Debuts: Josh Tombs & Marius Van Zyl.
Alex Hewitt 80 in 58 balls (50 in 36 balls).
Badgers CC played 12 men.
The Mogs enjoyed a splendid win against a Badgers XI played at Woodmansterne’s second ground, opposite the Woodman pub. Robert Hewitt remembered playing there in the early 60’s when “none of these houses were here” and it’s possible that this was one of the last times the outfield was mown with our 12th man Furns disappearing from view altogether somewhere near Long On just before the toss.
Cooper skippered an XI that featured three Father/Son combinations and the Hewitts, Tombs & Burtons were joined by Col Cuzza, The Offbreak, Cabbie and Marius “Martin Keown” Van Zyl in a high quality side (on paper anyway). Cooper elected to bat first confident that we would score runs aplenty, allowing the youngsters to bowl us to victory.
The pitch was sporting to say the least. Grasshopper green and sloping violently enough for the bowlers to have to aim at leg stump to try and hit off. The opposition turned up with twelve – we let them play twelve - and off we went with Coops and Alfie Hewitt opening the batting with Umpire Briggs keeping the game under control. Their opening bowler from the “dead fox” end was absolutely lethal and bowled a remarkable spell of hostile slow/medium (you read that right) that saw every ball turn into a mini event. Our top order was decimated whilst Alfie Hewitt was having a mini crisis of his own given that his score was still 0 not out at the end of the 11th over, despite opening. Soon the openers finished their spells however and although Alfie progressed to an important 28, soon followed by JD for 11. Huge entered the fray and after being dropped a couple of times, soon started to get the scoreboard moving. He was particularly well supported by debutantes Josh Tombs who scored an excellent 20 and Marius van Zyl who scored an agricultural 16, made all the more remarkable for his refusal to wear any batting gloves. Hewitt went for a cavalier 80 and it was left to Lewis, Ollie Burton & The Colonel to see our score reach an above average 193 all out.
Roared on by an excellent Mog travelling support that included Mr & Mrs Hewitt (Senior), Parker (Senior) & Honeyfield (Senior), Linda Briggs, Jamie Freeland & Peter Furner, our opening attach of Ollie Burton & Joseph got rid of their top three and when Joseph took a stonking low catch to get rid of their best batsman for Josh Tombs’ first Mog wicket the game was up. All of the bowlers took wickets except Alfie Hewitt who bowled easily the fastest two overs of the season that bodes well for other fixtures in the future.
With a win under our belts we took ale in Woodmansterne’s pavilion over the road and we all agreed that it had been a very pleasant afternoon and great that three Mog Juniors had contributed so much to a win.
Huge
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