Sunday 15 May 2016

Sack the Chairman - Mandarins Rolled

Mandarins 62 all out ( J X Trass 23, Baxter 15) off 21 overs lost by 7 wickets to WG XI 63 for 3 off 8.1 overs (Cooke 3 for 19).


Those of us with long memories of playing for the Mandarins on the uncovered pitches of the 1970s and 1980s will remember lower scores than this, but they are rare these days. On a perfect cricket day in front of a large crowd on the bank at Regent's Park, the fates conspired to bring us down to earth hard. We won the toss and then pulled our long hops straight into square legs hands. They hit theirs for four. The wicket was certainly sub standard, and low bounce claimed at least four victims. WG prospered with a judicious mixture of wides and straight grubbers . Possibly the Brazilian martial arts class at extra cover which involved protagonists beating the crap out of each other with long sticks proved a distraction. Once we began to slide we were unable to stem the tide and use up the overs. Only the exploding pads seemed to have the measure of the situation until Tim, having taken up a stance one yard down the wicket to the left arm over bowler " to take lbw out of the equation" was out lbw. He clearly had not explained his strategy to the umpire.

80 or 90 might have been defensible, but the laughing gods decreed that last week's destroyer of the BBC (Gray, not the other one) pulled a hamstring in completing the 62nd run, and was unable to Bowl, or very soon even field. Owen Cooke made the WG top order look very shaky, and we put down more technical chances, raising the seasons running total to 10, but then a man called Cunningham hit a lucky 47 not out off 5 overs to put the result beyond doubt. Que sera sera.

Chris Baker