'Catches win matches', or so the old and rather clichéd cricketing maxim goes. A witty and irritatingly memorable statement undoubtedly embedded with an element of the truth and repeated by every single cricket coach in the country since before the birth of sliced bread. It is the single thought on the face of every cricketer faced with those unforgettable few seconds of hell as the ball travels slower than was ever thought possible towards their outstretched hands amid yells of "catch it!" And then repeatedly again and again throughout the rest of the innings after the inevitable: "Oh bollocks!" moment.
Unfortunately for the mighty Mogs who turned up at the overcast and slightly soggy South Nuffield Cricket club on the first Sunday of the Met Office's definition of Autumn; there was one thing the Cricketing elders forgot when they were plotting how best to annoy the under elevens for centuries to come. It turns out you actually need to score more runs than the opposition! Despite some outstanding hands in the field (none more so than Honeyfield's audacious one handed effort which left even the batsman unsure whether to be insulted or impressed) the Wanderers were beaten fairly and squarely by a dominant show of Batting followed by a bowling performance so efficient that the London 2012 queuing system organisers would have been proud . Credit to South Nutfield.
It was by no means all bad though: a solid debut performance from Joe Bason took the shine off what was quickly a pretty damp ball and set up skipper Alex (Huge) Hewitt for an eloquently bowled 4-45 off 8 overs with 1 maiden. Having had only half an innings and the now all-too-familiar-at -Mogs-games excellent match tea to get over his catch, Honeyfield top scored in the Mogador batting department with an unyielding 26, followed closely by Furner on 22. Other highlights from the evening session included an impressive ladder climbing effort from Fairclough, who proved he was capable of both ascending and descending a ladder whilst padded up - even amidst the inherent danger posed in the form of the "15:12 from Nutfield"!!
Before the Mogs had finished properly digesting, and in a strange twist of irony given the start of this report, MWCC were bowled all out for 101 having lost five wickets to catches. With all said and done, it was probably the keg of Harvey's that fared the worst given the early descent on the bar which inevitably followed......
The final thing to mention, before our attention returns to the excitement and anticipation of the next Mogs outing; is the unforgettably heroic dedication of John Moulton who umpired despite it being his 40th Wedding anniversary. Special thanks should therefore also go to Mrs Moulton for allowing him to do so. On behalf of the whole team, we hope you both had a very pleasant evening!
In summary, an inconvenient reminder that all that cricketing wisdom drilled into us from an early age and subsequently lost (presumably at some point replaced by more important things like how to down a pint and what to say on a first date) is in fact true. To me, unmistakable proof that catches really can (and do) win matches!
Over and out,
Matt B
Outstanding report Matt - Alex
MWCC Stats