The Mogador Wanderers lost an excellent match, played under grey skies and almost permanent drizzle, though the action on the pitch more than made up for the rather gloomy surroundings. A strong Mog side won the toss and elected to bat with Ash & debutant, Henry Tye, getting us off to a brisk start before Henry picked out Mid Off. That brought Peter Riddy to the crease, a cricketer as well dressed off the pitch as he is well organised on it. With Ash purring through the gears, Pete was not to be outdone with his cover driving a real highlight in a swashbuckling 38. Furns came in at 4 and whether it was this rather lowly batting position or the toothache that had been mentioned that brought out a truly rare cricketing collectors item, Peter running himself out for 2 with a suicidal "push & go" to cover. Ash rightly stayed put at the non-strikers end. At lunch the Mogs were 132-3 with Ash & Jamie the not out batsmen.
Lunch was quite delicious. Overseen by the wife of home captain David, there was a sensational spread lovingly prepared and even talked through to the waiting gaggle of cricketers, match officials (2 umpires & 2 scorers) and spectators. Huge portions of poached salmon, home roasted turkey and a whole gammon were accompanied by a hot sausage stuffing, potato salad, mixed salad, French bread & 4 different cheeses including an excellent "blue" which melted pleasingly onto the china. Not to be outdone, pudding stuck its hand up with home-made blackberry & apple crumble, apple tart & jelly. A finer lunch could not have been prepared.
Jamie Freeland was not able to use the memories of past highlights at the ground as he was LBW for 10 shortly after the game re-commenced and Ash also went for an excellent 67, but Hewitt, playing his last game of the season, scored a violent 73 with four 6's and nine 4s before holing out to deep midwicket. Coops, Browny & Joseph all scored good lower order runs, Parker secured his 103rd red ink, as did debutant Douglas Brand (11 years old) who scored 6* including one excellent boundary. After 46 overs the Mogs had scored 274-9 and despite the drizzle we thought we had enough on the board.
Joseph & Browny opened our attack but the ball started whistling to the boundary under a torrent of blows from local favourites, Hooper & Walker, who put on 76 for the 1st wicket in just 10 overs. Tye & Cooper removed 1 each in the 2 overs before tea with the momentum shifting our way. Tea was another classic affair with particular praise to the "freshness of the sandwiches" and the really strong cup of tea that was served, which had obviously been lovingly brewed for a good 5-10 minutes before the players left the pitch. Ash & Coops picked up 3 more wickets in the 2 overs that followed and at 87-5 our hosts were in some danger. Douglas bowled a good 3 over spell, as did Pete Riddy but these overs added 50 quick runs to the scoreboard and as Jack Bellars smashed everything short, full or wide extremely hard. At 130-5, the game took another twist as the Umpires said that they thought it would be totally dark if we took 20 overs at 6pm as agreed and so we started the final 20 at 5.30 with 20 runs taken off the "runs required" total. This is possibly the first time that an East-Surrey variant of Duckworth Lewis being used in a Mogs match. Hewitt got rid of their Number 7, Coops came back on and got rid of their Number 8 but Jack was joined by big hitting Louis and soon South Nutfield were ahead of the run rate. Browny & Joseph returned for the final 6 overs and thrillingly Rob, removed Nutfield's no 3, Jack, for an excellent 73 and our hosts needed 16 from the final 4 overs with 2 wickets left. Sadly we dropped Louis with 13 runs still required, though that is no criticism of substitute fielder Clive (we thank you), given that the drizzle & outfield had reduced the ball to a dark red sud of soap. Victory was secured in the penultimate over and we agreed over ale, that it had been a great match, played in splendid spirits with cricket the winner.
Hewitt
MWCC Stats