The Mogs assembled with a near 50% of team WAG turn out at our friendly and long term rivals Headley in good time for the 2pm start on what turned out to be a lovely summer afternoon, as if sent to usher out the Olympics in a final glowing bow on this its concluding and triumphant day. All that said, our hosts were somewhat forthright that the game should have actually started at 1.30....(note for next year). Either way we started before 2, with the Mogs winning the toss and electing to bat first.
The dichotomy between our opening partners has rarely be wider with the confident exuberance of youth both in terms of batting and chat being ably supplied by 'Cry me a' Rivers, as against the quiet and steely determination of a man who has seen it and done it all before in the guise of 'Shin pads' Furner. Either way the partnership, or more precisely Rivers, flourished from the first few overs, with him realising all 25 runs in quick time before the young buck was deceived by a slow short ball and was through his shot 5 minutes too early to present an easy catch to mid-off.
Furner was then joined at the crease by our occasional-playing Kiwi friend Steve Hirst. The partnership continued at good pace with the score moving onwards thanks to a number of good cuts and drives for 4 as both players began to settle. However just before the 50 partnership was reached Hirst got a good ball that saw him nick one to the keeper, and 2 wickets quickly became 3 when Furner decided he didn't want to bat with our father-to-be Jago, and called him on a suicidal run that saw Olly back in the hutch quicker than Usain Bolt chasing the Swedish Handball team around SoHo.
Furner tried to put the sorry episode behind and looked to be doing a good job until the memories came flooding back and he was out for a decent 22. 'Super Tommy' Cooper came and went quickly, getting a good one from Grant bowling a great line from the Endless Slow Walking Horses' End. This saw the Mogs in a tricky position at 99 - 5. This brought together the left hand combination of our man from Hong Kong, 'Action' Jackson and the now depressingly self-titled, 'Wiley old fox' Honeyfield. They dug deep; mixing stout defence and strong bottom hand as Headley maintained the pressure with some tight bowling. Jackson finally succumbed to another good one from Grant and the batten was next picked up by our Captain for the day, Charlie 'Lee' Lee. Again both set about the task with a mix of resolute determination and straight hit sixes and quickly the partnership yielded a solid 33 which left the innings very much back in the balance. However just as the Mogs were threatening to take the upper hand, Lee succumbed leaving the Mogs on 149 - 7. 'Soon to be broken finger' Lewis came and went after a couple of lusty blows and with Honeyfield beginning to run out of partners, he went for one cut to many and dragged the ball on and fell for 35, having brought the score up to a respectable 173 all out.
An excellent tea was taken, with the highlight a well-balanced chocolate and orange cake. And so a determined Mogs side took to the field, confident in our own ability and the knowledge that we could turnaround what on paper was a 30 run below-par first innings total. The ball was handed to the young Brooker and he ran in with zest and purpose. This quickly turned into success with an excellent ball that left their decent skipper and Colonel Parker took a tidy catch behind the stumps. 'Fingers' Lewis then opened up from the other end and bowled a tight line that resulted in 2 maidens. In the 4th over Brooker struck again, and then again in his 5th over. When Lewis deservedly took a wicket in his 5th over , thanks to a confident-taken catch by Rivers, the Mogs were very much back in the game, with our hosts in trouble at 42 - 4. The excellent opening bowlers continued but Headley dug in and began to fight back and build a partnership. Brooker finished his tremendous spell with 3 for 18 off 7 overs.
Honeyfield and Hirst replaced the opening pair but the little and large show of No's 5 and 6 continued to accumulate. Having been hit out of the ground a couple of times by the rotund No.6 Hirst then struck in his second over and the game was tantalisingly poised with Headley on 98 - 5. At the other end Cooper was quickly (if not a little harshly!) brought on for Honeyfield and immediately brought another wicket off an inviting short wide one.... 106 - 6. Throughout the game the Mogs fielding had been perky and supported the bowlers well and when Cooper struck again with a fine LBW, the Mogs were very much in the ascendancy at 119 - 7. However our opposition had proved over the last 4 years that they are a strong and resolute team and this wicket brought Grant to the crease. His first 6 scoring shots read 4 4 4 4 4 4, and with Seb still solid at the other end, Headley were very much back in the game. With the game on a knife edge Grant offered up a steepling catch that Lewis tried manfully to take but it caught the end of his finger and fell to the ground, the ball, not his finger. Indeed an X-Ray on Monday showed that as a result of his effort Lewis had sadly taken one for the team, and broken said finger. As if spurred on by this reprieve Grant then hit Cooper for 3 successive 6's and the scores were tied....some revenge was exacted the next ball, giving Cooper his third wicket, when Honeyfield took a fine catch but the damage had been done and the first ball of the next over flew to the boundary for 4 and Headley had again won a tight and exciting game, by 2 wickets. A disappointing result having played ourselves back into contention, however thankfully the opportunity for revenge will present itself again soon, with our second game against them, just 6 weeks from now.
Jimmy Honeyfield
MWCC Stats