What a day!

Firstly all the thanks and in no particular order (apologies as I’m sure I will have missed some people out) what a fantastic match programme, which Steve Keenan only collected from the printers at 11 pm the previous evening. Steve spent many, many hours on producing it so thanks to him, all those who contributed articles, John Smith for selling them throughout the day and I believe Chairman Mick sold around 30 to the corporate hospitality boxes in the afternoon. The adverts in the programme paid for all the production costs so all sales went towards the good causes. John Quinn also helped with the advertising and in a really nice touch to the day arranged for the champagne to be in the changing rooms at the end of the match. The new shirts were another great success and ensured we all looked the part so thank to John Griffiths for arranging them and haggling over the price to make them affordable.

Andy Burman from the Gents of West London was only staying for a while but ended up scoring the whole game and was joined by a couple of representatives from West XI, Steve Bignell (our 167th player) and John Quinn’s mate Dave Bender. A big thank-you to all LSSC members, friends and family. Many of whom travelled miles, and helped make the day, with the number of spectators, including our corporate friends, almost matching the crowd at the Moratua Stadium in Sri Lanka. London Saints and Test Match Grounds sit very happily together with the only criticism of Lords being the lack of a pineapple seller. There should be a good pictorial account of the day which we’ll be able to show in a slideshow or picture gallery on the website so thanks to those including Jim Keary who took loads of photos and hopefully make them available. Trevor Mayhew who thankfully managed to make most of the day arranged the fine café and curry venues although I have to take the word of others for the latter. Finally, and after all the cricket was out of the way, the auction and raffle of numerous donated items went better than anyone expected with over £ 1,200 being raised. Thanks to BC for the caricatures which raised a huge amount of money but main thanks to Pete Berkeley for conducting the auction (as well as the publicity for the event over recent weeks) and Chairman Mick for the organization etc.

Oh yes and there was the small matter of a cricket match which took place in the afternoon and which started only three minutes past our appointed start time of 12 o’clock and ended towards six thirty. Again you could not have written this script. In a match where 29 wickets fell (6 players retired having scored 25), and 463 runs scored, the scores between the two teams were tied after the 479th ball, with one run required off the final and 480th ball of this absorbing contest. Garry Burrell chipped the ball into the air towards mid on and the ball avoided Wath’s outstretched arm by inches for an incredible finale and victory for the England team over The Rest of the World X1V. So to the start and the agreed format of one game split into two 20 / 20 innings for each side with batting orders reversed in the 2nd innings.

Rest of the World (RoW) 1st innings: 118 for 4 (Griffiths 26 ret, Nanton 25 ret – J.Quinn 2 – 20)
With Trevor Mayhew delayed and Little John being replaced by his father ‘Where’s’, a hastily arranged discussion between the two Skippers in the café saw a late change to the teams with Ian ‘Sicknote’ Shiels swapping sides and playing for England (qualifying through his Gay Skate Copper links in Brighton) with Where’s Jon going the other way courtesy of his Ghana routes. This may have been a crucial decision as Ian had an excellent match retiring not out on 25, running out two RoW players with direct hits and two fine bowling spells. It took both teams a few minutes to get to the changing rooms as photo opportunities meant we kept stopping every 10 yards but we eventually made it to the rooms with the team names already on the doors and our individualised shirts hanging up on the pegs. I think a few us took a few moments to take it all in and realise that we were actually playing at Lord’s. We didn’t have to look far for clues with pictures of the star players on the walls and John Embury coaching some Middlesex players in the indoor nets.

After more photos the vital toss was performed by the Chairman who proved himself to be a useless tosser with the coin rotating about twice and falling on heads. The Skipper of the RoW called incorrectly (I blame John Smith’s 2 pence coin – I’d expect at least a pound coin for Lord’s) and so Peter Berkeley, Captain of England (ed- that sounds so good), chose to bowl first hoping to give the Quinn’s opening bowling partnership first use of the new ball and overhead overcast conditions. They were helped by having Lord Lucan opening the batting, who, still overcome with emotion after being asked to open, duly gave the first wicket of the day to Quinn Senior for a silver duck. Bets were already being placed about how many ducks would be achieved on the day but Steve’s was one of only four out of the 29 dismissals. The bowling was tight but runs continued to flow at around 6 an over. Player of the Year John Griffiths looked solid as usual and deserved his retirement on 26 not out. Perhaps the surprise package was Gary Speedtwin, who after a slow start, played an excellent innings before being given out LBW for 18. The good bowling meant that the run rate dropped until two fine knocks – 17 by The Wath (before an Ian Shiels direct hit stopped him in his tracks) and 25 not out, and retired by the once Jonty and now Flatliner Nanton increased the rate. A couple of boundaries by Gavin ‘ Floater ‘ Van Marle took the score up to 118 off the first innings of 20 overs.