Bogey Team Strike Again... 1xi vs West End

Match Report by Sir Matty of D

Bolton Wanderers are generally considerred to be a bogey team for Arsenal. It used to be Liverpool, with Robbie Fowler seemingly always scoring hat tricks against us. My well informed Spurs supporting friends inform me that Wolves are the team they hate playing. Tottenham always boss them, but somehow manage to always lose 1-0. Wigan don't like playing Chelsea (although who does?), Birmingham always come up short against Villa, and HWRCC always seem to struggle against West End Esher. Its written in the stars.

Davies, Ali, Rashid, Raza, Crowther, Cronin, High, Ewen, Tong, Holland+, Unsworth.

HWRCC bated first and lost Davies early on to a ball he should have ducked, opting instead to glove it behind. Ali and Rashid then combined to move the score along to a healthy 72 before Ali holed out on the boundary. This brought Raza to the crease whose 70 from 64 balls was the batting highlight of the day - a masterclass in running 2s and manouvering the ball. A lack of support from the middle order, Cronin being a run a ball 21 exception, meant Kam was unable to relax and fell just at the time when a few lusty hits would have taken the game beyond West End. As it was, Ewen's 200% strike rate and some Tongshan scoops moved the score on to a more than respectable 221. The track was a road and did nothing once the shine left the cherry. The outfield was like corrugated iron, but also glass. Glass corrugated iron if you will.

Teas - same. The bread especially soft and the egg especially smelly. I do seem to rememebr some bacon rashers also - that was a pleasant surprise.

221 was 20 runs shy, but more than enough to win, and it would take some getting. The missing Tughral would be a concern and a track suited to spin, but such is a long season that you can't have everyone available all of the time.

Ewen was on the money first up, bossing his way to the first nut, lbw with the score on 5. The followed the 'story'. As Sisso pointed out to me a few years ago, only losers tell stories, whilst winners celebrate. Well, heres the story....

To compare the stand out innings for West End with Raza's, would be like comparing Wayne Rooney with Wayne Hemmingway. Raza's innings wasn't perfect, but the innings of West End Esher #3 was the single luckiest knock I think I've ever seen. He played and missed more times than he will have been pleased with and the ball hit him and squirmed around the stumps at least 10 times. It was frustrating stuff to watch but he made the most of his opportunity which is the key reason that West End won what would have been a tight encounter. Left me wondering what I had to do to miss that bouncer and get 75 of my own runs...

Having said that, he was dropped twice, one almost impossible (Ewen's leavers being the only reason you would consider it a chance) and the other swooshing over 2nd slip's head. He was dropped right at the end also, but the game was up by then, so that doesn't count. In complete contrast, the other opener batted very well - not perfect by any means (a penshant for lollipops over cover), but showed very good discipline against a probing Wick attack. The #4, probably their best bat, also was impressive with his 30, hitting the ball hard and straight.

The Wick in the field? Not bad. Aside from the drops mentioned above, the catching was sound, and given the state of the outfield the fielding was as committed as it could have been. Maybe 15 runs could have been saved... The bowling however was as always excellent. Ewen in particular showing great control and beating the bat too many times to be real - we went throguh every emotion: confidence, frustration, embarassment, frustration again, anger, resignation, insanity and then indifference, as it became obvious that this was the #3's day and that was that.

In conclusion a very good game of cricket. A typical game of cricket in fact. You don't always get what you deserve, but lets not take anything away from West End, who chased 221 against our attack, and in good time as well. I'm left, on Sunday morning, wondering about the distribution of luck... some guys have all of it...