It was the day after Max moved to fourth in the Plough all-time run scorers list. What is striking about the stat is just how few innings it has taken him to get there – about a third of Nick Ridgway’s, immediately below him, and fewer than half of Dyll Davies, the place above, and much smaller fractions of the people further up the list. He would need about 1000 on Sunday to move a further place up the list, so it seemed unlikely, but at that stage I don’t think anybody would have been surprised if he had.

We convened at the DSG in bright sunlight (of course, it’s 2025, it’s always sunny), but with a strong wind. Can we talk about the wind this year? Every time I have played at the DSG this year the wind has been fierce, which is really energy sapping, and makes scoring a complete nightmare.

Max had issued a hardline rule: anyone who was late would find themselves batting down the order. Briefly it looked like we were going to be opening with Cosgrove and Nigel Stephenson, but then (most of) the rest of the team turned up, so the arranged batting order was stuck to. We were playing Cricketers CC. We had played them earlier in the year on a spicy pitch at their home on Richmond Green, a match that thrillingly ended in a tie. We had a much stronger team, on paper, this weekend, but it was hard to tell how well they would go away from home, on a Nursery track where you could reasonably predict where the ball was going to bounce.

There was no match on Belair, which made the G seem strangely empty.

It is often said that you should have contrasting opening partners, and they don’t get more contrasting than Ean and Nealon. They started well enough, with Ean hitting a four, and Nealon hitting a mammoth six over cover point that ended up on Belair. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see how effective it could have been, with Nealon being given out under controversial circumstances. He tried to hook their quicker bowler. He was convinced he didn’t get an edge, but their keeper and slip were adamant he had. Giordy, umpiring, didn’t help matters by putting his finger up almost as soon the appeal had started, but then saying ‘actually, no, not out’. Eventually, a consensus was reached that he was out. Ean was then bowled shortly afterwards, so it was down to Cosgrove and Gumpert to consolidate. Well, Cosgrove consolidated; Gumpert doesn’t do consolidation.

One of their bowlers was bowling seriously quickly, raising slightly worrying thoughts of what it would be like to face him on Richmond Green. It would be a seriously frightening prospect. He did seem to be bowling from the bowling crease; maybe he needs t ogive batters that extra metre of reaction time to avoid killing anyone.

On around 40, Gumpert poked the ball straight to their skipper, who was only fielding at slip because he was coming back from an ACL injury and couldn’t run. He juggled the ball but finally dropped it on the fifth attempt. He knew exactly how big a mistake he had made, but Max decided to rub it in by pointing out that was the first chance he had given up in about 500 runs.

The plan was to stay in until drinks, but Cosgrove played a loose drive and was caught at backward point, for a partnership of 71 (no prizes for guessing who contributed more runs). This brought in Nair, who knew he was the support act. He said it was the slowest he had ever batted. Once Max had got past 100 (again) he started to open up. He was starting to flag a bit, and tired shot went straight up in the air and dropped into the no-man’s land between slip, point and cover. The skipper, despite not being able to run, got their first, and dropped Max for the second time (or sixth time, if you count all the attempts at the first chance). This time wasn’t quite as costly, as Max was stumped not long after for a routine 135 (95 balls), and a partnership of 135.

This brought in Azarul for a little cameo slapping a couple of fours, and then Gordon-Walker who hit 5 off 3 and was not out at the end, together with Nair who was unlucky to be stranded on 47*. The final score was 262 off our 40, which was a decent effort, but we know how quickly runs can be scored on Nursery, so we still had a job to do to defend it.

Max started, conventionally enough, with Giordy at one end. More interestingly, he started with Cash at the other end. Both bowled well, and Giordy in particular was unlucky not to get a wicket. Cash got the breakthrough in his third over when one of the openers launched the ball high to long on, straight into Max’s meaty, mighty mitts. The next ball, the new bat got a big inside edge and Gordon-Walker took an excellent diving catch down the leg side. It was so good, that it took a few moments for batter and umpire to work out what had happened.

Max brought Azarul on. Unusually, this did not result in splattered stumps. His second ball got an edge that flew to Nair’s right at slip, but it was too fast and too wide for him to get anything other than fingers to it. Although he didn’t take a wicket, Aza bowled tightly and kept the scoring rate down.

Cash bowled straight through, and picked up another wicket in his seventh over, a wicket maiden, as Giordy took a top edge at point, to finish with 3-30. And after that, no wickets for a while. Max juggled his bowlers, looking for a breakthrough. He brought on Payne in the over after drinks, who started with a maiden and bowled a tight spell without any luck. Their quick bowler brought up his ton with a big six over long on, and then in the same over hit an even bigger six that hit the top of one of the oaks between Nursery and Belair. It felt like the game was slipping away from us, until Nealon blew it wide open by getting the centurion caught at point and then two balls later bowling the other set bat. They were still in the game, though, with an achievable run rate, and any result seemed possible – even a second tie. But from there, we strangled the game, with Nealon taking another two. Max obviously felt the oppo hadn’t seen enough of him and brought himself on for two overs, picking up a wicket to round off a spectacular afternoon for him. After that, it was too much for them, and they finished 8 wickets down and 18 runs short.

So that was two cracking matches against Cricketers this year, and they were both played in great spirits, despite a few controversial incidents that could have threatened to boil over.

Match report from Andrew Cosgrove