MCC back to winning ways (a bit too comprehensively!)

Match Report 10^th June: Maladroits v Wandering Brothers – 

Sheen Park

Garry Barry Gaisford reports

Maladroits won (by a lot of runs)

On an overcast day, with rain threatening (the only thing threatening in the entire match), it was decided that overs would be reduced to 25 to allow everyone the chance to bat. With the opposition failing to produce 11 men, Boozer immediately offered them Dharmesh, making it 10 apiece. Despite some interesting chat about rather inappropriate tattoos, and current immigration requirements the team was in good spirits.

After deciding to bat first it was imperative to get off to a quick start, a notion that hadn’t quite registered with Glen who started off the batting in true night-watchman style. Luckily Ryan at the other end had rather different intentions, refusing the option of singles and striking the ball cleanly rapidly knocking up 50 runs. After Ryan’s departure, Glen came into his own, relishing the opportunity with James to destroy the bowling attack and both knock up half centuries, with Glen being top scorer with 67 (or something close). The temptation to finally slog out brought the end to Glen’s fine innings, and with only 6 overs remaining, Bobby like any good supporting batsman took to the field to enable James to keep scoring. With only one over remaining, the batting prowess that once graced the Uppingham fields was finally seen with 2 lovely edges going straight to the boundaries. At the end of 25 overs the excellent batting display from the 3 (sorry four batsman) had posted a challenging and impressive total of 213 for 2.

Tea was a quick affair, partly due to the quality on offer (special mention must go to Paddy’s wife for the delicious cupcakes) but the fear of rain, the Maladroits took to the field (some with extras) in confident spirits. The first over by Dearman set the tone with some ferocious line and length, backed up by Charlie from the other end yielding  a wicket for Charlie with a great take from Ryan. Confidence was high at this point with the visitors only posting 9 runs after 4 overs, but then their leading scorer Wide made a cameo appearance, and had it not been for the athleticism of fielder of the day Boozer behind the stumps Wide’s total may have been more.

Boozer then showed courage by changing the bowling attack bringing on the experienced left arm bowler of Paddy and the less experienced just back from retirement Gary. The move however was inspired!! Paddy was in exceptional form, moving the ball from side to side, causing all sorts of confusion in the batting attack, posting what must be a record for the Maladroits, 4 wickets for only 2 runs. Gary was nearly as good, getting into the heads of the batsmen, and delivering some deceptively slow balls. Between them they managed to take 8 wickets for 20 runs. The opposition were falling like flies and only with the arrival of Dharmesh (former Maladroit) did they show any composure in front of the crease. Strange then by doing them a favour they started him at no. 10?

Finally they were all out for 42 runs, fittingly the final wicket taken by Paddy, and a much needed win for the Maladroits. Rain held off, finished at 4pm sharp, a quick pint in the pub and still able to watch the footie. As Bobby said “you can only play what’s put in front of you.” 171 run victory. Job well done.

MOM – Paddy Drought

FOD – Boozer

DOD – Dharmesh (everybody else won)

Centurion brings down the Maladroits

MCC v Allsorts

May 27^th  2012

Allsorts won  by 7 wickets

This is the first time the Maladroits had played the Allsorts and so there was no prior knowledge of what were up against- with that in mind Boozer encouraged to bat first by his team. What followed was a procession of early Maladroit wickets with Ryan, Dharmesh , Leesy and others all going relatively cheaply.  When JC came and went in the middle order MCC were left reeling at 98 for 5. However, Boozer with 47*, Ryder with 15 and Matty with a quickfire 20 odd brought the total up to 210 off the 35 overs- whilst well below par it gave us something to bowl at.

After a half time tea the Maladroit bowlers took to the field and some fantastic bowling from Matty had the Allsorts openers in real trouble. Despite looking out of sorts and too many 4 balls were offered to prevent us tieing down the batsmen. JC offering an over of multiple wides down both the off and the leg side summed up a patchy bowling performance.

Allthough MCC battled hard the opening batsmen (hailing from Uppingham- we hadn’t realized that school produced batsmen) sailed on to his 100 with some ferocious hitting.. Maladroits, despite a very committed effort in the field looked a little rusty and will look forward to taking on the Allsorts and seeking revenge in 2013.

200 runs and 10 wickets in 79.4 overs- ends in Thriller!

Oxted vs Maladroits

• Bobby Gorgeous Lees reports
• May 20th 2012
• Master Park, Oxted

The Maladroits were looking forward to getting their first completed game under their belts after being rained off the week before against their landlords at Sheen Park. The Maladroits were up against a young Oxted side in what proved to be an even contest, but unfortunately the Maladroits came up short after Oxted chased down the low total, albeit with 9 wickets down.  The Maladroits chose to bat first on what appeared to be a seam friendly surface, and this proved to be the case as the opening bowler sent Nails back to the hutch in the opening over without troubling the scorers.

Lees and Retter tried to repair the damage, but an excellent opening spell from the Oxted opening bowlers made this tricky.  Retter especially enjoyed more than his fair share of luck and scoring proved troublesome.  Lees was the next to go bowled in similar fashion to Nails by the tall opening bowler.  The Maladroits were rocking further in the same over as JC came and went for a duck.  The Maladroit innings did not look healthy at this stage with the visitors reduced to 34-3.  Matters got worse when the opening bowler picked up his fourth wicket in his next over as Retter departed for a hard earned 22.

The introduction of spin did nothing to arrest the Maladroit slide as both Martin and Drought also departed for low scores and at 49-6 the Maladroit innings was in danger of imploding. Lowis and Brewer began to rebuild the innings, with Glen in particular paying some lovely shots and finally the scoreboard began to tick over at something slightly healthier than a snail’s pace.   Together Glen and Boozer put on 41 for the 7^th wicket to give the score a semblance of respectability.  Boozer was out LBW for 12, but a solid 11 not out from Matty enabled Glen to push the score on until he was eventually caught for an impressive 34.  Both Gumbo and Brendan hung around at the end to give Matty support.

The Maladroits were all out for 105, a score that looked 20 runs light on that pitch.  With tea nothing to write home about, the Maladroits took the field for the Oxted innings hungry for some early success to make a game out of it.  Glen and JC shared the new ball, but it wasn’t until Matty replaced JC that the Maladroits started to make inroads in the Oxted batting line up.  Both bowled well with Matty especially bowling a testing spell that the nippers from Oxted struggled with.

Glen picked up two wickets with Matty claiming the Man of the match award with 4-17 off his allotted 8 overs.  Couple this with some calamitous running between the wickets from the youngsters meant that the game hung in the balance.  Excellent fielding from Brendan and Martin  in particular produced two run outs.  Boozer shuffled his bowlers with Retter looking impressive.  A further wicket was claimed by Lees towards the end, but Oxted snuck home by 1 wicket in an enjoyable game.  The Maladroits simply did not score enough runs batting first to win the game, but the team can take heart  from their excellent fielding performance which almost saw them sneak an improbable victory.

2012 SEASON

With a slightly reduced fixture list the MCC kicked off the season with a fixture against East Sheen which was rained off at half time. With MCC well placed it was a good warm up for the coming fixtures