On a beautiful Spring day, the Mogs assembled for pre-match training at The Cricketers. Most cricketers stuck to frothy pints of beer though one Mog did manage roast beef with all the trimmings. The fifth roast potato and second Yorkshire Pudding were left "for fitness reasons".
We won the toss and decided to bat first on a slow, green wicket. Abbott, promoted to opener after his brave innings at Brook, looked completely foxed by any ball that actually pitched and was eventually completely bamboozled by a very slow long hop, which he top edged as he followed through for the second time and dollied one to midwicket.
"Tina" Turner was going well at the other end, despite gloving one to their wicket keeper (nobody appealed), being plum LBW (ditto) and having a simple catch dropped, but he was soon smearing the ball to all parts and he reached his 50 in 39 balls. Ben Fairclough put on 70 with Richard, but he fell when the score was 79, leaving the stage open for our very own Geoffrey Boycott to come in and smash the ball to all parts.
Slower than an asthmatic snail, Furns started to build an innings whilst Tina continued to slay the ball to all parts, reaching a commendable 100 off just 79 balls. On completing his ton, Tina went ballistic, hitting Ockley's captain Loll (Bill Oddie's doppelganger) for three huge cross-batted 6's as he waltzed to an excellent 134 not out. At the other end the little master was 41 not out.
After a quite splendid tea the Mogs took to the field with two and a half hours to bowl the 10 men of Ockley out. "Ronnie" Briggs and Jo Lewis (nickname required please) opened the bowling and it was Jo who took 2 early wickets, including one excellent slower ball, which castled Ockley's no 3. The most relieved man on the field however, was Furns who had dropped the biggest sitter any cricketer on the pitch had ever seen. The ball looped to the bespectacled Yoda at around 7mph and Peter did fantastically well to drop it.
The Major relieved a fruitless Briggsy from the goalpost end and to everyone's amazement took a wicket with his first ball of the season (stumped by Will Parker). A second was added two overs later and Ockley were 4 down with 25 overs or so to go.
Our opponents then put on an excellent 5th wicket partnership, which never threatened our total, but did succeed in frustrating the hell out of us. "Bring back the Major", cried Matthew, so we did and lo and behold he took another wicket (again stumped) with his 5th ball. Darrell then replaced the skipper and blew Ockley's middle order away with a sustained spell of pace bowling.
The Mogs had 10 overs to get the last wicket, with Ockley's no 5 (Chris Hart who made 57*) and No 10 (Loll) at the crease. Abbott blew a gasket & retired from the attack. Honeyfield tried manfully but stubbed his toe and limped into the outfield. Matthew tried sledging the opposition and kicking the grass in a good early show of petulance, but failed. The Major came on for a third spell, but to no avail.
In a last desperate throw of the dice, Hewitt brought himself back on and with an over to go, crowded the bat with two slips, a gully, two short legs, a silly point and a silly mid-off. The first 4 balls of the over hit the middle of Loll's bat and as Hewitt trudged forlornly past Umpire Jackson, Matthew yelled "try him with the mystery ball". The bowler ran in, twirled his arms and by a complete miracle, out flew a respectable flipper, which took the edge of the bat and was snapped up by Ben Fairclough at silly point. Cue mass celebration!
It had been a great win, on a beautiful day and the Mogs retired to the pavilion for a good hour's worth of ale drinking.
MWCC Stats