Lee opened the batting hoping to get the Mogs off to a good start, whilst also demonstrating their credentials for this to be the Mogs opening partnership for 2009. After 3 overs the Mogs were 3-2 after Lee slapped a full toss to mid off and Freeland had his off peg knocked back by a good one from Mearns. Honeyfield came in at 3 hoping to score enough runs to overtake Tharp for the batting cup but unfortunately a conbination of severe fatigue and a debatable LBW decision saw him back in the hutch for 9 and at 25-3 the Mogs were in all sorts of trouble. Tharp joined Hewitt at the crease and at first they sat out to blunt Headley's attack which they managed despite both being dropped once each. Slowly & gloriously the boundary rate increased and the run rate reduced from 8 an over to 7, to 6. Hewitt celebrated his 50 with a series of crunching cover drives & Tharp reached his with a trademark sweep. Needing just 18 from the last 6 overs, the Mogs were all confident of a simple win but first Hewitt (67), then Tharp (52) gave their wickets away after a partnership of 125, the highest of the season. When Joseph (2) was bowled there was panic in the Mogs ranks & their supporters, who ranged in age from 0 to 99. Abbott & Parker were now at the crease with 15 needed off 4 overs. Abbott cover drive for 4 and a couple of extras and we need 8 from 3. Just 1 run was taken off the next over and then just one from the next and in our last game of the season, we required 6 runs off 6 balls to win our last match. Parker steered a vicious short ball which kicked like a Spanish donkey to 3rd man off the first ball, leaving Abbott on strike. Dot ball; but gloriously our man mountain drove the 3rd through cover for a sizzling 4. The Mogs crowd were on their feet and off the penultimate ball of the match, we scored the winning run after Abbott & Parker stole a Vietnam-like suicide single to cover. A brilliant finish to a brilliant match and the 2008 stats match up to any season we have enjoyed in the last decade, with us winning nine and losing just once in a season with a high number of exciting finishes, all of which saw us come off as victors. Roll on 2009 (and some better weather!). Please see the Statistics section of the website to see who can expect to clear some space from their mantelpiece next year...
MWCC Stats