Match Report

A new fixture, and MSCC welcomed Gullys CC to the park. Rumour had it that our illustrious Fixtures Secretary was also playing against another of the Gullys CC teams at Bicester. Interesting to find out which club would be pitted against their stronger set of players.

Our club Chairman was seen at the ground before the start, kindly and eagerly trimming daisies, and a fair quantity of grass from the outfield.

Matt Carpenter, recently returned from injury, captained MSCC, won the toss and decided to bat, as he had (on paper) eleven batters to call on. But still, a day for the bowlers perhaps?

He and Tim House opened, and might have initially queried the prudence of that call, as the Gullys burley opener fizzed the first ball past the keeper’s ankles, and the second past the batter’s ear.  

Tim needn’t have worried anyway, as he was sent on his way in the second over, and the re-build began.

James Lyon joined his captain, and they calmly negotiated the “sporty” track, steadily accumulating runs while the umpires declined numerous vociferous appeals. Just when he was looking settled James took the aerial approach and was caught.

On a tricky wicket, Gullys bowled straight and true; boundaries were scarce, but Michael Robinson blunted the attack and watched as the captain progressed untroubled. Untroubled until he drilled one back at the bowler and was caught. 

Matt Bazeley joined the fray, also looking untroubled. At this stage the clock was ticking and MSCC seemed behind par, and so when Michael fell, 47-4 felt precarious. Mark F-L had no concerns and belted his first delivery to the boundary and continued to show aggression. But it was a day when straight bowling generally counteracted aggression and so it proved for Mark.

But like a Maasai giraffe, this team had a seriously long tail. Ahmed demonstrated how to time the ball, and he and Matt B pushed the score along nicely. Having nudged us past 100, both perished in the deep.

Stevyn Jackson continued the charge, and Anirudh, sent in ahead of his designated slot, ensured that we had a decent total to defend. As the “tail” has provided three of the four top scorers, helped with cameos from Shaan and Hamidullah, 152 did indeed look like a very reasonable score.

Tea was a treat, a debut from Shaan and Michelle. Chicken curry brought murmurs (too busy eating) of appreciation. Many thanks for volunteering and for putting together the feat. Jan Lyon very kindly guided them through bringing it all together in the club.

Our captain had obviously been considering how the track had played to date and maybe wished he had a team stacked with leg spinners. Later that evening George Lamb regaled us with stories of old, and in 1907 an overseas touring team had visited Middleton Stoney, and on that day five were present, including Reggie Schwarz (one of the best in the world at that time) and the joyously named Bernard Bosanquet, the proud inventor of the googly.

Talking of inventing styles of bowling, (although the author has shamelessly engineered this into the report), Arthur Conan Doyle introduced us to Spedugue’s Dropper, where the ball was lobbed high into the air, over the batter’s head, with the intention that the ball landed on top of the stumps; unplayable.

Matt Carpenter decided we’d need none of all that nonsense and would stick to pace.

Hamidullah and Anirudh showed what should be done by hitting the track hard and bowling straight, with the latter picking up the first scalp in his second over; very straight, very LBW. A pattern was set, and Middleton Stoney had no need to take their catches that afternoon. Hamidullah then went on a roll, and started to clean up the Gullys; all straight, all LBW or bowled, 4-21. Tidy.

It felt like the opposition might have sent in one or two of their lesser-known batters, but when Bipin joined the party, Middleton Stoney started to get a brisk lesson on how to bat on this track. The first delivery shot to the boundary with a powerful cover drive, and we also witnessed a glorious maximum over extra cover, narrowly missing the batter’s own car.

The captain had kindly (?) offered the recently injured Tim House the chance to bowl at Bipin, and to his, in fact both, their amazement, the stumps were summarily clattered. Memories have faded as to the celebration that followed.  Enjoying the chance to bowl straight, he picked up two more, both bowled.

Not to miss out, Shaan joined the fun and very quickly bamboozled the opposition and nabbed another LBW during his parsimonious spell.

As the slightly older bowlers tired, the captain sensibly turned to the eagerly, and patiently waiting duo of Ahmad and James, just as Gullys found an 11^th man (they had been one short) who miraculously had appeared from the Bicester game down the road, also miraculously seeming to be one of the best batters. Gullys then added as many runs for the last wicket as they had done for the first nine. But true and straight won the day and James bowled their captain to finish a good afternoon’s work by the home team. Seven bowled, three LBW’s.

Andrew, Rona and Seril (resplendent in his club attire) were there to ensure all were fed and watered well.

Talking of attire (shamelessly engineered again) George also reminded us that that the brother, and this gets complicated, of the Moss Bros. founders, so presumably a third brother (?), also bowled the aforementioned Spedugue’s Dropper, then described as a parabolic delivery. Who knows if George got that straight from Conan Doyle or not.