Broadhalfpenny BrigandsBroadhalfpenny Brigands vs Frimley Green Cricket ClubFGCC

A trip to the 'cradle of cricket' couldn't quite inspire FGCC to victory against Brigands CC in this timed game. Played on a ground where some of the earliest rules of the game were formulated, once again batsmen were guilty of not hanging around, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Losing the toss on a pleasant day in Hampshire, Jim promoted Suresh to opener to give him the chance to find a little form that's been lacking of late. Unfortunately he lasted two balls, given LBW to a delivery that looked from the boundary edge as if it was going down leg. This was to be the first of a handful of contentious umpiring calls, as after putting on 45 for the second wicket with Anu Mark was run out in farcical circumstances when a ball he'd tickled down to fine leg only crossed one of the two boundary lines, and when hurled back the Brigands wicket-keeper removed the bails leaving Mark well out of his ground. From there the rot set in - a succession of batsmen playing across the line or holing out, leaving FGCC 88-8 and facing another humiliating total. However, the captain had other ideas, and after being informed that 'we'll go straight into our innings once you're all out as tea won't be ready' Jim decided to upset the apple-cart. Ably assisted by Kaarthav (whose maturity in playing a solid defence-and-leave game belied his years), FGCC put on 53 for the 9th wicket, with young BBCC leggie Woolvine bowling some beautiful deliveries. It wasn't all a bore-fest though, as Jim smacked 3 4s off one Lovatt-Turner over, struck a massive 6 into the car park and even got his reverse sweep out. With time ticking down Jim danced down the track and got stumped, but with the score now looking a lot more respectable at 147 at least it gave FGCC something to bowl at...

...although unfortunately the Brigands openers (two lefties) were far from easy to knock over, playing some superbly timed shots in an opening stand of 82. With J Dingemans scoring 62 before he played on to Anu, and right-hander Cooper playing with some exquisite timing on his way to 32 before Anam had him LBW, FGCC were never in the game, with once again a couple of dropped catches and a close run-out call (for which Mark got reprimanded for showing contempt over) not going in our favour. Despite some late excitement at the end (with Anam taking 2 wickets and BBCC needing 1 to win), a final 4 off Anurag's bowling sealed the deal to see Brigands win convincingly with 15 overs left to spare.