Concorde v Mogador Wanderers

Match Report

FREEMAN & REDFERN STAR IN CREDITABLE HIGH SCORING DRAW.

When Fighting Stars CC cancelled us three days before the game, we were pleased when Edgar sourced a game against the Mogador Wanderers, although initially we feared they were probably a team of Somali pirates or something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’.

As it turned out, nothing could be further from the truth as they were an Anglo-Saxon team from the Reigate area, a mixture of experienced players together with 3-4 promising U-17 and U-15’s colts. It turned out to be an excellent game played in a very good spirit on and off the field.

In the absence of injured skipper John W. and vc Matt Stockbridge, Jerry W. led the team and wisely elected to field on winning the toss. We went into the game with only four specialist batsman and rather light on bowling with the writer having to take the new ball for the first time in many years, to support Justin Rowland. ‘The Mogs’ opened up with their skipper Will Cooper and diminutive Surrey over-70’s batsman Peter Furner. Justin bowled with some decent pace although both batsman profited from a number of boundaries through the gully & slip area with the lightning fast outfield, whilst initially I managed to keep things tight from the mansion end although without beating the bat more than a couple of times. Justin gave way to Kevin Cobb at the pavilion end with debutant Ed Galvin, Bruce Gomme’s stepson, taking over from the writer, but the score had reached 103 before Kevin made the breakthrough when Peter Furner deflected a shorter ball on his hip down into his leg stump to depart for 48. He was replaced by tall powerful looking Ben Fairclough who smashed his second ball through the covers for four and looked very dangerous but next over, Jerry who had replaced young Ed at the mansion end, bowled him second ball, aiming a slightly reckless sweep at a straight ball which took his leg stump to reduce the visitors to 110-2. Enter young Olli Friend, a very promising colt batsman and together with skipper Will Cooper, a telling partnership developed with our next success not arriving until the score had reached 187 when the visiting skipper played one expansive drive too many against Kevin and Justin Red.took a routine catch behind. Young Ollie went on to a good unbeaten fifty with Jonathan Burton smashing a quick 31 n.o. before Mogadishu declared at 3.45pm with the score at 246-3, off just 38 overs, with all the bowlers ending up conceding at least 5-6 an over, with Kevin C. 2-57 off eight overs, Jerry 1-26 off five, Justin Row. 0-74 off 12, Ed G. 0-35 off three, and myself 0-41 off eight.

A very daunting total to chase with a thin batting line up but in Edgar’s absence, Jerry decided to open with Justin Red. and take on the role of sheet anchor. This was a ‘blast from the past’ as two of our longest serving players really got their heads down against a very decent and varied visiting attack, including a very good young leg spinner. Jerry was the more watchful, whilst Justin produced several memorable shots including a couple of cracking square cuts amongst 9 boundaries before he was caught at backward point for a very good 41. At 67-1, Nick Freeman joined Jerry and they took the score on to 106, before Jerry succumbed to one of Peter Furner’s ‘pies’, bowled when aiming a drive at a high looping off spinner for a patient and very important 21. Justin Row. came in at no.4 after scoring 20 odd on his debut a couple of weeks ago but tragedy struck as he was inexplicably run out second ball for 0 going for a quick single to wide mid-on and at 106-3, with the tail starting at no.6, we were potentially in trouble. The last recognised batsman Rob S. joined Nick and they forged what turned out to be the match saving partnership of 70 with Rob sound in defence whilst hitting the odd trademark boundary down the ground, whilst Nick decided to go on the attack and his final 65 n.o. included 15 fours with 4 in one over, with his fifty coming up in just 43 balls. Rob was out in the penultimate over for 15 with 3 fours, Young Luke Garlick looked good for two balls before being bowled by his third for 0, and Kevin Cobb managed 1 n.o.

In the spirit of fairness it has to be noted that the captain’s ‘messed’ up at the start and said 20 overs from 5.30pm instead of 6pm so we might have had a tighter finish had the opposition had another 30 mins bowling at our tail but never mind, we’’ll take the draw. An enjoyable match against a team we would like to play again, but hopefully with a stronger home line up next time!

We enjoyed all the post match mingling, discussion and banter with the opposition that we crave and would welcome them back next year, Edgar please take note!