LOSCC vs Hockerill

Report vs Hockerill

Match Report
Date 19/06/11 
Oppo – Hockerill (A)
Type – Time game
Report By Michael O’Leary


40 days and 40 nights of rain abated as Noah’s Ark made its way North up the M11 to seek drier pastures 
in the biblical setting of Hockerill. The animals disembarked, the odd lion, one of two elephants, a couple 
of laughing hyenas, a tortoise and several bunnies, along with two stray seafarers. Skipper Noah won the 
toss and decided to take to the field, fearing the rains would again appear later.

With a limited bowling attack, Noah’s XI controlled the opening overs with Tooth and Revell limiting the 
score to 50-1 from the first 15 overs. Tooth taking a straight forward caught & bowled to dismiss Noonan. 
With spin the only other available bowling option, Ravi came on for a possible repeat marathon bowling 
session, and within a few overs took two consecutive caught & bowled. Three wickets down, three caught & 
bowled. A new statistic for Les ‘Frindall’ Edwards.

This brought Thompson to the crease to partner the run making West Indian import by the name of Viv ‘Jegdeo’ Richards,
who started unleashing boundaries in between a quick run to the Post Office to withdraw his pension. The old timer, 
who needed a runner after his third single, simply stood and whacked the ball to all directions in reaching his ton. 
Two further wickets from Hillier kept Hockerill to 227-5 declared, in a long innings of 50 overs. The O’s bowlers 
did their best to try and contain Hockerill, with Hiscock, Hillier and Runeckles all returning respectable figures 
for the last ten overs of the innings.

After an uneventful tea, and with the prospect of only batting for 40 or so overs, Tooth and James faced some 
very tidy bowling but managed to keep the scoreboard ticking along without losing an early wicket. This gave 
the rest of the O’s chaps a chance to keep an eye on the match going on at the other pitch, with Buntingford 
racing to 275 for 37 wickets before tea, it seemed Hockerill knocked it off for just 25 wickets. A game that 
had a boundary, followed by a wicket, followed by a Ryan Air flypast from Stansted. There was most definitely 
a growing feeling of Groundhog Day.  Mulholland would have been counting 757’s in his sleep that evening.

Eyes back on the proper match as Tooth neared his half century, Bob James may even have got off the mark if we 
had all been taking notice. On 49 and looking invincible, Tooth holed out to a fine catch at deep mid wicket. 
This brought Bob Marsh to the crease, and a warning has now been sent to Cathy at Godshill, watch out this year
on our tour match as the ‘Plump Lad’ is on fire.

Marsh played one of his finest innings for the O’s, seven excellently and accurately struck boundaries, all between 
square leg and backward square leg. Mulholland at the other end, with one eye on the scoreboard, the other looking 
skywards for another spectacle from the Ryan Air Display Squadron, kept the score moving ever nearer to the target 
set by Hockerill. With the increasing run rate, Hockerill turned to their opening first team strike bowler to tame 
the ‘in form’ batsmen, resulting in the match ending a ‘winning draw’ for the O’s.

202-2 after 42 overs, a very good response.
 

Return to Main Page

© Dave Revell