Match Report

With the local Sir William Hoste XI somewhat short of early morning fielders, and occasional replacements arriving during the day, a similar format was agreed – this time two x T15 innings for each side.  Captain Benny accepted the offer of a bat, and, with almost all the Straggler party involved (2 umpires, 2 substitute fielders, two batsmen at the crease and one padded up along with a scorer) Benny decided to open with George. With a couple of left arm ‘quicks’, one of whom, Lenko, was a former opening bowler for Croatia, the proposition facing the openers was a little different, but the outcome was mostly more of the same.  After settling his nerves, George set off on the charge, racing to a half-century, while Benny contributed, mostly, in singles.  Another century partnership was ticked off (note that these two held the record for a Straggler opening partnership for 5 years until it was blown away by Harry Heming and Arthur Collins at Egerton in 2024).  They were not going to have time to regain their crown, although George was just about on track for a ton, if he could keep the strike. However, it was not to be, as Lenko knocked over the stumps to leave him on 75 of a 125-run partnership.  Both opening bats had been significantly supported by some woeful catching, which continued through all four innings, the number of catches going to ground well into double figures, to the extent that a successful catch was greeted by surprised disbelief. The cry of ‘welcome to the club’ greeted most drops as the game progressed.  Benny (48) followed swiftly to leave Charlie (12) and Archie to close the first innings on 143 for 2.

KP and the Chairman were first up again, both taking a wicket, which disrupted the possibility of an early push.  In an almost mirror of Pablo’s defiance of the pervious day, opener Stanko, who had an ability to turn almost every ball to leg, toyed with an increasingly Jardine-like leg trap, finding gaps, where none should have existed and frustrating most of the Straggler bowlers.  Again, as with Pablo the day before, just when the Straggs felt on top, he would surprise the packed legside field with a square cut.  However, all good things had to come to an end, and he was cleaned up by Toby. Having sat out for the second half of day one, Stabber returned to the fray as a limping slip fielder. However, he was not treated well by his fellow members of the cordon, as so many balls were being nudged past them, that he found himself having to limp to the rope rather too often. Tom and Archie (2 for 12) had done for the middle order, and the first innings closed on 94 for 6, a deficit of 49.

With a good lead on the board, Benny invited the Chairman to open with Mitch.  With fielders posted around the rope, singles were there for the taking in almost any direction, and the score ticked along, albeit with anything that might have been a boundary picked up by the widely posted fielders.  From time-to-time Mitch launched one into the vineyard and duly reached his half century with an enormous six over the shipping container (pavilion) and then retired to allow KP to the crease.  Singles kept on ticking along, with KP finding an occasional boundary.  Just when KP (18) was teeing up a grand finale, he holed out to a great catch on the vineyard boundary by Pradeep, who was duly awarded the champagne moment for succeeding with a catch, where most had failed. Hugo joined the Chairman, who ended the innings undefeated on 18*, a notably slim strike rate in a total of 99 for 1.

Asserting skipper’s prerogative, Benny also elected to open the bowling for the second SWH innings, as they sought to chase a target of 157 in their fifteen overs.  Benny (2 for 16) struck swiftly, with Hugo also picking up a scalp at the other end.  Now short of batsmen, who had been obliged to return to work, the principal objective of our hosts was to bat out their full contingent of overs, which was achieved, just, as Toby (2 for 12) made life difficult again in the closing overs.  With the last available man at the crease, the innings closed on 84 for 7, leaving the Straggs victorious by 64 runs.

By the end of the tour, the award for most involved fielder had to go to KP. It didn’t seem to matter which boundary he was protecting or patrolling a disproportionate number of shots went in his general direction, not directly to him, but in such a way that he was the closest fielder and thus obliged to run. He had begun day one with an early morning warm up run from the hotel; that foolishness was not repeated, although he was still running hard on the final morning, albeit for very different reasons.

Many thanks are due to Steve Haslemere for all of the arrangements on Vis, lunches, three-way cricket with the BBC Bushmen and the Sir William Hoste XI, a sumptuous dinner on Saturday night and all of the minutiae of making cricket happen.  Thank you.