Match report
Some things in life are supposed to be short and sweet. An evening stroll, Justin Cash, and this match report. Our visit Wimbledon Corinthians CC on Saturday transpired to be one of those days as our dear captain Tom Lonnen said “to look for the positives”. So I’ve done some head-scratching and found a couple:
We managed to field a full 11
With some challenging availability conundrums facing the selections committee, the 2’s were able to cobble together what looked on paper to be a spicy and handsome XI. With a devastating bowling attack balanced with some proven hitting prowess, confidence was high as we arrived at Raynes Park. We were lucky enough to have Will Curtis running recruitment over the week to call in some new Brockwell Park Nets talent, Bruno Cameran and Prithu Banerjee who made their first of hopefully many starts for the Plough. Fresh off the plane from the south of Spain, we were also happy to see League 1 bowling celebrity Oli Lonsdale arriving just before play. League Debuts for Max Wright and the Crane also had “Runs” written all over it.
We batted the full 40 overs
Prithu and Will Stevens made a watchful opening start, and it became clear that runs weren’t going to be easy to come by. Chat of “This is actually a high scoring ground” from the Wimbledon Corinthians CC chairman was greeted with a few sideways looks from the scoring committee as what looked like a hard deck quickly revealed itself to be a rollercoaster of variable bounce, with balls either popping up into your helmet or rolling through on to the stumps. Will Curtis and Tom Lonnen were both able to get starts, but 72-3 quickly turned into 87-7 as we suffered a quick middle-order collapse. Aza and the Crane were able to steady the ship, but accurate bowling didn’t give many freebies away. Aza top scored with 28 and Benny was able to come in and bash 14 off 14 in the last few overs to get the Plough to 162/8 off 40.
“I reckon we’ve got 30 too many here” – Tom Lonnen, 2022. A quote that will live in infamy.
That’s about it for the positives.
The next hour in the field was a ‘humbling’ experience to put it lightly, as we watched all our fielding and bowling practice at the DSG go out the door. Missed lengths and miss-fields were, unfortunately, the order of the day, as the Wimbledon batters punished every bad ball, chasing the total down in a rapid 18.1 overs. I would be remiss to not also give credit to their 3rd top run-scorer; ‘Extra’s’ with a fine knock of 33. Lonnen lead by example with a fine spell of bowling and was able to pick up two conciliation wickets, but unfortunately, the damage was done.
After our tough day at the office, we still all headed to the Raynes Park Tavern to enjoy our longer-than-anticipated evening. A few pints, a few laughs, and some transport planning back to the DSG to kick on the evening with the 1’s proved that even if we did have a sh*t day out, we still play for the best damn cricket club in the world.
The Crane (Caw Caw)
