This game has been cancelled due to poor weather for the last 3 years, so it was with great relief to find a gloriously sunny Spring afternoon to play our hosts for the first time. An all star Mogs XI arrived at the ground to find a Colts Match in progress and the succession of 6's from Ripley's Peter Crouch look-alike was a sign of things to come.
Skipper Hewitt walked out to the middle to toss and elected to bat first after being given the opportunity to choose our preference by home skipper, Manoj. It is worth mentioning that Manoj also made a point of saying how his team were looking forward to playing us and if there was anything that we were not pleased with we only had to let him know. Throughout the day he was a most genial host (he even arranged for Chelsea to beat Arsenal 4-1 on the big screen) and a great advertisement for his club.
Furner walked out to the middle with a new partner and indeed a potential new Mog stalwart in the making. Fraser Larke is a mate of Jamie's with Baltic connections; indeed the two of them are representing the Baltic Exchange on a tour to Holland later this week. Fraser unravelled a couple of glorious drives early in his innings, but the first moment of real note in the match was the very upsetting sight of Oxshott's opening bowler Charlie suffering an epileptic fit. Having watched every episode of Baywatch in their teens, Fairclough & Lee found themselves partly responsible for ensuring Charlie's safety in the home dressing room, but fortunately an ambulance arrived very promptly and whizzed the patient off to Epsom Hospital - the Mogs all wish Charlie a speedy recovery.
Back on the pitch Larke was rising to his task and started unleashing a plethora of savage drives, both skimming along the ground and troubling the local bird & squirrel population. Furner (12) & Fairclough (7) both departed LBW and Hewitt joined Larke at the crease at about the time that Humph fell backwards in the scorebox, disappearing for a good ½ minute.
On an already extraordinary day, another first occurred when Hewitt had got off the mark, cutting a ball to the man on the point boundary. As the ball reached the fielder the ball appeared to be kicked forwards and mis-fielded, resulting in Mogs skipper demanding another run. In fact a ball had shot out of the practise nets behind the fielder, creating an optical illusion of sorts and although Hewitt was run out, the home team invited him back due to the strange circumstances. Hewitt wasted no time in thanking the gracious gesture with a 31 ball 60 with Larke (65) also making a tremendous half century on debut. Freeland (19), Stephens (33*) and Lee (25*) ensured the Mogs reached 237 - 5 off 37 overs on what was a tremendous batting strip.
The tea that greeted us was a triumph - sandwiches as fresh as the Prince of Bel Air, Peperoni pizza, mini sausage rolls, strong tea and an assortment of biscuits were devoured by the Mogs and our supporters (Jacksons, John Honeyfield & Anthony Parker) alike - I would be most surprised if we have a better tea this year.
Fortified we took the field and young whirlwind Tom "Just One Hornetto" Hornsey opened the bowling from the manure end (he would later discover why his end was so called). The home team took a fancy to our young heroe's away swingers and Humph was again busy in the scorebox. It later transpired that our game was Tom's third of the weekend, as well as taking part in a swimming gala so his wicketless spell (0-49) was easily explained. From the other end Jimmy H (1-38) slowly creaked his alcohol ravaged body into gear and in the 6th over, the Mogs made the first breakthrough courtesy of a smart catch at 2nd slip by Hewitt. Tharpy (2-29) replaced the hornet and struck twice during an excellent spell and both teams were in the match with our hosts 110 - 3 with 20 overs to go. Charlie Lee (0-25), who had batted so elegantly earlier in the day could not quite snare a wicket despite bowling a series of Parker-diving inswingers and it was Hewitt (2-33) and Freeland (1-22) who took 3 further wickets whilst simultaneously keeping Oxshott's score in check, despite them continuing to press for a victory themselves.
Despite bowling 45 overs in reply, we never quite had the firepower to finish our opponents off, but on a day where we had been treated so well, a draw was perhaps the most fitting result. We are all looking forward to returning to Oxshott's pretty ground next year and taking up battle with our new cricketing friends.
Report by Alex Hewitt
MWCC Stats