The Mogador Wanderers secured a fine win on a gorgeous Summer's day at Chipstead's picturesque ground. Lured by an early BBQ and the prospect of hamburgers & hotdogs, the Mogs arrived early and in force, with a variety of wives, girlfriends and children creating a lovely lunchtime backdrop. Hewitt won the toss and elected to bat first, a decision that was greeted with some celebration by the Mogs who all went and bought additional liquid refreshment thereby ensuring proper hydration levels were achieved. We knew a number of Chipstead's players through Jamie & Phil Davies' association with them and polite applause greeted Tharp & Fairclough as they made their way to the crease and the boundaries soon started to flow. In the 4th over Tharp (9) chipped to cover and when Fairclough (18) was caught, the Mogs were 62-2 with returning Mog Alex Halliday going well on 30*. Hewitt joined Halliday at the crease and these two old flatmates revived memories of watching (and re-watching) Botham's Ashes with their own boundary-fest which saw 130 runs put on in 16 overs. Hewitt (64) was caught at deep mid wicket, but Alex went on to secure a quite magnificent maiden Mog ton. The middle order all contributed with Stevens (4), Walton-Gould (9), Honeyfield (25*) & Lee all joining Halliday before he finally perished for 121 and the Mogs finishing their allotted 40 overs on a formidable 289-6.
As England were destroying India at Trent Bridge, so we tore into the tea table with Coronation chicken the highlight of the sandwiches, cold pizza a pleasant savoury item and fresh fruit or cake the perfect pre-fielding "digestif". Lewis (1-33) & Lee opened up and Lewis dropped Chipstead's overseas pro first ball off his own bowling before snaring him 2 overs later courtesy of a great catch by new recruit james Walton-Gould. Lee (1-36) removed their dangerous number 3 via a good catch by Halliday and Phil Davies (4-33) tore apart Chipstead's fragile middle order in a beautiful spell of high class off spin. The run rate made victory out of the question for our charming hosts and James Walton-Gould made it a day to remember with a wicket (middle stump) with his first ever ball for the Mogs and another with his 4th. His 3 over spell snared him 3-13 and he was secured for the rest of the season by Lee. Honeyfield (1-37) continued his mid-season revival and Parker did brilliantly behind the stumps given the very low bounce of the ball.
As the Chipstead BBQ was re-fired up both teams settled down for post-cricketing libation and Freeland awarded his customary bottle of shampers to Walton-Gould who went off to explain to his girlfriend that he might not be around on Sunday afternoon's quite as often as he used to. Lovely day.
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