As Richie Benaud would have said, it was a "scorching hot day "at Reigate Pilgrims' picture perfect ground in Betchworth. Having rearranged the fixture after a gap of some seven years, the Mogs did not hesitate in reacquainting themselves with the Red Lion's excellent selection of ales and lager with the Mogs taking on much-needed liquids for what we all knew would be a hard afternoon's work.
Skipper Alex Hewitt received a huge cheer on announcing that we had won the toss and as the thermometer nudged 90, our openers strolled to the wicket. Our openers Darrell "Exxon" Abbott and Andrew "Eggy" Tharp soon started to smear the ball around the pitch, with Abbott accompanying every leg-side clip with a Larry Grayson lift of his hind-leg. The only greater surprise on seeing Andy late cut one to 2nd slip, was the sight of our openers running three a few balls before. Skipper Hewitt went in confidently at 3 and with Chairman Martin's kind "go and score a hundred" words still rolling around his ears, missed a straight one for a second-ball duck. At 48-2 Reigate Pilgrims were cocka-hoop in the field, but James Honeyfield joined Abbo at the crease and these two soon put the Pilgrims to the sword in an excellent stand of 125, the highlights of which were Jimmy's straight 6 and Abbo's legside play in general. Meanwhile the sun bore down without mercy and Honeyfield's dismissal at long off brought about a rush of wickets as the Mogs sought quick runs at the captain's bequest. Only Peter "Yoda" Furner, coming in at an alien, but sure-to-be-repeated number 6, hung around for any time for an unbeaten 31, as the Mogs wound their innings up at 229-7 from 39 overs.
An excellent tea, prepared by an unlikely trio of Linda Briggs, Jo Lewis & Alex Hewitt was enjoyed by all - particularly the banana sandwiches - until we all realised that we had to take the field. Unfortunately our opening attack of Briggsy and Joseph "Lee Bowyer" Lewis found it hard to find a consistent line and length and after just 8 overs, the Pilgrims were 51-0. Spin twins Hewitt and Lewis were brought on in tandem and the scoring rate soon slowed, though the Mogs struggled to get any wickets, with the Pilgrims reaching 93-1 with 20 overs to go. Thankfully Matthew bowled excellently in a marathon spell and the pressure of an increasing run rate soon saw the fiery maestro snare his 2nd wicket as the Pilgrims began to open their shoulders in a bid to win the game. Our work in the field was unexceptional and catches were again dropped with Hewitt the main culprit dropping two, including a sitter at long off, off Honeyfield.
The tension mounted as the Pilgrims got nearer and nearer our score. Tharpy came on but was unable to get the wicket we needed and with just 2 overs to go, the Pilgrims needed 26 with 8 wickets still in hand. Hewitt brought himself back on and jubilantly claimed the Pilgrim's opener, stumped Fairclough, but any happy thoughts were soon dismissed after seeing the last ball of his over going over his head for 6. 19 off the last over of the match with Matt to bowl it. His first ball cleared the long off boundary by 40 yards.....hmmmm. 13 off 5. Dot ball. 13 off 4. His third ball went for 4 over Mossy at Long On. 9 off three. Comical run out (Lewis M - Fairclough). 9 off 2 and with two well directed Yorkers Matt managed to ensure that the Pilgrims were 6 short of the target, despite only losing 5 wickets.
It was a tremendous game of cricket in front of a good crowd on a beautiful day. We thankfully avoided a successive defeat and many pints were taken on board in the Red Lion as the Mogs sought to re-establish their dangerously low body fluid levels. Next year we bat second...
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