The Mogador Wanderers returned to winning ways against Reigate Pilgrims on a warm Summer's afternoon yesterday. A barrel of Doombar was put through its paces in the Red Lion pre-match before Hewitt lost the toss and we were inserted on a pitch that had been livened by heavy rain throughout the week.
Fairclough & Tharp opened up and the pitch soon revealed itself to be a bit of a brute with any ball on or just short of a length, kicking like a Spanish donkey. Fairclough (9) was caught a mid off and new player Jonathan "JD" Burton (3) also perished, both undone by the variable bounce. Tharp was leading a charmed life but was joined by Hewitt and slowly the Mog score put the Pilgrims new scorebox to use as the boundary count increased. Tharp finally perished for 32 and set off straight to Buckland newsagents to buy a lottery ticket. Honeyfield ran himself out for 0, Stevens was bowled through the gate 2 balls later and when Hewitt (40) lost his middle stump, the Mogs were reduced to 100 - 6 with an hour's worth of potential batting left before a declaration could be mooted.
The Mogs innings was held by Mogador legend, Stuart Jackson, who on a week's holiday from Hong Kong had negotiated 3 games of cricket including our forthcoming tour of Devon and whilst his batting was initially a bit rusty, the old adage of "form is temporary, but class is permanent" was never more evident as he helped the tail put on a further 66 runs, with the Mogs declaring on 166 for 9, with Stu unbeaten on 42*. Given the unpredictable bounce the Mogs took tea in good heart and Hewitt was quick to point out that if we bowled well and took our catches, victory was eminently possible.
Mankelow (1-12) opened up and removed doughty opener Nigel in his first over courtesy of a sharp catch by Hewitt at short cover. Joseph (1-11) joined the party and secured an LBW decision and after our openers early salvo, the Mogs had restricted our hosts to 23 - 2 off 12 overs. Lee & Honeyfield took over with Charlie snaring 2 quick wickets (2-21), one of which being a truly remarkable caught & bowled which would have graced any game. Tharp pocketed a catch at slip off Honeyfield and with 20 overs to go, the Pilgrims were in the mire at 65 - 5.
Hewitt (2-10) replaced Lee and removed Copestake via a caught & bowled and Tharpy took his second catch at slip off the same bowler, though he had to shoulder barge Colonel William Parker to claim the catch. Repercussions of this assault on an elder statesman of the club will be dealt with on Thursday night after our game against Sidmouth.
With 10 overs to go the Pilgrims needed 70 with 3 wickets left and all rounder Guy still at the crease and by now alternating wild yahoos with coruscating boundaries. The Mog supporters were out in full force with Family Lee, John Honeyfield, Robery & Carol Hewitt and Alan, Pat & Amy Lewis joined by Frank & Mary Jacksons, Viv and Alex Plumb (not forgetting Georgie), Pippa & David Martin, Humph Bate and Stuart Southgate. As our numbers swelled off the pitch, Honeyfield (2-27) picked up a second wicket and when Fairclough (2-5) replaced Hewitt he quickly picked up the last 2 wickets via good catches at mid on by the skipper who finished with an unprecedented 4 catches for the match.
It had been a fine win with the Mogs bowling & fielding considerably improved on previous outings this year and our retention of the Peter Martin memorial tankard was fully merited (despite it being missing and no prize giving ceremony actually taking place!). Both teams retired to the Red Lion and the consensus was that our game against the Pilgrims is a real highlight of the season and represented everything that was good about Sunday cricket. Now bring on the Tour!
Note to Red Lion - please don't run out of Doombar in 2012....
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