The originally scheduled trip down to Surrey to play
Follies Farm was cancelled due to our hosts’ inability to raise a side.
Luckily, our esteemed fixtures team were on hand to trawl the depths of cricket
tinder. After a sufficient number of right swipes, a rendezvous was eventually
organised in Thames Ditton to face the Wandsworth Cowboys.
The pitch was overlooked by a lovely sports centre complete
with bar & restaurant. Thanks to some late arrivals from both teams, the
opportunity was presented to those who arrived on time to sample a local
beverage whilst consulting various weather apps. Freddie Broster-Turley was
noticeably absent from this endeavour, though his state of affairs suggested it
hadn’t been long since he finished sampling last night’s beverages.
A lost toss led to the Strollers bowling first in blustery,
damp conditions on a good-looking pitch. Freddie bravely took the new ball
going both down the hill and with the wind, with James Dela Rue doing the
Lord’s work running up into both.
Outside of Freddie’s first two balls which may have just
touched the next pitch over, seven tight wicketless overs followed with both
bowlers getting some assistance and beating the bat consistently. DLR finally
got a breakthrough in the eighth, with the Cowboys opener finally skying one.
First drop, K. Barlow, immediately set to work addressing
the slow run-rate and picked off a number of boundaries from both bowlers as
the next four overs went for 30. He took on one shot too many however, and
Michael Pittams, despite some harbour bridge impressions earlier in the
innings, rushed in from long-off to take a fine catch diving forward.
Two balls later Dela Rue had his third wicket as he cleaned
bowled the new batsman to finish with figures of 3-27, ably assisted by yet
another wicketless spell for Broster-Turley.
A quick blast downwind from Jonny Waugh bought a fourth
wicket, whilst Peter Wood kept a tight line as part of a double change. 60-4 at
drinks soon became 90-7 as the off-spin twins of Steve Rogers and Alastair Macaulay
extracted some prodigious turn.
Through all this, A. Nash, the No 5 Cowboys bat, had been
accumulating well whilst despatching any loose balls to the short boundaries on
his way to the top score of 41. Rowan Smith, playing his second ‘farewell’ game
in a row, fittingly wrapped up the tail, taking 3-8 in two overs to leave the
Strollers chasing 118 for the win.
Rob Wall and Wood, batting five and six respectively,
confidently set up on the upstairs balcony and ordered a hot meal from the
restaurant (and accompanying cold beverage) predicting their services would not
be required. They were regaled with a number of entertaining stories from Chris
Villiers, the Cowboys founder 38 years ago, concerning their thespian roots.
The playing 11 however, was conspicuously absent of actors, not dissimilar to
the Strollers and journalists!
Out in the middle, after a sedate first over of three runs,
Smith and Waugh looked on with envy at the antics up on the balcony and decided
they wanted to join as soon as possible. 70 runs came off the next six overs,
including a particularly towering six from Waugh over backward square leg. He
departed for 24, of which 22 were delivered in boundaries.
Smith was joined by Pittams who had clearly read the same
memo and promptly crunched a few boundaries, before departing himself for 18.
Wall glanced up from his beer at this point and considered whether he should
get some whites on, let alone pad up given we only needed 10 runs to win. Next
over Smith bought up his 50 and then promptly skied one, leaving Wall to rush
out with about half his protective gear on and finish things off with Glen Oliver.
The next over, the 13th, saw the winning runs hit. An
almost perfect send-off for Smith as he heads back to New Zealand, with his
only black mark being a dropped catch of this match reporter’s bowling…
Capt: Glen Oliver. Wkt: Rob Wall.
Match fees: Alastair Macaulay. Match report: Peter Wood.
