Longmores Cricket 23rd May 2012 - James Taylor Construction and Mercer & Hole
The first Game of the Longmores cricket season took place on Wednesday evening at the very picturesque (if hard to find) Hertingfordbury Cricket Club. Bathed in sunshine and with the backdrop of the church of St. Mary this was a glorious summer’s evening. A James Taylor Construction select 7 and a Mercer & Hole septet providing tough opposition for the newly reformed Longmores’ Burgundy Boys.
First up was Longmores vs. JTC with Bernard and Waggers opening the batting. Bernard fell cheaply to JTC’s key man Wilkins, which brought Richard “the Wall” Gvero to the crease who built a steady partnership on the premise of not giving his wicket away cheaply, unlike the profligate Flanagan. This tactic is fine in the 5 day version of cricket, but less suited to the 6 over version. The Wall finally retired on 18 to allow Richard Horwood a cameo appearance at the death. The Burgundy Boys posted a respectable 57 for 1 in total. Some tight consistent bowling from the entire Longmores team saw them restrict JTC to 42 for 3 with extras top scoring for the visitors. A straightforward victory for Longmores and the large number of wides could easily be attributed to rustiness, but things will have to improve if the team is to make progress in the major leagues.
Next game saw M&H take on JTC with JTC needing a win to retain an outside chance of challenging for honours. In their innings JTC posted a score of 38 for 5 (David top scoring with 10) which looked a little light in the conditions. Condolences to Gary Farnes of M&H who will have to wait until his first ball of his next game before having an opportunity to see whether he can complete a hat-trick. M&H quickly rattled off the runs, Peter Godfrey-Evans dominating the bowling and top scoring with 19.
That result set up a winner takes all, last man standing, survival of the fittest, grandstand final between the Burgundy Boys and M&H. The crowd by this stage has swelled to six, lured from their offices by the scotch eggs, sandwiches, Doritos and fine wine being served on the sidelines. Longmores won the toss and elected to field first, M&H hit back by setting the largest total of the evening a towering, 61 without loss, both openers Simon Coggins and Gary Farnes scoring heavily. None of the Longmores bowlers were able to take a wicket (although the wide count was down to 3 in the innings) and a further blow was dealt to the Burgundy Boys when Richard Hull, their man behind the stumps, suffered a groin injury. Undeterred and refuelled on more sandwiches and sausage rolls, Richard Taylor and Craig opened the batting, scoring 22 runs in the first over and providing a platform for an improbable victory. 39 needed from 30 balls, still a big ask. Richard Horwood came in at number 3 in a partnership with the Wall that seemed to go on forever. Richard could see that the Wall was slowing the scoring rate down and in Botham/Boycott moment tried a quick run which backfired when he himself was run out. Successive batsmen continued to score at just under the required run rate so that in the final over the Burgundy Boys had left themselves with 11 runs required to win the game. A tidy final over by man of the tournament Gary Farnes meant that Waggers needed 5 runs from the last ball to seal victory. Thoughts of being carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates were clearly flashing through his mind as the final ball came hurtling towards him, he connected but alas the result yielded only a couple of runs and M&H were jubilant.
Thanks to everyone who attended last night, whether supporting or playing. It looks like we’ve got a splendid summer of cricket to look forward to and there is a good prospect of further victories for the Longmores team.
