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Match Summary: vs. Morden Corinthians, Sunday, 02 Sep 2007

Ground: King's House Sports Ground
Captain: Andrew Wingfield
Match type: 40 overs
Toss: Morden elected to bat
Weather: Sunny
Opposition: Morden Corinthians scored: 228 for 7 (40 overs)
Exiles Score: 137 for 8 (40 overs)
Result: Lost by 91 runs
Man of the match: Keith Roberts 39 runs

charts of Exiles wicket partnerships for this match
Score board
 Batsmen RunsBalls4s6s
Keith Roberts ct. 39  89 
Quentin Davies b. 
John Tither retired - hurt 18  48 
Amil Patel ct. 21  24 
Mark Bradshaw ct.  11 
Wil Scott (W)ct. 15  31 
Robin Airey hit wicket 
Kristian Armstrong ct. 
Philip Humphreys not out  15 
10 Andrew Wingfield (C)ct. 
11 Naren Patel dnb      
  Extra(s)  6w 13b 2lb   21      
    137  240   
Bowling
 BowlerOMRWAvg
Andrew Wingfield  8.0 37 37
Naren Patel  8.0 48 0
John Tither  8.0 35 11.7
Robin Airey  5.0 41 41
Philip Humphreys  7.0 45 45
Keith Roberts  4.0 19 19
Wicket Keeping and Fielding
PlayerCatchRun OutStumpingPenalty
Naren Patel    
Andrew Wingfield    
Amil Patel    
John Tither    

And so we assembled once more at an unusually heavily populated Chiswick (tennis players, pilates-practictioners and what not) to take on Morden Corinthians, one of our more testing oppositions. First the team news - on their side, no sign of the stout South African who flayed us to all parts last season (hurrah!), but equally no sign of the imposing figure of Graham Pinkney, who's bowling had so often deceived us with its extravagant flight (shame!). On our side, the blessed return of two veterans - Robin Airey up from Cornwall for his annual cricketing outing with the Exiles, and Kristian Armstrong, taking a brief break from the joys of fatherhood.

To the business end then. Skipper lost the toss - no surprise there then. His performance with the coin will soon be attracting the interest of the Guinness Book of Records. The opposition chose to bat, and the signs looked ominous from the first over as one opener shimmied down the pitch to whip Andy through square leg for three. All the more creditable then that Andy and Naren restricted them to no more than thirty off the first ten overs. Kristian took the opportunity to demonstrate that, just like learning to ride a bicycle, once you've "got" being an Exile, it comes back effortlessly no matter how long you've been away. He fitted effortlessly into the side in the field… by dropping a catch off the skipper's bowling, just like most of the rest of the team have over the course of the season (including, I should point out, your author).

Sadly the first ten overs were merely a prelude, as one opener suddenly found his range and moved swiftly to fifty out of sixty-odd, including nearly taking Naren, whose was bowling, all the way to the long off boundary with one straight drive. Agonisingly, in more than one way, Naren's attempt to control the ball with his chest fell just out of reach of his clutching hands, as the rest of his body collapsed in a heap. Andy then turned to Rob, and the change did the trick with the opener skying to mid-on where Andy took a fine catch. Meanwhile, at the other end, fellow Newcastle supporter, John was working through his overs with his usual parsimony, ending up with excellent figures of 3-35. It was enough to bring a tear to the eyes of older exiles, as they recalled the halcyon days of Devlin and Airey teasing oppositions with their north-eastern oriented swing bowling.

The Exiles continued to just about match Morden in the face of threatening batting (so much for thinking the absence of Coetzer might have weakened their batting!). The skipper turned to Phil Humphreys and your author to take up the attack. Both managed to keep a lid on the scoring, initially, in their contrasting ways: Phil, by sticking to a good line and length; me, by (as Amil observed) bowling well to my field (ie deep midwicket and deep cow corner!), and, for variety, occasionally pitching the ball and allowing it to deviate (nb I make no claims for actual turn!). With ten overs to go, Morden's total was still within reasonable limits.

Sadly, the last ten overs did not mirror the first ten, and a further 89 runs were scored, with Andy, Phil and Naren on the receiving end of some spectacular batting. A quickfire fifty was reached, consecutive sixes were hit, and Andy added himself to the list of people who have dropped a (hard) catch off his bowling.

So off to tea, which saw the welcome return of samosas to the Chiswick menu.

How to describe the Exiles reply? Well, in mitigation, I should first record that it was already quite dark when we went out. We had probably started the match too late for the advanced state of the summer, we spent a fair time fetching during their innings to add to our usual test match over-rate, and the conditions were now thoroughly overcast. And the bowling was good. Quick and accurate from one end; accurate and awkward from the other. Anyway, to cut a long story a bit shorter, it was hard and slow-going. Q went early to a fast, straight delivery, and John and your author were forced to focus on survival as often as not, until John had to retire hurt with a trapped nerve in his neck, just as the scoring had begun to up a little. Amil's arrival helped speed things up further, as the gloom descended still further, such that the opposition skipper actually offered us the light!

Mindful of the mistakes made by England in the past, we chose to bat on. In retrospect, some might argue that this might qualify as unduly inspecting the dental work of a gift horse, but to accept would clearly not have been the Exiles way! Unfortunately, Amil went soon after, and then your author finally succeeded in holing out to long off (it only took three goes I think to finally find a fielder willing to accept a catch!). Not surprisingly, most of the rest of the batting line-up struggled in the darkness - Robin departing, puzzled by having been given out hit wicket, Kristian lasting only a couple of balls before his aggressive instincts took over and holing out (his post-innings quote sounding horribly like the old favourite "it was there to be hit"), and notwithstanding some meaty blows from Phil and the skipper, we subsided to 137-8 off our 40 overs. At which point, we formed a torchlight procession to the bar. Oh, did I mention that it was quite dark?!

Report By: Keith Roberts

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