Bengeo.

Report vs Bengeo

Match Report
Date 15/06/2025 
Oppo Bengeo (a)
Type 40 Overs
Report by Ollie Buck

 
As the start time rapidly approached, skipper Ian Richardson stood bewildered in the quiet town of Bengeo, as only he and Dano had arrived by 12:55… Ritzy questioned 
whether he’d missed the memo about the fixture being cancelled, but as the clock struck 12:58 a Mini Cooper screeched into the car park and out poured the majority of 
the team who’d been crammed in the back all the way from East London. The car-full of LOSCC players would have been on time, had it not been for Daji’s request to stop 
off at Tesco Extra to pick up some supplements for his tea, and Alan “The Wall Of Walthamstow” Syrett needing to pick up some pain killers to get him through the game 
(although had conveniently forgotten his wallet when he got to the till, and still owes John Hayes £2.97).

Seeing as it was Fathers day, it was fitting that The O’s were playing a VERY youthful Bengeo side, of which the average age of the XI would most likely have been old 
enough to be the age of a great grandchild for most O’s players.

Orient & Bengeo mutually agreed that The O’s would bat first in this match-up, which was handy as opening batsman Sandeep Barrot was still AWOL as the Bengo fielders made 
their way to the outfield. Skipper Richardson stepped up to the plate and took the role of opening batsman alongside Stef Minkey. Their goal was simple… just last long 
enough against the 12 year old bowlers for Sandeep to arrive.

As the innings got under way, Felix Daji and Jack Baker-Merry made their way to the nets, as Jack was looking to step up rehabilitation as he looks to return next week 
against Chigwell, and Daji was hoping to teach Ollie Buck how to bowl a ball in the rough vicinity of the stumps. More to come on that later.
Back out on the crease, Minkey & Richardson had just about completed their goal of holding out for Sandeep, but their wickets did fall early doors for a score of 7 
between them, paving the way for Alex Baker-Merry in at 3, who was very shortly later joined by the elusive Barrot, but Sandeep certainly made up for lost time. A very 
impressive partnership saw Sandeep hit a smart 52* in 47 balls, and Alex Baker-Merry making a personal best for LOSCC of 43 in 38 Balls, to put The O’s firmly in the 
driving seat. However, there was some tension back at the pavilion when A. Baker-Merry returned, as he learnt that just a few balls before he was caught, Jack had 
uttered the words “Alex has never hit a 50 before”, knowing full well this would jinx his brother and stop him from matching his own achievement of his first 50 at Bengeo 
last season! This lead to a heated debate about who was the better player, with Alex bringing out the big guns and asking, “Yeah but have you ever won player of the season 
mate?”. The skipper had to take both siblings into the dressing room to sort the squabble out behind doors.

Approaching the middle order of the batting, up stepped Chintan Shah, and The Walthamstow Wall (Alan Syrett). Whilst waiting for his time to shine, The Wall had been 
waxing lyrical about how he “cracked on” the day before when playing for Walthamstow and had played really aggressively. When questioned on this by the Skipper, it 
transpired “Cracking on” equated to “cracking a nice 4”, and the rest of the details were fairly shady… but out went Al to crack on for the O’s. However, like a Headmaster 
and his pupils, The Wall was not impressed with the chatter amongst the children of Bengeo in the outfield, and refused to face the ball countless times until the outfield 
would keep it hush. The newly dubbed “Wall of Silence” did crack on, racking up 8 runs in 9 balls, being caught out to leave Chintan Shah to tidy up with the tailenders. 
Shah hit a tidy 37*, including 3 x 4s, and one 6 that smashed up a resident’s nearby guttering, to leave the O’s on a respectable 255 for 9 (we’ll ignore the 60 extras).

Moving into the second innings, having seen Ollie Buck and John Hayes warming up in the nets earlier at Daji’s school of bowling, the skipper made a bold call, and told 
the dynamic duo: “Right lads, you’re both getting 8 overs today”. It was The Walthamstow Wall, and our overseas Australian bowler Daji to open the bowling however, and 
both took early wickets against the opening batsmen to get The O’s off to a flier. There were some questionable scenes when A. Syrett bowled out 13-year-old V. Domandia 
and proceeded to raise both arms aloft to the pavilion, a la Jude Bellingham, and shouted “WHO ELSE?!”, as Domandia trudged off to his father’s arms in tears.
As Bengeo’s innings settled down, the skipper turned to his dynamic duo and up stepped Big John Hayes with the ball in his hand, and after a few overs, the skipper 
advised John to cut his 200-metre run up down to just a 2 metre one, and this advice paid fruitful. Hayes shortly after bowled a beautiful delivery to F. Simpson, which 
hit him plum in the pads and the umpire ruled it LBW, as the useful Simpson left the field for a score of 30. With the fall of this wicket, Bengo’s middle order, with a 
combined age and height of 18 and 5”10, stepped up to the crease. With Daji’s bowling coaching fresh in his mind, after bowling 2 overs, and being slapped around for 
nearly 30 runs by a pair of children, Buck’s head was in the gutter, but with some inspirational words from the skipper, he decided to bowl around the wicket and down the 
hill, which saw great joy for the chubby, slow, hopeless bowler, and picked up a wicket. This saw Bengeo’s one and only adult batsmen from the first team come in to try 
and shore things up, and as Buck picked up the ball the skipper said to him “If you can get this bloke out, I’ll kiss you”. Desperate for the loving touch of Ian’s lips, 
Buck bowled a straight and slow ball to C. Smith, that was put straight into the hands of Daji. With lips puckered, Buck and Ritzy shared a moment in celebration and 
Buck’s thoughts quickly turned to more wickets. Going into his eight and final over, Buck picked up two early wickets, leaving him with 2 balls to secure the unimaginable 
5fer… with anticipation building around Bengeo, he bowled his penultimate ball wide which lead to him celebrating the second chance almost as if he’d taken a wicket, but 
sadly, the final ball was hit for four, meaning he’ll have to wait for the same fixture next year to try again against the children of Bengeo, who will unfortunately, be 
a year older and probably much better than Buck by this point.
The skipper then picked up the ball and took the final wicket, bowling out R Dover for 5 runs, and leaving Bengo 122 all out, and the skipper apologising profusely to 
Shah for his lack of bowling action, exclaiming “there was no way I thought Buck would get any wickets today, I was sure we’d need you”.

Following the conclusion of the game, headmaster/Wall of Silence/Jude Bellignham rounded up his pupils one more time for the customary Alan Syrett team photo, and the O’s 
enjoyed some cold beers in the late Hartford sun, enjoying back to back victories, with eyes turning to the next game against Chigwell, which will see the highly 
anticipated return of a certain Sir Jack Baker-Merry, looking to make up for lost ground and continue the heated sibling rivalry.
 
Up The O’s!

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© Dave Revell