Arriving at Harrow St Mary's CC you are greeted by a delightful clubhouse on the right and a field of the biggest cows to walk the face of the earth on the left who gave cow corner a whole new meaning. I provide photo evidence. You walk onto the ground and there you find HSM 1st team preparing for their premiership match. A lovely looking wicket, Coloured kits, pink balls and our chairman ready to umpire. It really was a sight to behold......We are then led to the pitch hosting our game, which was also a sight to behold in its own way. A wicket greener than the emerald isle on St Patrick's day and an outfield which, once the footballers had cleared off, was clear to see had fallen victim to the most savage of mole attacks the previous night.
But we are Wembley and we are not deterred by penurious conditions. It was a toss to win and win it our skipper did. Putting HSM into bat in trying conditions.
Wembley old boys a plenty at HSM, John Gale unfortunately unavailable but Murphy proved ample replacement. Wearing his full Wembley kit whilst fielding as a sign of respect or banter. Most likely the latter.
HSM sent out the Asian versions of Boycott and Atherton to the crease. Forward defensive.....leave.....forward defensive.....leave and on it went....ZZZZZZZ...... It was tough going for them on an admittedly slow wicket. 75-1 in 25 overs led to sledging of 'Batting for day 2 here lads' and 'Borrrrring' from the Wembley fielders much to our own amusement, who were, in fact laughing so hard at their own sledges that they managed to drop 7/8 chances over the course of the innings allowing HSM to somehow amass a total of 225 - 4 from the 45 overs. Including the second highest scorer for HSM 46 for the extras column. A notable mention to Faisal Azizi who took three wickets in the innings.
Despite the nature of the wicket we were confident this could/should be chased down. But the fall of the openers early led to us needing a rebuilding job. Faisal (78) and AK47 (63) were up to the task. Mixing controlled batting with aggression to put on a partnership of 151 for the 3rd wicket. 170-3 from 36 overs, left us needing 56 to win from 9 with 7 wickets in hand...It looked a sure thing but this wicket was still not easy for the new batsman. Unfortunately we lacked the composure needed to bring it home, batting like we were chasing 100 in 9, losing our last 8 wickets for 37 runs and crashing to defeat. 2 losing bonus points but a disappointing loss after being put into a relatively strong position.
Next week the resumption of time games and hopefully a return to winning ways for Wembley 3's at home to Harrow Town.
MB