Far from the MCC
~ Est. in 1998 ~
“Sanity Restored as The MAD Notch Maiden Win”
Match: 02
/ 053
Won
by 101 runs
|
Team |
Total |
|
FFTMCCC |
183 - 6 |
|
L. Davie 58, J. Hoskins
35 |
|
|
|
|
|
Marlborough House |
82 |
|
A. Mann 3 - 19, A. Fisher
2 - 2 |
|
|
With
little more than most of the entire rest of the season stretching before
them, both players and hangers-on alike must have been wondering just where
the first Far from The MADding Crowd victory was
going to spring from. Various theories had been broached. Some maintained
that the win would eventually be found under a very large stone. Others had
been heard to mutter that the victory had been walled up in a Victorian
terrace on Observatory Road, and would not be discovered until chance
renovations exposed its dusty bones to the harsh glare of daylight. Yet with
such lunatic ravings dismissed for the insane musings of the damned that they
were, it came as little more than surprise when the summer’s first win
unfolded at Wootton and Boar’s Hill CC ground Sunday last. And what a win it
turned out to be.
Library footage of Wootton’s scenic little
ground. The ground at Wootton is
a picture, if not an entirely pretty one. Country things, like fields and cow
turds, surround the compact oval, and there is a squat church away beyond the
car park. Indolent rednecks watch their offspring swinging from the climbing
frames in the public park. At one stage a horse walked past, showing that
lack of interest in cricket so typical of equine creatures. There had been murmurings
amongst The MADsters for some time that Marlborough
House were looking formidable this year: a competitive eagerness and an
influx of strong new players – two concepts alien to The MAD – had been noted
by the spies who had attended the Marlborough’s pre-season indoor net
sessions. So much the more remarkable the turn of events, then, as the
Marlborough bubble, for this game at least, was resoundingly burst. Mad
tyro captain M. Bullock won the toss and elected to bat, and A. Mann (28) and
A. Fisher (10) put on 41 in quick order to set the tone for the innings. H.
Jones (13) contributed, and L. Davie top-scored with a typically robust yet
cultured 58, but the highlight of the first session was surely the energetic
35 from J. Hoskins, by a distance said player’s best knock for either Jude or
Mad, and definitive proof that he has fully recovered from the horrific
dancing injury that at one stage threatened his career. Hoskins has let his
bat do the talking on this one, and shown that cricket and dancing are not
after all mutually exclusive activities. Hoskins and Davie shared a 111-run
partnership, a team record for all wickets, eclipsing R. Hadfield
and H. Jones’s 108 for the 3rd wicket against OUP in 2000. Both A. Mander (1)
and J. Hotson (0) were brutally run out as they sacrificed their wickets in
the search for quick runs at the end of the innings, while T. Smith (2)
remained calm and not out for the second week running. Of the Marlborough
bowlers, the doughty M. Shelley (2-15) stood out.
The
MAD had set Marlborough a demanding 183, and at first the home team went
about their task with admirable restraint. G. Lal (4) looked comfortable, and
was just settling into the all-important anchor role, when in the fifth over
A. Mann (3-19) sent his off-stump not so much cartwheeling as leaning quite a
long way back. Three balls later, Marlborough captain M. Cox (1) flayed a
short delivery to on, where T. Smith took an astonishing catch on the run at
midwicket, plucking the ball from the air at ankle height as blades of grass
brushed his knuckles and crickets chirka-chirked at
his fingertips. It is an effort that already has ‘Catch of the Season’
written all over it. The
rot had set in. The Marlborough batsmen looked the part, but threw away their
wickets in a chase for quick runs that never came. S. Dobner (1-23) and L.
Davie (2-8) routed the rest of the top and middle order, and it was left to
A. Fisher (2-2), H. Jones (1-17) and T. Smith (1-5) to mop up the tail.
Fisher especially contrived to bamboozle the opposition with his lobbed
grenades – B. Dalton (1) leapt away from one such gentle bomb only to see his
stumps go boink behind him, and the all-round
astonishment level was middling to highish. Despite V. Sculley (0) and (0)
batting twice, for a unique single-innings pair, the Marlborough effort ended
on 82, 101 runs short of The MAD. Once
again, The MADsters’ fielding was top drawer, with
no outfield catches batted down, and M. Bullock was able to celebrate his
first win as captain in a style, perhaps, which few would have anticipated. Crazy stuff. Insane.
Mental. Mad. ‘Blocker’
|
*
Statto Scorecards
|
Far from The Madding Crowd CC versus Marlborough House Played at Wootton & Boars Hill,
19 May 2002 Far from The Madding Crowd CC won the toss and elected to field Far from The Madding Crowd
CC won by 101 runs Far from the MCC debuts:
none |
02 / 053 35 over match |
|
Team |
Far from The Madding Crowd CC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
# |
Batsman |
How Out |
Total |
Balls |
4s |
6s |
FOW |
|
1 |
A. G. Mann |
b Shelley |
28 |
(41) |
4 |
- |
2-55 |
|
2 |
A. J. Fisher |
b Shelley |
10 |
(40) |
1 |
- |
1-41 |
|
3 |
H. Jones |
b Cox |
13 |
(12) |
3 |
- |
3-60 |
|
4 |
J. D. Hoskins |
lbw b Jones |
35 |
(45) |
5 |
- |
4-171 |
|
5 |
L. Davie |
b Salt |
58 |
(67) |
9 |
- |
6-183 |
|
6 |
A. M. Mander |
run out (Jones) |
1 |
(4) |
- |
- |
5-182 |
|
7 |
T. P. W. Smith |
not out |
2 |
(5) |
- |
- |
- |
|
8 |
J. C. W. Hotson |
run out (Salt) |
0 |
(2) |
- |
- |
7-183 |
|
9 |
E. N. Lester |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 |
M. Bullock *+ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 |
S. L. P. Dobner |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Extras |
(NB7, W18, B9, LB2) |
36 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
(for 7 wickets, 35 overs) |
183 |
|
|
|
|
|
# |
Bowler |
Overs |
Maidens |
Runs |
Wkts |
|
|
1 |
Ross |
7 |
1 |
31 |
0 |
|
|
2 |
Salt |
7 |
1 |
36 |
1 |
|
|
3 |
Shelley |
7 |
1 |
13 |
2 |
|
|
4 |
Cox |
7 |
0 |
32 |
1 |
|
|
5 |
Jones |
5 |
0 |
42 |
1 |
|
|
6 |
Lal |
2 |
0 |
16 |
0 |
|
|
Team |
Marlborough House |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
# |
Batsman |
How Out |
Total |
Balls |
4s |
6s |
FOW |
|
1 |
G. Lal |
b Mann |
4 |
|
|
|
1-13 |
|
2 |
M. W. Shelley * |
c Dobner b Davie |
16 |
|
|
|
4-44 |
|
3 |
M. Cox |
c Smith b Mann |
1 |
|
|
|
2-15 |
|
4 |
F. Ross |
b Dobner |
6 |
|
|
|
3-21 |
|
5 |
M. Jones |
not out |
33 |
|
|
|
- |
|
6 |
A. Salt |
b Mann |
0 |
|
|
|
5-45 |
|
7 |
D. Wilson + |
b Davie |
3 |
|
|
|
6-48 |
|
8 |
J. Carroll |
b Jones |
0 |
|
|
|
7-67 |
|
9 |
B. Dalton |
b Fisher |
1 |
|
|
|
8-76 |
|
10 |
V. Scully |
lbw b Fisher |
0 |
|
|
|
9-76 |
|
11 |
V. Scully |
b Smith |
0 |
|
|
|
10-82 |
|
|
Extras |
(NB7, W9, B2) |
18 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
(all out, 26 overs) |
82 |
|
|
|
|
|
# |
Bowler |
Overs |
Maidens |
Runs |
Wkts |
|
|
1 |
Mann |
7 |
0 |
19 |
3 |
|
|
2 |
Dobner |
5 |
0 |
23 |
1 |
|
|
3 |
Davie |
4 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
|
|
4 |
Fisher |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
|
5 |
Hotson |
2 |
0 |
6 |
0 |
|
|
6 |
Jones |
4 |
0 |
17 |
1 |
|
|
7 |
Smith |
1 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
|
|
MOTM: n/a Champagne Moment: n/a Buffet
Award: S. L. P. Dobner’s Essex lamb
steaks in multiseed buns (with relish) |
Opposition:
V010 / 08 Ground: G017 / 01 Captain: C005 / 02 |