London Saints v Linslade – Sunday June 16th – Old Habs CC, Borehamwood
Linslade 185 all out off 32.1 overs (Paul Pearce 4 – 23, Dave Thomas 2 – 10)
London Saints 166 for 6 off 35 overs (Harry Rogers 59; John Griffiths 22*; Mike McIntyre 21)
Result – LSCC lost by 19 runs
Let down yet again by Nascott, who pulled out of this fixture at only 3 days’ notice, Il Duce resisted asking Andy Jones to rekindle our contact with Desmond Haynes’ West Indian all-stars, and resorted to his list of dodgy websites to find an alternative match. Apparently we were offered three blind dates, all league clubs looking to boost their averages with a Sunday friendly. The skipper “swiped right” ending up with a team called Linslade from the Herts/Beds border who were largely Urdu speakers and Pakistani supporters. Would our 3 and 0 winning streak fall at the hands of a Waqar and Wasim combination?
Winning the toss for a change, Il Duce chose to insert our opponents. Exuding confidence born of our undefeated start to the season, our opening bowlers (Oneliner and Calais) produced accurate and parsimonious spells. Nevertheless, Linslade made steady progress, gradually accelerating in the middle overs of their innings to reach 140-3 with 15 overs still to go.
The skipper optimistically threw the ball to spin twins, Tiger Pearce and Son in Law #1, in the hope of putting the brakes on. It worked. An inspired spell from our very slow left armer yielded 4 wickets, including 2 LBWs. He was ably backed up by Richard with one and the skipper himself picking up two.
The Saints catching was a mixture of the sublime (Harry Rogers and Ben Collis both holding steeplers) and the ridiculous (Ben dropping a far easier chance to dismiss Khan for a golden duck who went on to piledrive several sixes and top score with 41). Still, our reducing the opposition to 185 all out inside 31 of the 35 overs was a great comeback. The Saints settled down to a better-than-average Pauline tea in good heart, optimistic that we had the batting to chase down the Linslade total.
A steady opening partnership between Dickie and Tiny Temper reached 28 from 7 overs. At the fall of the first wicket, Harry Rogers strode to the crease and from the get go he took the attack to Linslade. The Saints reached 97 for 1 off 20. With 89 required off 15 overs, and 9 wickets still standing, what could possibly go wrong?
An almost chanceless 50 from Harry was rudely interrupted by a dodgy umpiring decision LBW. And, before you ask, Judas was nowhere in sight. That the opposition skipper said “you hit that” did little to improve Harry’s mood. Unfortunately, his dismissal and some tight bowling from Linslade’s clutch of seamers (not a spinner in sight) slowed the chase. Ben, Niall and Dover all perished trying to force the pace. Despite a late flurry and a couple of big boundaries from Oneliner, the Saints, in what was a highly creditable effort against a good team, ran out of overs falling just 19 short.
Champagne Moment – Overheard in the bar afterwards, Oneliner reminded us of a comment 10 or so years ago that as “the Emile Heskey of London Saints he always plays well but never scores.” Back to June 2024, and a “you had to be there” moment in the match came when DT retrieved one of Khan’s mammoth sixes which had sailed over the sightscreen. In his rheumatic attempt to overarm the ball back into the field of play, all we heard was a big thump. The projectile had travelled about 5 metres and crashed into the back of the sightscreen.
Man of the Match – A close call between Harry for his fine fifty and excellent catch and Pearcy for his spell of 4.2 overs 4 for 23. For pegging back the opposition when they threatened to post a score of around 250, Tiger takes the accolade this week.
Linslade
Hussan ct McIntyre b H. Rogers 37
Nawaz ct Collis b. Calais 5
Rafiq st Cushion b Pearce 38
A Khan ct H Rogers b Griffiths 41
S Khan ct and b Thomas 26
Rahman ct H Rogers b Thomas 9
Omer LBW b Pearce 3
A Khan LBW b Pearce 0
Bukhari st Cushion b Pearce 4
F Khan Not Out 1
Extras 21 (byes 1; wides 16; no balls 4)
Total 185 all out off 30.2 overs
D Nanton 5 – 1- 16 – 0
P Calais 5 – 0 – 35 – 1
H Rogers 6 – 1- 21- 1
B Collis 3 – 0 – 38 – 0
R Griffiths 4 – 0 – 41 – 1
P Pearce 4.2 – 0 – 23 – 4
D Thomas 3 – 0 – 10 – 2
London Saints
McIntyre bowled Nawaz 21
Cushion ct and bowled Sameer 13
Harry Rogers LBW b Suny 59
Ben Collis caught b Suny 4
Niall Lavery caught b Nawaz 0
John Griffiths Not Out 21
Paul Calais caught b A Khan 6*
David Nanton Not Out 15*
Il Duce DNB
Richard Griffiths DNB
Lana Jones DNB
Paul Pearce DNB
Extras: (B10; LBs 2; Ws 12; NB 2) 26
Total 166 for 6 off 35 overs
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