Apologies for the delay guys. Has been busy but i know not an excuse
A Sunny afternoon greeted a game of cricket which will be forever known as the Andy Tharp testimonial. The dangers of diversifying your cricket community with our new found friends from the Bhat and Bukhari families now means that all activity must stop now not only when Jason Roy makes his england debut but also when India play Pakistan. A squad shortage meant Mogs took to the ground with 10. Having enjoyed comfortable victories here in the past it was assumed we would still offer a challenge to our sunday opposition. How wrong we were...
Mogs batted first on a scorchio day getting off to a solid start with Tina Turner belting the ball to the boundary with several trademark blows through the covers. Wickets however continued to fall at a steady pace throughout. Several mogs batsmen coming and going struggling to deal with the accurate Tadworth medium pacers. A number of wickets later with Mogs at 65 odd for 8 that we can allow one of our batsmen to go in again. A number of players stepped up to offer only to discover that their kit had been stashed away from plain sight, or hidden up the local tree or set on fire. Whilst the Mogs desperately raided the changing rooms looking for clues or attempted to douse the flames captain Andy Tharp steps to the plate fully kitted up as if he had been waiting for this moment all game and just said something that was inaudible to most but it has been reported to be something like: "sit down lads, daddy's driving". The captain may dispute this account but history is written by those with the pen. It was a gutsy call and one that proved to be bang on as some of the lustiest blows seen until Tadworth batted were dealt and Andy "battwice" Tharp raised his bat proudly with every boundary pointing to the fielders as to where they can find the ball and finding the biggest fielder in the side and telling him to "go fetch it". It was brazen, and quite spectacular from our illustrious leader. Mercy is for the french saying thank you but not for the MWCC
Carving our way to 160 followed an early contender for tea of the season. Subscribe to the exclusive tea report through the WhatsApp group for more. The bowling got off to a fine start with Messers D Tharp and Mankelow bowling with control and pace (as in speed of getting through the over). Tadworth get to 30 odd for 3 and we start to get a bit of hope. A beautiful line taking the ball away from the openers bought some classic dismissals and we thought about winning the game. However the Tadworth middle order had other ideas. In particular number 7 who was in a hurry to get off the field smashing Cooper to somewhere close to the Grumpy Mole half a mile down the road first ball. Didnt get much better after that for the Mogs as his bat was raised after about 20 balls and we hit the bar better than we hit the ball with Tadworth 160-5.
In all seriousness a big thanks to Tadworth for making a game of it and letting us back in. Of course our man Tharp was nothing other than gracious when the offer was made and took persuading to go back out himself. In truth it wasnt our best day but does restore the balance of competition a bit from one of our oldest fixtures. This can only be a postive sign going forward.
Onwards...
Will Cooper
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