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Thursday 19 May 2011

Schoolboys humbled in historic MCC victory


Match Report – Maladroits CC vs Charterhouse Maniacs
Saturday 7th May
MCC won by 5 wickets
Edmund Buzz reports....


Following golf and a pub lunch 11 men arrived at the field of dreams fully prepared to be thrashed by a bunch of schoolboys again, as is the usual custom. Two things were different this year. Firstly, it wasn’t raining. Secondly, Maladroits welcomed back their founder Charles Bathurst Norman following a two year absence. This gave everyone a spring in their step and, when asked to bowl by Boggers, we entered the field of play quietly confident that this could be the year.

It didn’t start well though. Maniacs got off to a flying start off the bowling of Moore and Drought and were fairly rocketing along, helped by a bone dry track and a lightening outfield. Moore soon struck though and what followd was one of the best over’s ever bowled by anyone (including Marshall, Lillee, Hadlee, McGrath, Flintoff, Newman). He was unlucky to only snare one victim but did pick up a second wicket later on.

Captain Brewer brought on his second change bowler Bolland who bowled tightly from the tree end. Toovey soon came on at the dip end and, in his own words, bowled poorly as he wasn’t sure which strip to aim at. Following a quick start the rest of the innings was spent trying to claw back the run rate and some good bowling from Retter, Bowes and Carrington did a pretty good job of restricting the home team to 230. They got way more than they should have done though – one of their batsman nicked it so loudly that we didn’t even bother to appeal but was not given out and eventually went on to make a century. Other highlights included a highly amusing dropped catch by Toovey who literally didn’t get a hand to it, the ball crashing into his chest and bouncing off. “Sorry chaps, I wasn’t concentrating”.

A poor tea in what used to be Mrs Cole’s Crack was disappointing but Maladroits were confident that we could chase down 231 to win. BN and Retter opened up and unfortunately Retter didn’t last long. In fact, not even long enough to even try out his new bat! BN played some nice shots before falling to his usual late cut, bringing Brewer to the crease. He and Lees put together a lovely partnership, with Lees looking classy and playing as well as he has ever done for the Maladroits. Brewer went for a well constructed 43 and Bowes came with the run rate required at about 7 an over. Some buffet bowling was dispatched and Lees continued on his way (despite looking knackered and being covered in sweat) past 50 and beyond. The loss of Bowes to a full toss brought in JC, the urban destroyer, and before too long the run rate had dropped considerably and Maladroits were closing in on an impressive victory. Lees was eventually out for a superb 87 and JC bashed 41 in no time to win the game with an over or so to spare.

M.O.M – Lees for 87
Fielder of Day – Bathurst Norman, a commanding and energetic display at short extra
D.O.D. – Toovey – dropped a sitter and kept everyone waiting for 40 minutes at Clapham Junction!!
Tea – 43%