London New Zealand

Match Report

The Stragglers hosted London New Zealand at Torry Hill for an inaugural fixture on one of the very few hot, sunny days on offer in this gloomy summer.  Once more the strip was fast and true, and an electric outfield was going to reward good shots.  Swallows skimmed the outfield, with the occasional buzzard patrolling overhead.  The match was one of two centuries, two substantial partnerships and one bowling performance of note – and, of course, the bowling performance made the difference.  The game also demonstrated the vagaries of live on-line scoring (via play-cricket.com), as the occasional misidentification of a player is rarely corrected on-line and lives on in the ether.  Thus, it came to pass that George Baker White, who rhymes inconveniently with Harry Wright, was recorded as having scored a lot of runs (which he did – see below) but also bowling almost unchanged, taking a wicket and holding three catches, of which he did very little.  The true record, recognising Harry Wright’s contribution in the field, is held in the vault of the Straggler archive.

The Stragglers were fielding first once more and made immediate inroads into the London NZ top order.  Hugo and Harry knocked over the opening pair, and Hugo and Kieran (2 for 28) continued to give batsmen a hard time, the score a modest 19 for 5 in the 8th over and 49 for 6 in the 12th.  Now, however, London NZ began to resist and to build a partnership.  Bowlers rotated, fielding became harder work, and it was not until the 32nd over that a breakthrough was achieved, Hugo again finding a way to knock over number 8 for 87, the score now 207 for 7, the partnership worth 158, and London NZ looking in much better shape.  Batsman number 3 marshalled the tail and reached his century before falling for 107 to a third catch by Harry off Hugo. The innings was brought to a swift end as Hugo (6 for 47) found another edge, held gratefully by Theo behind the stumps – London NZ all out for 241 in 38 overs.

Unusually, the Straggler top three were unchanged from the previous game, and this time George was not going to be outpaced by Tom McCarty, the score rattling along at nearly 10 an over.  Tom (26) fell in the 6th over and Harry joined George to take the Stragglers home by nine wickets in the 27th, a remarkable display of brutal batting, the partnership worth 188, George scoring 141* from 82 balls (with 27 fours and a strike rate of almost 172), and Harry 73* using up all of 61 balls, a more modest strike rate.  Behind them sat an unused Straggler batting line-up which was uncommonly strong.