Rain & Injuries Blight Mogs' Normandy Landings
A proud invasion force of Mogs took heavy fire from the well entrenched forces of premier Surrey Legue side Normandy, but emerged with pride intact after a creditable run chase in game adjusted to 35 limited overs each side due to troublesome rain.
All landing craft disembarked troops well before zero hour apart from welcome guest Steve Kelly who added to a burgeoning reputation borne from last year's whirlwind tour century (against the Mogs) by presenting the most valid excuse for lateness for many a year, involving a bottle of unspecific liquer, a sight of breaking dawn and most importantly two Finnish au pair girls joining him for an overnight exercise.
Certainly it seemed that any Mog fielder within his vicinity was transfixed by the further details of this eposide, although it later transpired that none could in fact run at all (apart from Private Lewis J, who later joined the ranks of walking wounded when receiving a tracer bullet just below the knee shortly after tea).
The opening scene of 'Saving Private Ryan' sprang to mind as Normandy's top four of Saturday 1st players mercilessly cut down the front ranks of willing Mogs seamers with high velocity weaponry on ground offering little in the way of assistance. Briggs managed to dispatch two of the enemy with Yorkers (one on the second bounce) finishing with 2 for 54 from 8 overs, but despite the cheerful spinning of the hopefully named Turner R (9 overs 1 for 70) Normandy reached a blitzkrieg 232-3 at the end of their allotted 35 overs.
After one ball of the Mogs reply it really was a case of 'we'll fight them on the beaches' with Kelly emphatically failing to reproduce his previous night's form on the field of play by bing yorked for a quite spectacular diamond duck. Furner and Freeland then put together a 60 run counter attack (cashing in on erratic fire from the other end) before the latter stepped on a landmine and holed out to backward point for 35 of 42 balls.
Turner then showed why many consider him 'Simply the Best' with a thumping 45 off 31 balls to keep hope alive. However his wicket signalled a clatter of middle order wickets (interspersed with defiant volleys of returned fire) and when Parker W was caught off a top edged mortar shell that cannoned off his exposed cranium the game was up.
The indomitable Furner remained stylishly unbowed for 64 unbeaten runs (the 184th time he has carried his bat for the Mogs), but neither a final tally of 196-8 nor a tea containing memorable chocolate cakes could ward of the gathering gloom of the anti climactic 8 o'clock finish.
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