MCC 3rd XI lose out in tight finish to the season

The 3rd’s last game of the season saw us entertain Allington at home. The start was inauspicious: a heavy downpour delaying proceedings for 15-20 minutes and rendering a green wicket even more so. MCC were in the field with Chiv opening up into a stiff breeze and Ilo charging in from the other end.

As it turned out, the wicket played better than any of those we’ve had at Tormarton this season and, despite some good bowling and keen fielding, the Allington openers comfortably passed 50 without much in the way of incident, with their skipper, in particular, hitting the ball regularly to the boundary (eventually making 88 to add to his ton in our earlier confrontation this season).

It was Dicko who eventually broke the partnership and it was not long before Will Christie had run out the opposition no. 3 and caught a dolly off Chiv to remove no. 4. The next batter proved to be a different proposition, however and smote a number of impressive hits to all parts of the field as the MCC energy level began to decay in the last 5-10 overs. GTan finally managed to prise out the Allington captain and TT completed another run out but, at the end of 45, we were left with a challenging target of 194 to chase down.

While our tea was not as photogenic as the feast provided over at Broadleys, it was certainly plentiful and much appreciated. Nonetheless, at 24-2 after 12 overs, it appeared that the MCC openers had perhaps over-indulged (an alternative, and perhaps more evidence-based, argument is that they both got out to rubbish shots). It was left to Ilo and TT to rebuild against some less-challenging bowling and they comfortably took the score to 112 before the latter missed one while trying to accelerate and was bowled for a solid, and more characteristic, 33.

Ilo was joined by young Will who immediately looked in good nick (good timing, mate) and the run rate ticked up as Rob passed the 50 mark that he had just missed the week before. The momentum, unfortunately, was then interrupted by Ilo being run out attempting an unlikely second, bring GTan to the wicket with the score on 153. While there were never going to be too many risky two’s with Graham and Will batting together, there was another injection of urgency that was making Allington progressively more nervous in the field. Sadly, though, with the loss of GTan at 183 and Will 4 runs later for an excellent 37, our innings closed at 187-6 off 45 overs, and a defeat by 7 runs.

A good game to end the season but one that we probably could have won with a little more application at certain key moments. MoM for the second week in a row goes to Ilo for his fine 59 and for rattling off 9 overs for only 23 runs. The second half of the 2019 campaign has seen us win 4, lose 4 and have one game cancelled – in contrast, the first half was 2W, 6L and one called off. The end result, 7th in the table but only 2 points behind Gt Bedwyn and probably one win shy of a top-half finish.

Post-match, it was back to Broadleys for Boop’s burgers and bangers, some inventive fancy-dressing (with the exception of Chris Ruddle whose costume was borderline obscene) and the annual club darts competition. Although I have prepared a 5000-word ‘summary’ of the path I took to the final, and my eventual, and inevitable, victory over a very happy but rather uncoordinated Matt Watson, the Editor has indicated that he will cut anything longer than a short paragraph. I’ll, therefore, restrict myself to commiserating with Jenks, Will Christie and Clysty, who succumbed to my hidden talents en route to the final, and offer my greatest sympathy to James Williams who had to watch my interminable efforts to hit a double (any double)…

 Professor Richard Guy