Crouch End CC (29/5/2016) 

 

Result: Crouch End CC won by 7 wickets with 8 overs remaining

 

WCC 240 for 8 (40 overs)

 

McDonald 15, Laurie 54, Chaugule 14, Hogben 5, D Marshall 72, Douglas 5, Coombe 15, R.Black 13, Smee & Orwell 0 n.o.

 

DNB dŐInverno

 

Crouch End 242 for 3 (32 overs)

 

Moodie (he sure was) 158

 

Douglas 5-0-41-0, Orwell 10-1-53-2, Coombe 6-0-43-0, Black 6-0-55-0, Chaugule 5-0-42-1

 

Catches: 2 for Coombe

 

Debut: Chaugule

 

Having triumphed on the same ground only five days previously, the Weekenders had high hopes of extending their winning streak with this 40 over fixture. Blessed with youthful recruits in the ranks, Dan Marshall & Harry Coombe, complementing the usual old stagers, confidence was high on this hot Bank Holiday weekend. A muscular half-century from Dom Laurie, plus a classy 72 from Marshall Jnr, posted a usually unassailable 240-run target. 

 

But Crouch End were playing Kev Moodie, a sort of comic book villain in South-African-cricketing-form, usually found in their 1st XI ranks. He cross-batted all-comers into the vegetable patch or onto the little gravel road by the tennis courts for what seemed liked hours. As his runs accumulated in flurries, he seemed to get more and more irate, seemingly exasperated that his total dominance of the cricket game couldnŐt end the fixture in minutes instead of hours. Batting partners walked away from mid-pitch conferences shaking their heads. The self-indulgent blues rock drifting from a well-appointed bank holiday BBQ failed to raise the Enders spirits. But when Mr Moodie hammered debutant Sid Chaugule to a waiting Harry Coombe on the boundary, did a glimmer of hope appear? 

 

Sloppy blues rock made way for a funky brass-band playing modern classics, such as ÔNo DiggityŐ. Maybe the syncopated tuba got skipper going, so with some bowling changes, two quick wickets fell to give a sniff of another improbable twist in todayŐs proceedings. However the runs came with eight overs remaining, and a small party of Weekenders journeyed to The Belash where they buried their troubles under mountains of daal.