“Lemmings Perish on Darley Day”

Match: 26 / 681

Won by 15 runs

Team	Total
FFTMCC	164 - 6
J. Webster 42*, A. Darley 41*
Lemmings	149
A. Darley 3 - 13, J, Pearson 2 - 30

As sure as Autumn follows Summer, age follows youth. The first Lemmings fixture was back in 2001, and they beat us comfortably by 6 wickets (despite, it would seem, a somewhat unexpected spell of 1-9 off 5 overs by one Jake Hotson). They then continued to beat us fairly comfortably every year until 2018 when we finally got off the mark. After a second win last year, Lemmings clearly examined their aging side and invested heavily in youth. This year they turned up with 13 players, 5 of them young and fit, and operated a revolving set of fielders. A quite brilliant idea from these Queen’s graduates, pinch fielders….

Rodent ensemble 2026.

For some reason this fixture was played down at Horspath’s second pitch, a nice enough ground nowadays now the treeline is starting to develop a little. The wicket was OK, but slow and occasionally helpful to the bowlers. Nibbly might be the word.

Having won the toss, as usual, a pair of Bakers opened the bowling, followed immediately by another Baker, Jim, who literally bowled himself off his feet as he started. For some of the Lemmings, this is the one game a year they play, and you have to give them credit as they bowled fairly tidily. Pearson and Harris put up the quarter century before Harris (11) clumped a full toss to point. Pearson (26) carried on cheerfully before skying one to slip.

Harris fending off a Lemming (P Baker).

This presaged a minor collapse as Spam (2), aiming to pump one over the distant Garsington hills, didn’t, and Russ (0) suffered a first baller via a jaffa which looked comfortably leavable but really wasn’t, and The MAD suddenly looked slightly wobbly at 49-4.

UPDATE: Post-match research from The Chairman has uncovered the remarkable fact that young Milo Baker was in fact the fifth member of his family to dismiss Spam. And not only this – Spam has now been dismissed by three different generations of the Baker family. This is basically now the cricketing equivalent of a blood vendetta. The Maasai tribe in Tanzania have some quite tough initiation rites which see young men transitioning to warriors. For the Bakers, it’s the Lemmings game and another chance to knock Howarth over again.

For the record:

Matt Baker: 2003

Jim Baker: 2005, 2017, 2018

Tom Baker: 2015

Peter Baker: 2019

Milo Baker: 2026

…more to follow, surely?

Back to the game. Dave Shorten (7) flickered for a moment then was bowled (63-5). Things steadied a little as our own youngster, Morgan Darley, came in and batted sensibly before another full toss claimed another victim (87-6), bringing in his Dad, Andy, who was on a streak of two consecutive goldens. Andy negotiated his first ball then promptly pumped yet another full toss sky high and very much into the bowler’s orbit. If it had stayed in the bowler’s hands Andy would likely have had a very different day. It didn’t.

After drinks things picked up as Darley and Webster (42*) benefitted from some plucky but variable bowling from the young Lemmimgs, and put on an apparently MAD record 7th wicket partnership of 77* in the remaining 12 overs to drag the score up to a respectable 164-6, Darley’s possible three-duck-streak instead ending with a very healthy 29-ball 41* and what would end up in a massively stage hogging man of the match performance.

A cultured off drive from Andy above, as Webster tries do something positive (below).

Tea saw a good calm debut for Harris, deputising for Reeves, and providing a solid basis for the afternoon’s endeavours. There was also some discussion as to the merits of our score. A good start was going to be vital in containing the Lemmings, several of whom have feasted on MAD bowling over the years. Shorten and Andy Darley (clearly delighted to be bowling immediately after batting) provided precisely that as Dave took out Hull with a very conclusive lbw before Darley followed this up with a gem that jagged back appreciably and hit the top of Chandler’s middle stump.

Woods, who has caused The MAD problems before, then popped the ball up, a slow, gently looping parabola to where Spam was fielding at cover. But this wasn’t a dropped catch. Oh no. For a catch to actually be dropped there must be a dropper actually in contact with the ball at some point. In this instance, Spam turned round three times, looked like he’d remembered something important and started running off in another direction leaving the ball to plop down onto the turf uninterrupted by any human interference. The imperturbable Shorten definitely seemed moderately ‘turbed at this and visibly went through the seven stages of grief in around 10 seconds, and was heard to say, “Gosh, Ian, that was unfortunate. What happened there then?” Or something along those lines.

Geoff did pad up on this day, but didn’t bat. He didn’t bowl either or keep wicket.

He did field however, deep back stop to deep back stop each over.

However, joy was soon resumed as Graham turned Shorten to square leg where Darley Sr (yes, him), who was definitely pulling focus thoughout this game held on. 27-3.

Woods, as ever, was looking very dangerous, hitting the ball very powerfully and making sure the strike was rotating. He was well supported by the younger Wiliams (Son of Pies) who showed good technique and a bit of patience as they righted the Lemmings innings with a partnership of 35.

Throughout, The MAD bowlers were notably tidy and Rundle came on for what should probably now be described as an economically Rundlesque spell of 1-9 off 4 overs including bowling Williams Jr.

The next partnership looked like it might settle the game one way or another. Williams Sr scored a ton against us a couple of years ago and gives the ball a very cultured slap when inclined, and he and Woods kept up with the run rate without looking unduly troubled for the next 10 overs putting on close to 50.

Pearson always seems to keep something up his sleeves for the Lemmings and this time it was his bowling which did the trick. Williams attempted to smash the ball through midwicket, clothed it slightly and Darley Jr took a good catch at head height. Later in the same over Pearson also bowled Chandler Jr to leave the Lemmings 110-6, requiring 55 off 17 overs.

“This guy is a total twat!”

Matt Baker is also very capable of giving the ball a bit of a pump and when Andy Darley (running theme), put him down at mid-off the thought did cross the mind as to how expensive that might be as Woods and Baker got the target down to just 30.

Fate in form of Darley (inevitably) then intervened. Baker smashed a line drive head height straight back at Darley, who got a hand to it, spinning it round on impact. It took a moment, but he suddenly realised the ball had just clipped the stump and knocked off the bail with Wood a metre out of his ground – 136-7. Cricket’s a horrible game.

The overs ticked by the Lemmings were always just in it, but wickets were falling. Morgan Darley came back on, the youngster bowling very well under a bit of pressure. Spam caught one diving forward at cover. A decent catch. Shame it put paid to the hopes and dreams of the 12-year old batsman who hit it.

Young MAD Morgan (batting) v young Lemming.

Somewhat inevitably the coup de grace was delivered by Andy ‘Me Me Me’ Darley (runs, wickets, catches, drops and run outs) as Baker edged on to his own stumps with 15 still required and to win and 11 balls left in the game. And the Mad had, for the first time, notched consecutive wins over the old rivals.

This game is always a pleasure. The Lemmings are an amiable bunch who mix some good cricket with a healthy sense of fun. It is great to see all the youngsters playing and while the Lemmings clearly enjoyed having some of their kids play with them, we, too, have benefitted from the likes of the younger Darleys, Pyrahs, Williams, Shaws and Westmorelands in recent years.

’Lord Prof Chief Druid Alderman’

*

Statto Scorecards

Far From the MCC versus Lemmings CC Played at Horspath (Pitch B), 28 June 2026 Lemmings the toss and elected to field Far From the MCC won by 15 runs Far from the MCC debuts: n/a

26 / 681 35 over match

Team	Far From the MCC
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
	TOTAL	(for 6 wickets, 35 overs)	164

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	Econ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Team	Lemmings
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
	TOTAL	(all out, 33.1 overs)	149

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	Econ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

MOTM: A. J. Darley Champagne Moment: A. J. Darley’s dropped catch on to the stumps to run Woody out Buffet Award: J. Harris’ exemplary teas in absence of Mike (how extraordinarily perfect) MAD Moment: I. Howarth’s tragic attempt at a catch as a ball spiralled above his head, waving his arms about, spinning and… erm, never laying a hand on it….

Opposition: V0 / 0 Ground: G0 / 0 Captain: C0 / 0 Match No: 35 / 253