The Mogs, fresh from the Norman Conquest, met at the Seven Stars staging point for a couple of tactical sharpeners before taking on Leigh. Colonel "Not the Tinkerman" Cuzza had announced an unchanged team from last week's victory but unfortunately the Captain, stricken low by intestinal issues, was unable to attend and was replaced by the Chairman, with Matt Lewis deputising as Captain.
The Mogs batted first with The Little Master and Jamie Freeland opening. It was soon fairly apparent that the Leigh wicket was not going to offer a great deal to the batsmen, with the ball keeping low and bouncing erratically and the square seemingly covered in treacle as not a single boundary was scored for 12 overs.
Yoda soon departed for 3, LBW to one that kept low and the next six Mogs batsmen were dismissed, in fairly regular procession having scored only 13 runs between them. Only Jamie Freeland remained, as a colossus, at one end, scoring a reliable 2 runs an over. At 37-7 the Mogs were in a dire position, one that the club had not been in since the reign of Alfred The Great. Your correspondent and other lowly ranked batsmen were in the pavilion desperately scrabbling in their cricket bags for cobweb covered bats and pads as they prepared to rush out and try to stem the flood of falling wickets. A Captain's innings was required and was duly delivered by Matt Lewis who put on 74 with Freeland for the 8th wicket, scoring a quick fire 36 which brought the Mogs back into the game. After his dismissal the Mogs resistance soon ended and with Jamie LBW for an excellent 63 the Mogs subsided to 126 all out.
After an excellent tea enjoyed in the clement May sunshine the Mogs took the field to defend their lowest batting score for a number of seasons. Lewis minor "the offbreak" and Abbott opened the bowling and it was soon apparent that the home side were finding the wicket no more encouraging than the visitors as they subsided to 52-5 with the openers and James Honeyfield picking up the wickets between them. The Mogs bowled a tight line, moving the ball in and across the line to the right hander to such an extent that leg byes were the second top scorer for the home side with 14 runs. There was one over when the batsmen sized Freeland's bowling and scored 13 runs at which stage the Directors of Mattel and Toys 'r Us, worried that the play things were about to come out of the pram but, showing enormous restraint, the Mogs' premier paceman retired quietly to fine leg. Other than this, though, the bowlers were in the ascendant. Nonetheless, there was considerable tension in the field as the game was finely balanced with only 35 runs or so to win and 5 wickets in hand, but an unfriendly wicket in favour of the bowlers.
Freeland was replaced by Briggs The Elder, current holder of the Yobador mantle, who produced an astonishing display of unplayable daisy cutting inswingers which yielded 4-1 and tore the heart out of Leigh's lower order. Ably assisted by Matt Lewis who took 1-10 off 4 overs, the Mogs emerged the unlikely victors after 35 overs with the home side dismissed for 107. The Mogs, displaying almost Arsenal like statistics of played 4, won 4 retired to the bar with their hosts to enjoy hop based products and steel themselves for the Tadworth game.
MWCC Stats