The glorious venue of East Horsley cricket club was the location for the Mogador family and friends, last Sunday; and we enjoyed a momentous occasion and truly wonderful exhibition from...Frank Jackson, as we were all present to the inaugural Mogs 50 club draw; and what a moment it was for the hordes of Mogs travelling fans.
This fixture, nestled away in the affluent surroundings of the Surrey commuter-belt, home to the original powerhouses of London banking and world financial domination, saw the wandering Mogs play only their ninth fixture of what, alike the recent economic conditions, has been a tumultuous summer of rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, sleet, hailstones, sun, rain...sun
But enough of setting the scene, it was this day a clear August bank holiday, and time for a much anticipated cricket match, of which the report follows:
...Alex Hewitt...
Next week's game is at South Nutfield, where we hope to see you all again. Have a good week.
"Now don't be silly", I hear you say; of course I can't simply leave it there. For those that were not at East Horsley last Sunday, that will simply not fulfil your ravenous desire for Mogadorian scripture and cricketing tale. Although for those hundreds of you connected with this great club, that were present to witness the fantastic, slightly over-dramatic and most definitely 'my ball, my game' performance from our skipper, his name alone will be all that needs reporting on from the match.
So for those that were not there, please enjoy the following. The only thing that Alex didn't do at East Horsley was win the toss, from that moment on it did indeed become a little bit of a one man show, with an exceptional cast.
EH decided to stick the Mogs into bat, on a track which Andy Tharp was later quoted as describing "#%&£in dangerous" - his response at being asked to open the batting with Will Cooper, but failing a few balls later for 0 at the hands of the young EH opener; he was 'sharp'. Not satisfied with only using his bat, Tharpy managed to edge a lifting delivery onto his glove , then nipple, before watching it despairingly loop, innocently into the keeper's gloves.
Coops was joined by Jonathan 'JD' Burton, whom brought with him a dogged defence against the EH quicks, but unfortunately failed to score and in an attempt the keep the score board moving was run out a few overs later.
Safe to say it wasn't the most confident start from the Mogs. I guess what followed was a decision that changed the game. Alex 'AJ Huge' Hewitt made his way to the crease, to join Coops, who had worked hard for his 6. Alex safely negotiated a few overs of unreliable bounce and Jaffa cake-like pitch conditions, as he began to advance from a regular 'push for one' and 'nurldle for two', to a more 'thunderous missile through extra cover for 4' and what became an 'unidentified flying object' orbiting the 400 year old Oak tree, shadowing long on, for 6. Coops was unfortunately unable to accompany the Mogs skipper for much longer, as the EH bowling changes brought more useful medium pace wobblers that were exploiting the conditions to excellent affect. None other than the East Horsley (or from his own confession the Only Horsley) stalwart: Tim Drake (this year the only Drake to be playing, and at 'errr' something older than me, extremely commendable).
The departure of Mr Cooper, caught off Drake for 6, brought Mr Dave Stevens to the middle and in an attempt to recover the dismal situation of 28 for 3, introduced his trademark flick off the pads for 3 wonderful boundaries, before the fourth attempt contributing to his downfall: caught in 'the trap' at deep backward square for 12. Mr Stevens seeking forgiveness as all his mental strength has recently been absorbed by returning to work after 3 months summer gardening leave. Next in was the most recent recruit to the Mogs and friend of Alex's - Ali Brew. Ali saw an opportunity to build a partnership with his sponsor and continued the patience that Coops had shown and played a superb supporting role to the fireworks that Alex was igniting from the other end.
Alex passed 50 at speed, much to the vocal enjoyment and surprise (at the short time that it took) of the supporting masses, and continued to lace the cricket ball up hill, through the now heavily populated cover region, still finding further boundaries. Ali Brew was soon after caught as he too tried to send the ball scorching to the boundary; only able to send it skywards, lacking much required horizontal direction - the bowler taking a good high caught and bowled; Mr Brew (nick name required) exiting with an honourable 17. Alex and Ali had built a partnership of 80 runs and the Mogador Wanderers started to believe they could post a solid, defendable target; especially as the pitch was not appearing to improve at all. Although it was a shame to see the valiant innings of Brew come to an end, the introduction of Mr James Freeland was a boost to the resurgent Mogs. Jamie was fresh back for his family holiday in France, looking like an extra from 'The only way is Essex' (lovely tan Bimbo) and enjoying his time at the crease. In particular I think Bimbo was taking the opportunity to exact some revenge on the young EH 13 year old leg spinner. From the side-lines there was an element of sympathy for the young lad as Jamie showed little remorse, sending several reasonable deliveries back over the bowlers head - later we were reminded by the good President Martin, it was the same 11 year old leg spinner that had removed Jamie's pride a couple of years previous...first ball!! Everything became clear.
Alex's innings of 88 was a truly great one; although not a centurion, the timing of the innings and pure striking of the ball was superb: 'Greatness' is only a label, but the mark of the innings was only strengthen as other equally abled batsmen struggled on what was an incredibly difficult wicket to bat. Skip had taken the total to 159 and surpassed the supporters' prediction that anything over 150 would be a good score.
Sub-consciously the remaining batsmen clearly thought the same as the supporters and anything over 150 would surely be enough; as they came and went without adding a great deal more. With the exception of not so new recruit Simon 'cry me a' Rivers, ably finding the boundary on few occasions and punishing the EH bowling for two mammoth sixes (neither truly out of the middle - its a hard learning curve when you're bowling at Rivers).
Lee joined Freeland, and Freeland promptly fell for 22 caught behind off Brown...James 'Lego' Brooker joined Dairy Lee, and Lee fell for 3 bowled by Roche. Timothy Bunn joined Brooker and Brooker fell caught and bowled by Brown for 2. Bunn remained not out 4 (with a special mention for ably fending off and scoring a boundary off the rather quick Roche; I think Tim may have had some support from the lap of the square leg umpire!)
The Mogs, with real thanks to the skipper, ended a very interesting and exciting innings at 178 all out off 36 overs.
The half time entertainment, accompanied by sandwiches and a lovely moist sponge cake, was as for mentioned earlier the inaugural Mogs Club 50 draw (more details of which can be seen on the Club News link on the homepage). Thanks again to Frank Jackson for the professionally delivered draw that Camelot themselves would have been proud (the machine used for the draw was Guinevere, chosen by Jacob from Norwich).
As the excitement of the 50 draw subsided the Mogs took to the field, excited at the prospect of bowling on the wicket that was not too different from the moist sponge cake sampled minutes earlier with tea.
No surprise then as the skipper came bounding onto the field and asked aloud who would like to bowl, that Dairy Lee thrust his arm into the air quicker than winds across the Gulf of Mexico.
Newcomer Ali Brew, not only adding to the plethora of spectators by bringing along the Brew family, also stepped up and said he could keep wicket...trememdous. Ali did keep wicket and performed the task supremely well on a touch surface..safe to say he wore a few on the chest, chin, shin and arm...great job Brewer.
So the field was set and Dairy Bruce Lee opened from the Massive Oak Tree end. Dairy started well, bowling some restrictive full pitch deliveries and one genuine (he was as surprised as many others) short pitch chin tickler. The batsmen, Homewood and Halfacre (a 1980's US detective pair from the mid-west) didn't seem as impressed. In fact, in Dairy's second over, Homewood recognised a full wide delivery and decided to take the opportunity to make his mark by slashing it to the cover boundary. The pitch came to Dairy's favour and exacted the required amount of sideways movement, to send the ball scorching through the office on a 10 feet diagonal rise...Now, skipper Alex had been out of the action for at least 40 minutes, and frankly appeared to be getting upset and unloved. Seeing his opportunity to regain the warm comfort and respect of the Mogs, he launched himself into the air attempting the catch. Seemingly propelled by a springboard, Alex reached for the skies, arm arched a foot behind his head...there was a noticeable pause and silence from all fielders and the batsmen (the scorer had already marked a boundary in the scorebook), before the spectators were awoken and deafened by 10 Mogs laughing and whooping with glee...the most amazing catch and certainly one to remember - Alex Hewitt was back in the game.
Homewood slowly retired to the club house, with an element of confusion, struggling to process what just happened.
Jamie Freeland was bowling from the other end and both Bimbo and Dairy bowled a solid opening spell of 14 overs: Dairy finishing with 2 for 26 off 7; and Freeland with very respectable figures of 1 for 18 off 7. Like the early Mogs batting, East Horsley had struggled to score quickly and found themselves tied down at 40 odd for 3. If it wasn't for the superb grab at second slip from Alex, the caught and bowled from Jamie to snare the EH number 4 would have warranted this editor losing his literal control, but in light of what had gone on a few overs before...it was alright!
James Brooker took over from Dairy, but struggled to find his line and length, as the hangover from a large session in the West End the night previous, really started to kick in. Andy 'TFC' Tharp had taken over from Jamie at the Pavillion End, but could only witness delivery after delivery miss the outside edge, leap over middle stump or fall short of backward point...Eggson was utilising the services of the pitch quite excellently, for no reward.
It had almost gone unnoticed that the EH number 2 Halfacre was accumulating runs. He was battling with real aplomb and negotiating the difficulties of the wicket very nicely. Along with the elder Roche, they began to run well and suitably punish the off delivery.
With the Mogs medium pace being negotiated brilliantly by Halfacre and Roche, Skipper Hewitt turned to the secret weapon of Tim 'Chelsea' Bunn. The secret coming from the fact that on-one new what Bunny was going to bowl...not even Bunny. The first few deliveries expertly lulling the opposition into a false sense of security: Leg side wide swing bowling...Leg side wide off spin...Wicket doushra...text book stuff. Bunny picked up the valuable wicket of Roche for 24.
Drinks were taken, and the 20 over constraint was introduced.
With the slower bowling being favoured by the Mogs Skipper, and the introduction of the limited overs aspect to deal with, Alex continued to make bowling changes and brought on Cooper from the Massive Oak Tree end and himself from the Pavillion End. Dairy was fielding at deep mid-wicket and confirms the EH response to the introduction of Hewitt on to bowl: "Is there anything this guy doesn't do"...4 balls later as Hewitt ended the marvellous innings of Halfacre (LBW for 66), Dairy could also confirm the EH bench exhaustively saying "Oh, for f#6& sake"...
The departure of Halfacre proved to be the game changer; it was a very mature innings from a young cricketer, and had moved EH into the hundreds and challenging the Mogs target. However, Will 'Alice' Cooper had different ideas and wanted to clean up the EH tail with little fuss. With the loss of their top scorer, EH struggled to keep up with the required run rate, but were keen not to wilt away and continued to swing the bat in an attempt to provide a tantalising finish. In doing so however, Cooper and Hewitt were able to exploit the pitch and bowl very well to pick up the final wickets.
Coops manoeuvred his field around and bowled some threatening off spin; both aspects contributing to finishing the game with excellent figures of 3 for 9 off 5 (all bowled). However, the final word cannot go to anyone other than Alex 'Huge' Hewitt, on finishing with figures of 3 for 10 off 4 (all LBW)...scoring 88 runs and snatching the catch of the season.
East Horsley finished on 131 all out - a super 47 run victory for the Mogador Wanderers.
Although, falling victim to some amazing fielding and not receiving much luck all afternoon, the East Horsley boys were respectful in defeat, as always, and provided a super atmosphere in the bar afterwards. Hop based products were enjoyed in the beautiful surroundings by both sides and discussion of tours past and future were shared. The hundreds of friends and family had recoiled homewards, and many thanks to all that made the journey and found their way to the cul-de-sac of a ground - it is always fabulous to see so many wives, girlfriends and children of so many of the players new and old.
Next week is against South Nutfield...Alex is available.
Dairy Bruce
MWCC Stats