Turning up bleary eyed, hellishly sore and certainly sleep derived, I opted for a sensible driving option to ensure (1) that I would not drink and (2) I won’t need to carry my giant bag home on public transport. I was locked in for a chilled day in the sun with some great ploughmates and a nice sunny day of sensible cricket.

Arriving to see most of the oppo already present and laughing at the pavilion with Walton patrolling with a broom and using it to practice cover drives he is not known to play, and a handful of the Plough in sight. Turned out many of our number (including the skipper) had fallen victim either to the previous evening or the woes of TfL.

At the arrival of the skipper we were alarmed to hear him say that regardless of the conditions, we would be bowling first. Looking around at the glorious sunshine and a fairly nice deck and outfield on the Nursery ground we assumed he was joking and went about our various forms of warm ups.

Harry was not joking…

Winning the toss he elected to bowl first for reasons only known to him. So getting over the initial incredulity the Plough took to the field with many a plough on. Up stepped new boy Aman Jain to bowl some tidy right arm fast, with yours truly opening from the other end with some right arm “will get there eventually”.

Unfortunately, the conditions were perfect for batting and Umar got a spanking in the first 2 over to swiftly be replaced by Giordy The Agenda. Unfortunately for the plough the Ls kept coming with the Oppo batsmen tearing apart the big quick in an expensive spell. At the other end Aman kept coming finally taking one of their openers.

From here, the memory goes a little hazy, as the Downsiders piled on run after run, getting close to 300 with several dropped catches and two of their batters reaching 80+ (we won’t talk about the skipper dropping one of these boy at the beginning of his innings).

Some of the highlights of the fielding included an absolute snag by Student. Grant showing class is permanent by taking an excellent grab at a floaty 1st/2nd slip. Benny Cobbett showing his ongoing development as a tweaker with an excellent spell and bowling in tandem with Sandeep and his excellent leggies.

Downsiders finished on 294 for 9. Figures of 3-47 for Cobbett, 2-45 for Iqbal and 2-37 from Sandeep. The scorebook makes a note about Sandeep’s anger at a misfield, however, based on the performance it would be hard to pinpoint which misfield that is referring to.
Quick shoutout too to Mo Khan on his short and effective spell that put fear in my heart at cow each time the ball came down with frost on it.
The batting for the Plough did not improve on the day.

Having bowled 6 overs I was excited to sit down, do some scoring in the warmth and maybe just maybe catch a tan. From the moment the Plough went out to bat, the weather turned cloudy and there was a breeze across the DSG finally threatening to help the seamers.
In typical Harry Davies fashion, the skipper went out fighting the oppo whilst redoing his pads to delay the start. In his defence, they were all already on the field, doing an odd humping type of exercise.

Continuing his dogged banter and batting, Harry played and missed at many balls illicitting “oooohs”, “ahhhhs”, and sterner reactions as Walton and Co ran in to take advantage of the cloudy breezy conditions.

With Harry was a man who may as well be allergic to playing a cricket match. The unusual sight of Prithu Bannerjee in white, while glorious at the beginning of the day, was subdued as he walked out to open the batting with his skipper. As someone who lives in his head about his cricketing abilities, I can tell you Prithu was still thinking about his brief bowling spell as he was bowled shortly for 1.

New boy Harry Bray joined the skipper in the middle at number 3 and displayed a dogged attitude towards the bowling using his eagle eyes and a chopped pull/slash to score a majority of his 31. At the other end the skipper seemed to have found the middle of the pencil he calls a bat and started scoring some crisp drives ending on 17.

Student went out as our saviour, finally some class and elegance at the crease as well as the wide brim cap that he pulls off so easily, what a site to behold! Just as it looked as though we were settling in he was unfortunately bowled for 10.

Rob Mead joined Bray in the middle for a short spell, unfortunately, the plough continued to lose wickets. The only glimmer of batting hope being Cobbett (23) and Jain (20). Yours truly fell for the age old “bring the fielder in and make the batsman hit over the top”. Maybe I’ll not to do that one day.

Plough all out for 146, well short of the target. A damper on an otherwise excellent weekend.
However, we move forward and take the positives with us:

• How good is it to see Grant back on the field for the Plough – more please Student, we all miss you.
• Mo Khan can bowl it into the sky and still land it on a length.
• Harry Davies sometimes can find the middle of a bat better suited in a museum or signed and left in the trophy cabinet at the G.
• Benny Cobbett is getting better and better at tweaking the ball just so
• Rob Mead has a great head for cricket, if you need technical analysis of your game he is your man.

Another weekend coming up, with all new games and all new oppos. Next time we’ll be prepared for the quality of players John “Wassim Akram” Walton plays with.

Plough on!

Match report from Umar Iqbal