Metropolitan Police Cricket Club Website

After a massive win last week, MPBCC 2nd XI continued their impressive run with another win against Chorleywood III.

Met Police Bushey won the toss and asked Chorleywood to bat first and for the second time this season captain Tony Nightingale began to regret his decision as Chorelywood raced to 40 runs in their first 10 overs. The introduction of Mike Burke (14-0-2-43) slowed the run rate down and was rewarded with the first wicket in the 14th over with the score at 48.  Clarke operating from the opposite end despite his usual one hundred percent effort, found little assistance from the wicket.

The Met boys toiled hard in the field with both Burke and Faulkner bowling more than their fair share of overs without deserved reward and Carter prowling impatiently in the deep like a caged tiger waiting for his opportunity.

In reply The Met kept up with the run rate but at the expense of regular wickets.  The wicket now resembling a scene out of The Clangers, showed no sign of getting easier and it would take some strong willed batting to get anywhere near the required total.   West, The Met’s  form batsman, appeared to have  one eye on the Western Terrace as he never really seemed comfortable against his old team mates, despite support from his mother.

Kris Perera at number three came in and changed the mood and sowed some seeds of doubt in the minds of the fielding side by hitting some powerful boundaries but unfortunately snuffed it, caught behind playing tentatively to a turning ball. 

Harry Lagdon was unable to add to his impressive season by holing out for 5, swinging across the line to a full toss attempting to send it back to Bushey. Rob Stevenson  displayed an intriguing  technique of playing left arm spin during his first six balls of his innings, which I can only assume inspired him to go on and hit  a quick fire 14.

Nightingale, mindful of his apparent `cock up, toss up’, held the innings together batting 32 overs for his 54 until he was stumped, losing patience, citing fatigue and a painful hip as an excuse to swing wildly at a slow turning ball.

Lewis Koch showed what The Met have been missing whilst taking some time out from his current world tour, by scoring 32 very assured and important runs in the heart of the innings, supporting the ever tiring Faulkner who defied his age and knee to score a valuable 30.  The pair scored the runs quickly to set up a nail biting finale.

Enter Cobb and Clarke! (Not sure in which order exactly because I haven’t got the scorebook. In fact ,most of this is from memory or made up so I apologise in advance if I have missed anything out or misrepresented anyone in any way).

Anyway, looking back at the text messages that I was sending back to the bar at  HQ whilst pacing it seems to have gone something like this:

This I think this was the stage that Clarkey hit the winning runs having guided us home with a  perfectly timed twenty odd runs ably assisted by the very experience man in these situations Craig Cobb.

The Met finished on 205 for 7 in 46.5 overs.