Concorde v Woking and Horsell

Match Report

DRAMATIC MIDDLE ORDER COLLAPSE THWARTS VICTORY BID!

Last Sunday produced a very enjoyable ‘local derby’ against our near neighbours Woking & Horsell. The opposition sent a very fit young team of mostly under 20’s with just 2-3 older players, selected from their ‘umpteen’ league teams whilst we had our usual wide spread of age and ability, although we were weakened by the absence of both Ashley due to Covid & Jerry nursing a knee injury, which gave us a somewhat long tail! In the absence of both the captain & vice capt, I stepped in as skipper for the day and after the toss, W&H elected to bat.

The new ball was shared by Ben Westen & Phil Hall, a good combination of youth and experience and we didn’t have to wait long for a breakthrough when the visiting opener belted a low full toss from Ben to straight mid on where Phil took a smart catch above his right shoulder to make it 10-1, and it soon became 18-2 as Ben produced a beauty to bowl the no.3 through the gate and our hopes were rising. W&H then consolidated for a while against accurate bowling, particularly from Phil who bowled a beautiful 8 over spell, varying his length and pace and always asking questions of the batsmen! The score had reached just over 50 when Phil suddenly took two quick wickets, both bowled, one with a well disguised slower ball and at 55-4 we were suddenly on top. John Wilson had replaced Ben after 6 overs at the mansion end and bowled an impressive and very miserly spell, with a nagging length, never too short or too full but he had no luck at all. Edgar then replaced Phil from the pavilion end and almost immediately a chance went begging when a thin snick bounced off Justin’s glove but neither he or first slip John, were able to hang on to the rebound but soon afterwards he did make the breakthrough when Peter Fodor, a last minute call up for Jerry, took a smart catch at square leg off visiting skipper Alex McPherson and it was 99-5. Edgar & John were replaced by James Briley and the writer respectively and both enjoyed success with a wicket each, both clean bowled, with the scores at 114-6, then 123-7. For young James, it was a lovely moment, dismissing their top scorer for 39, and ‘boy was he happy about it’! W&H had their own young star in 13 year old Alfie Michaels who looked a very organised young cricketer and along with the tail he helped the visitors add an extra 30 runs before Peter Fodor chipped in at the end with his ‘Golden arm’ taking 2-11 in 4 overs including the wicket of our old friend Johnny Ayling ct. & bowled. Has there been a better Hungarian performance on British soil, excluding of course the great football team with Puskas that beat England 6-3 at Wembley in 1953, and the very recent 4-0 defeat at Wembley by the modern day Magyars? W&H declared at tea on 157-9.

Our bowling was spread between 8 bowlers and was generally very tidy with Ben W. 6-1-32-2, Phil H. 8-0-24-2, John W. 8-3-14-0, Edgar F. 6-0-27-1, Ian C. 7-1-12-1, James B. 5-0-19-1, Peter F. 4-0-11-2, & Jordy D. 2-0-11-0. All the bowling was very steady but with Phil & John probably the pick. Our fielding was not so hot with at least 5-6 catches going down, and even our best player, Jordy Dyer spilled a couple he would normally have taken just to let us know he is human after all! Nonetheless we were fairly content with the task facing us at tea.

We started our reply with the ‘dream team’ of Jordy & Edgar and Jordy began in imperious fashion spanking three scorching boundaries before to everybody’s surprise he then hit a low full toss straight to mid off. 13-1. Justin joined Edgar and they successfully ‘blunted’ the visiting attack, circumspect in defence but punishing the loose ball. Edgar as always ‘killed’ anything short through mid wicket, whilst Justin hit a huge straight six down the ground and a memorable rasping square cut which ‘rocketed’ to the score-box boundary.
20 over drinks were taken at 75-1, with us needing 82 more at just above 4 an over. Unfortunately the break marked the turning point in the contest as in the resuming over, Justin played on for 40, getting an inside edge aiming an expansive drive. Nick joined Edgar and had obviously been watching Johnny Bairstow as he hit a rapid 10 but then went for the ‘big one’ first ball he faced against the 13 year old left arm spinner and picked out the fielder at ‘cow corner’. 97-3 but with Edgar still there, seemingly well set, and with both Phil & John to come, we were still favourites! Then disaster struck- at 111 we lost 4 wickets for no runs in less than 10 mins as visiting skipper Alex McPherson bowling off breaks at a fairly zippy pace bowled Phil for 1, John for 0 and then Nigel for 0, whilst between John & Nigel’s departures, Edgar, having looked in absolutely no trouble, pulled a short ball from the young left armer straight to backward square leg. Suddenly we needed 46 from 8.3 overs, so when little James joined me in the middle I decided the Alastair Cook rather than Ben Stokes style of captaincy was required. James didn’t bother with a guard, drove one back past the bowler for 2 as the fielders all crowded around him, then edged one down the hill for four to complete his day, before becoming the fourth victim clean bowled by Alex McPherson. With Ben nursing an injured toe, I was then joined by Peter Fodor playing what I think was his first innings in club cricket! Peter played with what looked like bat & pad ‘glued’ together with an impregnable forward defensive shot and ended 0* so preventing Alex Mac from getting his ‘fifer. Meanwhile, I managed to not get out to the young spinner and even allowed myself the luxury of 6 runs in the final over including a streaky boundary off the returning opening bowler but we finished well short of our target on 128-8.

A very enjoyable game against very friendly & sociable opposition, but in all honesty from 97-2, we really should have walked it!