The Mogs made it 4 out of 4 for the season on a warm and sunny Spring afternoon at Leigh's picture perfect village ground. On inspection, the wicket was bright green and Hewitt had no hesitation in electing to bowl first with Freeland and Lewis opening up. What followed brought the skipper's decision into question as our hosts tore into our bowlers with a frenzy that had never really been seen before by any of the Mogs. Joseph's first three overs went for 54, with Honeyfield also initially suffering after replacing him. Freeland opened up down the hill and secured one breakthrough, with a low full toss obligingly steered to cover point where debutant James Toombs clung on with ease. The ball was disappearing like an out of control firework display by now, although the Mogs put down three tough chances (Hewitt, Brew & Lee the culprits). Extraordinarily, Leigh's 100 came up off 49 balls with their opener needing just 23 balls to get his 50. 23 balls! With the score on 120, Freeland bowled him with a beauty for a remarkable 94 and the Mogs met mid-pitch where Hewitt simply said "OK lads, we've got rid of him. Now we're going to bowl 'em out for under 200 and knock them off". And that's exactly what we did. With the danger man removed Honeyfield brought control but Freeland produced his best spell (4-44) for several years with 4 excellent wickets that really turned the match in our favour. Tharp replaced Jamie and ran through Leigh's middle and lower order like a hot knife through Vaseline before Joseph, fresh from some counselling by his father on the Long Off boundary, produced a jaffer to claim a well-deserved scalp. Leigh were all out for 179 in just 26 overs and, on an excellent pitch, the Mogs were confident of victory.
After a truly excellent tea, James Toombs and Charlie Lee opened the batting and put on 92 for the first wicket in a thoroughly professional 1st wicket stand. Both looked secure against the rather erratic left arm quickie who had given us so many problems in years gone by and extras streaked ahead in the runs scored chart with a series of wides and byes helping our push for victory. Their stand was not without controversy after our hosts were sure that Charlie was caught behind but Dairy's an honest boy (HonestLee)and he didn't think he hit it though it was a bit tense for a few overs. Charlie fell LBW and Graham Spring sprung, no sprang into action on the fall of the 1st wicket with a swash-buckling 40 that saw the boundary cleared several times with some massive hits. "Toombsy" passed 50 on debut and his batting became more and more fluent as the bowling tired. The only alarm in securing victory was the loss of three wickets in 5 balls, after Leigh legend Chenery bowled Spring for an excellent 40, Ali Brew for 1 and JD Burton first ball, though extenuating circumstances must be made for JD who was called to the wicket whilst disciplining his son for a minor criminal damage offense. Hewitt saw off the hat trick and dispatched two cover drives leaving him on 9 not out and Toombsy on a splendid 64 not out.
All in all it had been another thoroughly professional display and whilst it was stalwarts Freeland & Tharp that did the damage with the bat, it was great to see newcomers Spring & Toombs score the runs. Our thanks to Peter Tharp for umpiring so expertly and to the huge Mogador support that cheered us on. A more perfect Sunday afternoon is hard to imagine...
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