Match Report
Crusaders made a fruitful first visit to the leafy Old Cholmeleians ground for a fixture against the intriguingly named Highgate Irregulars, returning around the North Circular with a comfortable five wicket victory.
The Irregulars were a seasoned bunch that made us look a fairly spritely side; something that has been very rare. The late arrival of the 'Singh Bus' caused the match to be reduced to 35 overs and on winning the toss our hosts elected to bat; a decision not greeted with wide spread home approval.
Gajinder and Riyad stamped their authority on the game, making life very uncomfortable for openers Trevor and Mitchell. Riyad penetrated the defence of Trevor - the Highgate Irregulars skipper - who was probably now wishing he had opted to bowl as he trudged back to the hutch with a duck to his name. With only 3 runs on the board from the first six overs, Jagdesh turned to spin in the form of Lucky and Loepreet. Both performed ok but were prone to dropping the odd ball short, something that was readily punished by new bat Osborne. A steady if not spectacular recovery enabled the Irregulars to reach 63 without further loss, when drinks were taken at the halfway stage.
After Drinks Spud and Uppy complimented each other perfectly; while Uppy served up a never-ending buffet from one end, Spud was back to bowling somewhere near his best, stemming the flow from the other. Spud eventually breached the defence of Osborne for a well made 50 and Highgate desperately needing to up the scoring rate started to play more expansively. It was about this time in the game when Damon joined Johnny G in some sort of Alzheimer based cloud cuckoo land. G Man had been wandering between overs seemingly unable to grasp what his fielding position was and all of a sudden any ball passing the stumps comfortably evaded any attempt from our portly gloveman to intercept it; to the untrained eye this may have appeared normal for Damon.
Jagdesh - fresh from a maiden five wicket haul the previous week - was again in fine form with the ball benefitting from the merits of bowling stump to stump. His return of 3-19 was well supported by Chand at the other end, who removed their token Singh. Some desperate scuttling in the last couple of overs produced useful additional runs, with the youthful Gallagher probably reducing his senior partner Elves life expectancy in the process.
For a change there were few complaints to be levelled at our fielding, with Upkar pouching a fine running catch at Mid-Off and Johnny G executing another 'Tom Daleyesque' dive at gully - the obvious highlights. I believe the ball was some way towards the boundary when the dive began and back in the bowlers hand before G Man had regained his feet.
Crusaders required 154 for victory.
Tea was a fine spread, including a sumptuous sponge cake to celebrate Highgate Irregulars 25th Anniversary - hats off to Mrs Singh for both the cake and the samosas.
Crusaders had fallen foul of 'Cakelag' in the past and perhaps in hindsight it would have been wise to drop Greggains and White down the order to enable some time for their gluttony to abate. Instead they were amongst some early successes for our hosts, that reduced Crusaders to 15-3; two of these wickets the result of Quickdraw Upkar. Highgate were certainly enthusiastic in the appeal, but a speculative enquiry to a delivery that appeared to be heading well wide of Goldie's leg stump was amazingly upheld by Umpire Singh, after the bowler improved his opening shout by a few extra decibels. I am led to believe the second LBW that removed Johnny G was far less controversial. Damon who had been batting rather well returned to more expected form, chopping a ball straight to a freshly positioned gully; much to the pleasure of the home skip.
From this precarious position most teams would seek to re-group and repair the damage with a steady partnership. This it appears was not an option that either Chand or Gajinder considered taking. The pair added 114 for the 4th wicket in very quick time, with both passing fifty in the process. Chand as ever, was unable to see the game through to it's conclusion, aiming wildly at a straight delivery from Singh, that bowled him for an entertaining 56. Jagdesh went in similar fashion - not needing to produce the heroics of last week and it was left to Gajinder to see us home, as he finished undefeated on 74.
Highgate Irregulars Report of our game.
HICCS vs The Crusaders CC, 29/5/2016
The Crusaders are new opponents this year so we had no idea what to expect. Indeed we didn’t know whether to expect them at all as Charles, our fixture maestro and captain for the day, fretted and the clock on the Old Choms pavilion approached 2pm - however they duly appeared having struggled round the North Circular from the opposite south-east corner of London.
They seemed a friendly bunch comprised of three “veterans”, seven Sikhs and a Pakistani, who we subsequently learned was once ranked the seventh best squash player in his country. Given his age he was presumably a contemporary of Jahangir Khan widely considered as the greatest player of all time who was unbeaten for 555 matches, the longest winning streak of any professional sportsman according to the Guinness Book of Records, he was no slouch.
Charles won the toss. Believing we had a strong batting line up he elected to bat having agreed a 35 over format and negotiated fifteen inches of leeway down the leg side for wides much to Steve’s relief. I like his style of captaincy. He understands the game and our limitations. Charles is however unashamedly old school and likes to bat first unless he perceives the wicket is demonic. To be fair given Giles and whoever he is giving a lift to have probably gone to the wrong ground and we are significantly under strength at the start he often has little choice. However Old Choms is a sluggish pitch, with tricky bounce and a slow outfield. In the sun it tends to dry out and improve even over the course of an afternoon so his decision wasn’t greeted with universal approval.
Charles and Tony opened. Unsurprisingly a Singh bowled the first over at a good pace and accurately. His partner Riyad was also on the money. Scoring was going to be difficult and in the fourth over Charles went back to a ball he should have gone forward to. It kept low and the inevitable followed - Nought for one.
David came in at number three and he and Tony saw off the openers but after their six overs we only had three runs, two thirds of which were byes. The Crusaders switched to a new Singh and spin. The pressure came off slightly as a few loose balls were served up. David is strongest off the back foot and generally bowlers can’t afford to bowl short on the Old Choms pitch and he took advantage when he could. By drinks at seventeen overs we’d advanced to sixty-three for one, respectable but we needed to accelerate. Tony tried to push on but was bowled by Singh number three for twenty-one. By his high standards he’d struggled to time the ball but even when he’s not on top form he gets runs.
David went on to reach a well-constructed fifty and was then done by another grass cutter from Whale, an appropriately large framed left arm spinner, who was by a margin their best slow bowler.
The bowling remained tight throughout. The usually pugnacious Yash hit twenty-four but after a flurry of early boundaries was restricted to ten singles in a row and was again bowled swishing across the line. Tim, Alex and Diyen all came and went without much to note except one towering six from Gray junior and Diyen out bowled Singh caught Singh, the only HICC not clean bowled. The Crusaders mixed it up well, using eight different bowlers all of whom were competent.
Giles and the elegant Will ran hard in the last few overs, too hard for Giles who at one point needed to be resuscitated by the wicket keeper. This was Will’s first appearance and he looks a good batsman, strong off the front foot and probably should have come in earlier. Our final total of one hundred and fifty-three for seven was respectable but below par.
At tea we tried to weaken the opposition with a very generous tea from Mrs Yash including an excess of spicy vegetable samosas and a magnificent home baked cake commemorating our twenty-fifth season.
The earlier clouds had burned away and the sun was shining. Singh and Channa, their ex squash international, opened the innings. Mike was making a welcome return to the fold after not being able to play much last season and took the new ball. He was clearly a bit over-enthusiastic; appealing for LBW off his second ball for one that was going at least a foot down leg. David at wicket keeper and Charles and Giles in the slip cordon stared silently embarrassed at the ground only for the umpire to raise his finger. The batsman looked incredulous but to his credit accepted his fate without a murmur. We suspected the drive back south would however be a quiet one in which ever car the umpire was in.
Tony opened from the other end and soon had their number three - this time legitimately LBW.
By this time Charles and noticed they were going hard at the ball and had decided to put in another catcher at a deep square gully. Dutifully their number four attempted a cut from Tony and the ball arced perfectly towards exactly where the skipper had placed Steve. Even more remarkably Steve hadn’t wandered off to another position and snaffled the ball clam style - Fifteen for three. “Catches win matches” said Charles with a smile on his face. Unfortunately this was the high point from HICC’s perspective.
Another Singh joined Channa at the wicket and promptly smashed Tony over mid-off for four. This one was clearly a class above the three departed batmen and we speculated whether the umpire’s previous generosity had merely been a means of getting him to the crease earlier.
Suddenly the scoring rate started to climb. Channa was also a decent bat unsurprisingly quick between the wickets with good hand-eye coordination. At the end of their spells Mike and Tony suffered a bit. On came Steve and Will and the two decisive moments followed. A short wide one from Will was given the treatment from Singh. However it was a bit uppish and went straight at Tony like a tracer bullet. He got his hands to it but at that speed it wasn’t enough and it was painfully dropped.
From the other end Steve was bowling his in-swingers well and keeping the batsmen thinking. He sent one down wide of the off stump that didn’t move. Singh swung hard and feathered one through to David behind the stumps or so he believed. It was the finest of edges, too fine for the umpire to spot. The keeper tried to stare the batsman into admitting his guilt and walking but to no avail.
From then on the partnership rattled on at an increasing pace. Giles missed a sharp caught and bowled. Channa was given a let off and Singh was given a third life but in truth it was probably too late. Yash finally caught a good one off his own bowling.
They reached our total in twenty-one overs winning by five wickets. In the score book we were thrashed. However the bounce had improved and the outfield quickened up a bit over the afternoon so they’d had the best of the conditions. If we’d held a catch or two it could have been closer. Nevertheless they were a tight bowling side and in truth were the better team but it wasn’t a mismatch.
