Saturday 11 July saw the Plough 1s head deep into the vast wilderness of Surrey to take on Wallington.

With a warm Saturday afternoon forecast, it was a welcome relief to all teammates when skipper McGurn won the toss and said “We’ll have a bat, thanks”.

Opening up with Boss and McGurn, the Plough started steadily and solidly as McGurn played some sumptuous shots off both the back and front foot, and the Plough score soon passed 50. With McGurn flourishing at one end, Boss was the anchor at the other end, contrary to his aggressive standards (I recall that his first ever game was a meandering 38-ball 100). Boss then tried to send one into the neighbouring village and nicked off with the score on 57.

The writer went to pad up and that was when an incident of controversy occurred, so my recollection is based purely off hearsay. Apparently, a ball tracking towards the stumps was “smashed” by skipper McGurn before then hitting his pad. Much to McGurn’s dismay, he was adjudged LBW and a flourishing knock of 37 from 44 balls was brought to an abrupt end.

One of the toughest and worst parts of playing our standard of cricket is giving your mate out LBW (let alone the skipper). That is heightened when the bat thinks that he is not out (or there is too much doubt). But that’s part of the game and adjudicating fairly is something we as a club properly and rightly espouse. It was admirable (and probably a tad too soon for my liking) that the umpire explained his decision shortly later, at drinks. Braver man than me. But all is water under the bridge, and that’s the way the game goes sometimes.

With the loss of two quick wickets, it was time for the Ainslie (31) and Butlin (60) show. And some show that was. Butlin smoking them through the covers or flicking them off his pads was a joy to watch, while Ainslie was his usual resolute self, putting the bad balls away. The pair put on 86 for the third wicket and batted for 20 overs, laying a great platform for the middle and lower order to flourish.

One particularly comical moment involved a piece of running whereby both batters ended up at the same end because one was ball-watching (won’t name names) and thought the ball had gone to the boundary. Fortunately, neither lost their wicket in that calamitous moment.

Unfortunately, although the top order had laid a great platform, we failed to punish Wallington in the final 10 overs and were on the receiving end of an emphatic collapse. From 143-2 after 32 overs, we folded to 197 all out in 42.3 overs. Criminal, really.

Special mention goes to Marz, who launched a huge six into the back garden of a house where a family were enjoying a leisurely Saturday lunch, and Benny, who middled everything apart from the top edge that flew to the fielder at deep fine leg. Credit must go to Wallington, who were very safe catchers in the field.

It was then time for some nice tea.

With Wallington requiring 198 from 45 overs, it was CRS and Qammar to open the bowling. There was one problem, though. As the Plough stood ready in the field to commence proceedings, it soon became apparent that we only had 10 players, with Qammar nowhere to be seen. He had gone walkabout around the clubhouse, perhaps still savouring the “nice tea”, and skipper McGurn had to run off and drag him out. All of this delayed proceedings by five minutes or so. Mind games, perhaps, for the openers waiting to start the chase.

When proceedings did finally resume, the steady line and length of CRS and the sharp pace of Q from the other end got us underway. I felt confident that we’d be okay. Qammar soon had their opener caught thanks to a great sky catch from Benny, and then CRS had their classy opener caught at mid-off after one dug in a little more than expected. When AJ Haque picked up his first wicket on his well-received return to the Plough with a customary in-swinging bowled dismissal, we had Wallington at 65-3 at drinks and were well and truly in the game.

But like most games, there are ebbs and flows, and the opposition are allowed to play well. And play well they did between overs 15 and 30. Despite Aman getting a deserved breakthrough, Wallington’s middle order played with a sense of urgency and were able to find the gaps and the odd boundary despite tight bowling. At the second drinks break it was 135-4, and we knew we needed something special to get back into the game.

Cue Q and AJ Haque returning for their second spells. Q made the initial breakthrough before Azza started steamrolling through the lower order, picking up a well-deserved five-for in the process (5-42 off 9).

A grandstand finish awaited after six long hours of toil from both sides.

Amidst all of that, there was confusion as to how many overs our seamers had bowled, as their scorers did not quite share the same appetite for precision and meticulousness as our Scorers’ Union champions. CRS summed it up aptly when they asked for the bowler’s name and he responded: “Whatever you choose to do, do it correctly.” Aptly put. In fact, now looking at their scorecard compared to ours, the contrast in quality is striking. Wallington simply appeared to abandon proper scoring as the game went down to the wire.

Meanwhile, in the middle, tensions were rising with every passing minute as AJ continued his scintillating spell, repeatedly knocking over the stumps. When he trapped their set number five bat in the 41st over, with Wallington still needing 20-odd runs and only the final wicket remaining, the stage was set.

Despite us running through their lower order, bizarrely Wallington’s number 11 looked handy with the bat. As Wallington whittled down the target, the Plough were able to take it to the final over.

The equation was simple: 2 runs to win from 6 balls, 1 wicket remaining. In comes the field. CRS to bowl. Dot ball, to start. Dot ball again next ball. Two swings and misses. Third ball another dot. Fourth ball: batter gets bat on ball, but Boss cut it off. Could CRS bowl a maiden in the 45th over with the game on the line? Wouldn’t put it past him. Agonisingly, their number 11 gets enough bat on a pull shot to sky it just beyond the reach of mid-wicket, and they scamper through for two.

A really close loss, but one in which the spirit of the Plough came to the fore. We were dead and buried after 30 overs but battled our way back into the game and took it right to the wire. Ultimately, we paid the price for not batting our overs

Fortunately, the camaraderie and support network at the club remain excellent, and we were able to reminisce over a soft drink or pint back at the clubhouse before venturing to the DSG for the World Cup quarter final, where England enjoyed the sort of luck that had deserted the Plough earlier in the day (looking at you SpiderCam).

Onwards to the next one.

Match report from Alex Jullienne