London Saints v King Georges – Sun Aug 9th – Old Haberdashers CC
London Saints v King Georges – Sun Aug 9th – Old Haberdashers CC
King Georges 227 – 9 (Rogers 4 – 22, Thomas 2 – 3)
London Saints 156 all out (Rogers 52, Nanton 29, Cowley 17)
Roadrunners failed to pull together a team last week, resulting in another frustrating week off after the excellent win against Old Chelmsfordians. This week’s opponents were King Georges, a team that LSCC beat very comfortably last season and so had hopes of making it two wins on the trot in sweltering conditions at Old Habs. The match coming a day after Saints beat Colchester 2-0 in our first competitive game of the season, another Saints win would have capped off the perfect weekend.
DT won the toss and decided to have a bowl. It was One Liner Nanton and Ollie Griffiths that got us underway and were tight for the first few overs apart from a short one from Ollie which was pulled for six and over a fence. For some reason half the team decided to go as far into the bushes as they could in hope that it would somehow appear. Soon after Saints should have had their first wicket of the game, with John “Carol” Griffiths denying the scorebook of a bowled O Griffiths c J Griffiths. Carol completely missed getting his hands to the ball standing in the cordon with the ball smashing into his chest. If Ollie forgets to mention it for the rest of the week, I’m sure the bruise will be a reminder. In John’s defence it did fly at him quickly but should you not have given yourself a few more yards John?
Eleven overs in and things were not looking great for Saints with King Georges 76-0. One more over until the first drinks break and a double strike from Phil Rogers playing his first match since having both knees done over the winter gave Saints exactly what they needed. First was caught in the slips by Jonesy, looping in slow motion which I am sure he appreciated (Carol perhaps less so) and then the second was their number three being bowled. In the over after drinks Tiny Temper McIntyre bowled their other opener, so at 82-3 Saints were in the game. This was helped further by another couple of Rogers wickets in his first spell leaving King Edwards 91-5. Unfortunately, when Phil returned for his 2nd he was unable to grab his fifth.
At this point we had eight or so overs until our next drinks break and I hoped we would have them 7 down. We did have them seven down, however they had scored a fair few more runs after a good partnership scored at a fast pace. The sixth wicket was rather comical with One Liner catching one off Son-in-law Number 1 Richard that he hugged into his belly and was clinging on for dear life. The Saints fielders were stunned silent probably in fear any sudden noise and Dave would let go which created confusion as to whether it was a wicket or a bump ball. It was a wicket and in the following over another strange reaction to a wicket happened as skipper DT decided to appeal for a ball when he had bowled their batsman. The lack of celebration from the Saints fielders again made the bat question why he was given out when one of his bails was lying on the floor. DT soon had another one courtesy of a fantastic catch from One Liner who dived forward at point leaving DT with impressive figures of 2 overs 2 wickets 3 runs. In that short spell DT also took a ball to an ankle which curtailed his match, we had 12 players so were not a player short. Some of the cynics were questioning if DT was happy to take the impressive figures, sit in the shade and skip an opportunity to take the lead in the duck race which of course he denied. For the remainder of the innings King Georges really took the attack to us and finished on an imposing 228 to chase. This came after Ollie got a well-deserved wicket towards the end of the innings, cleaning up their Number 10.
Saints were off to a bad start when Dickie received a ball with low bounce and was bowled for a duck, Saints 0-1. In at Number 3 was Tiny Temper joining White Viv and was also bowled a few overs later leaving Saints 15-2 off six and the required rate already looking on the more unachievable side. Guy in at Number 4 was playing beautifully before unfortunately injuring his shoulder which meant he had to leave the field with Surrey Ben replacing him. To the Sherriff’s surprise his partner Mr Jones was intent on running through singles and twos perhaps with skipper DT’s words of “hurry up and get out Jonesy, you’re boring me now” ringing in his ears. And it was the running that would be the end for Jonesy who was ran out trying to push for a second run, departing having scored 11. His replacement was Carol who departed soon after scoring six. Next in was Nanton who when in the mood makes batting look very easy no matter the difficulty of the pitch and this was not an easy pitch to play on. Highlighted by the fact Dickie was bowled with a low one and Sherriff departed for 6, out gloving one up into the air which bounced sharply and late off a length. No matter the number of wickets Nanton decided it was not worth hanging around and was playing his shots. Luckily Guy was able to resume and replaced Sherriff which gave hope of a partnership but unfortunately his return did not last too long and was out to a fantastic catch at square leg. Guy was replaced by Rogers with the score 70-6 who was hoping to carry his bowling form into his batting and he did. Playing all over the ground, Phil quickly racked up the runs and was going well with Nanton. The duo putting on 63 to restore some credibility to Saints including impressive sixes from the pair. It looked like the only way Phil would depart was if he was called in by DT which the skipper did when Phil passed another London Saints 50. Phil ended up returning soon after and in the end Saints lost their last four wickets for 34 runs to finish 156 all out with the time approaching 8pm after a painfully slow attempt from King Georges to get through their overs.
In what was potentially our last ever match at Old Haberdashers Cricket Club, a defeat and the door falling off the pavilion shed was perhaps a fitting way for us to depart the ground.
MOTM
With 50 and four wickets it could only be the ever-reliable Phil Rogers.
Champagne Moments
The Excellence
One Liner took a spectacular diving catch and belted a straight six down the ground, both worthy recipients of a champagne moment.
The Cock Up
Regular readers will know a Griffiths is always in the running for this award and today was no different. However, in light of that, the cock up can go to the team for spending longer than necessary searching for a missing ball that was hit out of the ground.
King Georges
Anshil ct Jones b Rogers 40
Kimal b McIntyre 37
Hamzeh b Rogers 0
Rana ct Cushion b Rogers 3
M. Bilal b Rogers 6
H. Bilal ct Nanton b R. Griffiths 43
Zaki b Thomas 8
Yoss ct Nanton b Thomas 0
Israel not out 48
Paz b O. Griffiths 18
Extras 24
Total 227 – 9 – 35 overs
Nanton 7-0-44-0
O. Griffiths 5-2-25-1
McIntyre 4-0-32-1
Rogers 7-2-22-4
Pearce 3-0-19-0
R. Griffiths 4-0-27-1
Cowley 3-0-33-0
Thomas 2-0-3-2
London Saints
Jones run out Zaki 11
Cushion b Bilal 0
McIntyre b Israel 2
Cowley ct ? b Zaki 17
Sherriff ct Anshul b Harry 6
J. Griffiths b Zaki 6
Nanton ct Anshul b Yusuf 29
Rogers ct Anshul b Yusuf 52
O. Griffiths b Yusuf 5
R. Griffiths not out 1
Pearce b Yusuf 1
Extras 22
Total 156 all out
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