MWCC v Chipstead & Coulsdon
A strong Mogs XI turned up on a cold grey Autumn afternoon and enjoyed barbequed bacon sandwiches before Skipper Hewitt promptly lost the toss but surprisingly found the Mogs inserted on a good, though slightly two paced pitch.
The Mogs opening partnership of Furner & Hirst were possibly the shortest opening partnership in our proud history, barely mustering 11 feet between them, but these little maestros put the Mogs in a dominant position with a wonderful opening partnership of 163 in 26 overs. Hurst favoured the legside with a plethora of hooks, pulls, nudges and flicks, whilst Furner blazed away with a smorgasbord of crunching boundaries all around the wicket.
Hirst (76) perished looking for a hundred against his Saturday colleagues, but Turner minced to the wicket just as the 80th birthday celebrations started in earnest at Chipstead Football Club, behind the pavilion. At 3.20pm the entertainment started as the pub singer started a 3 ½ hour medley of 60's and 70's cover versions all played at full blast from a PA borrowed from U2's recent concert at Wembley.
As Trigger pushed his foot to the accelerator (accompanied by the Everley Brothers) Furner (74) was denied the chance of a maiden Mog hundred but he was clapped all the way to the pavilion by home and away players with Elvis Presley joining in with a well timed version of "Return to Sender". Freeland (10) sparkled briefly but he, Neal (2), Hewitt (1) and Turner (32) all perished in the last few overs n the search of late runs. Tom Hornsey gets a special mention for some heroic hooking against Chipstead's opening bowler Lee Padfield as Joseph and the Hornet ensured that the Mogs finished their 40 overs on an imposing 248 - 6.
The pub singer crooned on as an excellent tea was served in the pavilion with hot mugs of tea very much in demand from the players and a sparse crowd. Fortified we took to the field, as the singer moved slowly into a back catalogue of truly awful 80's covers. Joseph took the first 2 wickets with 1 bowled and 1 LBW, the latter to the tune of Green Door by Shakin' Stevens. Hornsey & Abbott were unlucky but Coxon came on from the Road End and also took 2 wickets in a good spell. Chipstead were behind the run rate and with a couple of their batsmen not playing, the Mogs were always in control. "Delilah" accompanied Trigger as his flighty leggies snared 2 wickets ("That is unusual" sang Tom Jones" and Freeland and the Hornet snared wickets 7, 8 & 9 as the temperature dipped below 50F. With 2 overs to go our opening batsmen who had set up the victory were both given 1 over to finish the match and Furns duly obliged with a legside half tracker seeing Chipstead's No 111 slapping it straight to Hewitt at midwicket.
It had been a good win for the Mogs (special mention to Tharpy who selflessly scored the whole of our innings, though he did find a heater in the scorebox) and our thought now centre on ensuring that we finish the season with more Wins than Losses. President Martin presented the Lambrini Cup to Hewitt, the pub singer finally stopped (or died, bored of his own voice) and the Mogs drank the delicious Harveys on offer before moving to Bell Street for a well attended curry.
MWCC Stats