Match Report
ENJOYABLE FIXTURE SEES US BACK TO WINNING WAYS
After our defeat by Fleet Street Strollers the previous week,we bounced back in a very enjoyable game against Mogador Wanderers, always a nice fixture! We went into the game with four players of 18 or under, whilst the Wanderers fielded two father& son combinations, and one father & daughter pairing!
The visitors won the toss and elected to bat on a dry sunny afternoon. Veteran Surrey over 70’s opener, Peter Furner opened with Richard Turner, against our youthful teenage attack of Ben Westen & Alec Browne, one of the great things about Sunday cricket when different generations face up! Mogador made steady if unspectacular progress but Ben eventually made the breakthrough bowling Richard Turner for 27 to make it 41-1. Alec gave way at the pavilion end to Rhys and the writer replaced Ben at the mansion end but the incoming no.3, left hander Stuart Jackson quickly raised the tempo, showcasing his trademark aerial shot off (mostly)straight balls between mid on & mid wicket several times to make a rapid 29. It ended only after skipper John Willson replaced Rhys, when young Alec took a good catch at cover point- I think it was probably this batsman’s first & last shot on the offside, which reduced the visitors to 101-2. Teenager Tom Jackson replaced his father and talk about ‘a chip off the old block’, another tall, left hander with a penchant for the lofted shot over mid on, and he continued to push the score along. Peter Furner had steadily progressed to 41 with several of his own trademark late cuts, before he played a slightly rash sweep against John and was bowled, to make it 126-3, and that soon became 131-4, when John trapped Ben Fairclough for 4. Tom Jackson was joined by Jack Turner and the two teenagers pushed on to 198 off 35 overs, before, to our slight surprise, the visitors declared at 3.10pm, about 35 mins before the anticipated break, with the young batters on 41* & 23* respectively!
Bowling figs: Ben W. 7-1-28-1, Alec Browne 7-1-42-0, Rhys Maturin 3-0-18-0, Ian C. 6-0-31-0, John W. 8-1-41-3, Nick W. 4-0-22-0.
It of course meant we had a long time to get the runs, and gave the visitors plenty of time to bowl us out, whilst effectively ruling out any prospect of a draw.
We opened our innings with Jody & Liam Browne, Alec’s younger brother who at 16 was the youngest Concorde opener I can remember! He looked very composed keeping one end up whilst Jody, who often arrives by train, looked as if he had one to catch , racing to a quick-fire 38 with 8 x4’s, but Liam was then bowled for 5, and Jody suffered the same fate soon afterwards and we were suddenly 53-2. Nick Wright & Nick Freeman started to repair the damage with Nick W. hitting 10 x4’s in reaching an impressive 46 and the score had reached 111-2. There was then a bowling change that appeared to have turned the game on its head! Visiting skipper Will Cooper brought himself on at the mansion end bowling off spin and in the space of four balls took 3-0. First Nick W. looking for the boundary to bring up his fifty, chased a slightly wide one, tossed up and sliced a thick outside edge to extra cover where 13 year old Georgina Fairclough, took a good catch. Next ball Alec Browne shouldered arms and was bowled, and two balls later Rhys was bowled through ‘the gate’ and we were ‘rocking’ at 111-5. We desperately needed to stop the rot and Richard Ingham then joined Nick F. Richard has only played occasionally for us over the last couple of years due to family commitments, and has yet to register a big score but we can all see he can bat, and this partnership ‘stopped the rot’ whilst 25 runs were added. In true Concorde tradition though, just as we thought we had ‘weathered the storm’, Richard played his first false shot to give Will Cooper a return catch, then 8 runs later Nick F. was bowled for 32 including 6 x4’s, to give Will Cooper five wickets and reduce us to 144-7. Fortunately, our nos.8 & 9, were Matt Stockbridge & skipper John W. batting down the order this week. Despite having Ben W. & myself in reserve at nos.10 & 11, these two decided to get the job done, and carefully & methodically got us up to the target, taking no undue risks, but despatching anything short, over pitched, or wide in a 48 run unbroken partnership. John hit the winning runs to take us to victory with him finishing 29* and Matt 19*.
A very enjoyable game and a satisfying win, albeit helped by a slightly generous declaration from the opposition who could easily have added another 30-40 runs had they batted on.
ConcordeMogador Wanderers 