“The MAD: Headington’s Quarry”

Match: 19 / 487

Lost by 41 runs

Team	Total
Headington Quarry CC	132 - 4
I. Howarth 3 - 19
FFTMCC	91 - 8
B. Walker 21, R. Turner 20*

While forecasts for later in the week were predicting a face meltingly hot Friday and Saturday, this match took place on a Tuesday evening in late June which looked and felt more like a morning in late March. Adding in the lush thick greenery around the ground, a slightly dank and dark atmosphere and the fact the wicket was pitched on the far side of the square, then watching the game from the pavilion was a bit like peering into a distant fish tank which needed a clean. On the upside this was The MAD’s first home game of the season and the Brasenose ground was looking trim, if murky.

Night-time cricket without floodlights. A proper man’s sport.

HQ generally like to get on with it, but apart from a swept six off the second ball of the match the opening overs were fairly steady. Quarry openers Jacob Jeffries and Tim Bailey (currently landlord of The Jude and former home of The MAD) dug in and saw off Messrs Reeves and Howarth’s spells while erstwhile skipper Gary Timms, there to watch rather than play, let slip that his upcoming Glastonbury plans were largely based around access to a private toilet. Fair play.

Bailey (31*) retired at 58-0 after hitting some nice lofted off drives, bringing in the first of four Matthews (S.), who was also the first to depart at 68-1 chipping Shorten (1-19) to Turner diving forward (or falling, it was hard to tell which) at cover, plucking both the ball and the champagne moment out of the air.

In the pavilion some wise old guru wondered if Turner should give himself a bowl as there are days when pie can wreak great change. And, lo! It came to pass that Russ took the skipper’s prerogative and his first ball was skied by Jeffries. If Jake Hotson had actually caught it, I would have bought myself a scratchcard and scratched it. As Patsy Cline once sang, sometimes it’s hard to be a guru.

Berti analyses a returning dude in whites as not being his owner.

Vermaak (with sleeves rolled all the way up to his ears, presumably for streamlining purposes) and Williams took over the bowling, plugging away manfully and retiring Jeffries (39*) at 85-1. Then a plethora of Matthews (K., T. and B.) took the score to 115 without further loss. A cheerful Timms, busy working on a spreadsheet that meant he would miss every single act at Glastonbury as he would be walking to the next stage, mentioned himself and Howarth were in a tight race towards their 200th MAD wickets. He looked marginally less cheerful 8 balls later as Howarth had burgled a cheeky all bowled three-for (3-19) so that HQ finished up with a decent but not massive 132-4.

Pops Williams and Hotson headed off to open the innings, unaware that The Quarry had a devious, and possibly unsporting, plan. Bowling mainly straight (not fair!) on a slow wicket saw Jake (0) depart, bowled, in the first over, Pops, also bowled (7), at 12-1 and then Dave Shorten (6) was the first of three lbws at 30-3. Ben Walker started watchfully, played straight and then hit a couple of solid blows back over the bowlers head in compiling a Mad career best (and man of the match winning) 21 but when he, Joe Cartwright (9) and Geoff Carter (0) all departed within three runs of each at 55-6 in the 13th over, The MAD were left with a little too much to do. Turner (20*) shepherded Bullock and Reeves to within a mere 41 runs of the Quarry, leaving the clear impression that if we’d restricted them to 90 we’d have won. But we didn’t. Ah well.

‘Mr Tulip’

*

Statto Scorecards

Far from the MCC versus Headington Quarry CC Played at Harwell Campus, 25 June 2019 Headington Quarry CC won the toss and elected to bat Headington Quarry CC won by 41 runs Far from the MCC debuts: n/a

19 / 487 20 over match

Team	Headington Quarry CC
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1	J. Jeffries	retired	39	(45)	2	1	-
2	T. Bailey	retired	30	(23)	5	-	-
3	S. Matthews	c Turner b Shorten	4	(7)	-	-	1-68
4	K. Matthews	b Howarth	12	(18)	-	-	4-130
5	M. Brogden	b Howarth	17	(18)	3	-	2-115
6	H. Matthews	b Howarth	10	(8)	1	-	3-129
7	S. Warner	not out	2	(2)	-	-	-
8	D. McArthur	not out	1	(1)	-	-	-
9	A. Nightingale
10	Z. Warner
11	T. Matthews *
	Extras	NB2, W8, B7	17
	TOTAL	(for 4 wickets, 20 overs)	132

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	Econ
1	Reeves	4	0	21	0	5.25
2	Howarth	4	0	19	3	4.75
3	Vermaak	4	0	24	0	6.00
4	Shorten	3	0	19	1	6.33
5	Williams	4	0	32	0	8.00
6	Turner	1	0	10	0	10.00
Note: T. Bailey retired at 58-0 (9.0 overs)
Note: J. Jeffries retired at 95-1 (13.0 overs)

Team	Far from the MCC
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1	C. T. J. Williams	b Nightingale	7	(10)	1	-	2-12
2	J. C. W. Hotson	b Nightingale	0	(3)	-	-	1-1
3	B. E. L. Walker	lbw b S. Matthews	21	(34)	2	-	4-50
4	D. Shorten	lbw b S. Matthews	6	(11)	1	-	3-30
5	J. A. Cartwright	b H. Matthews	9	(11)	1	-	5-52
6	R. P. Turner *	not out	20	(26)	2	-	-
7	G. Carter	b McArthur	0	(2)	-	-	6-55
8	I. Howarth	c Nightingale b McArthur	7	(8)	1	-	7-70
9	M. Bullock †	lbw b T. Matthews	7	(12)	-	-	8-91
10	M. K. Reeves	not out	0	(4)	-	-	-
11	C. J. Vermaak
	Extras	NB1, W6, LB2, B5	14
	TOTAL	(for 8 wickets, 20 overs)	91

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	Econ
1	Nightingale	4	1	13	2	3.25
2	Warner	4	1	11	0	2.75
3	S. Matthews	2	0	9	2	4.50
4	H. Matthews	2	0	12	1	6.00
5	McArthur	4	0	23	2	5.75
6	K. Matthews	2	0	12	0	6.00
7	T. Matthews	2	1	5	1	2.50

MOTM: B. E. L. Walker Champagne Moment: R. P. Turner’s sprawling catch at mid off Buffet Award: R. P. Turner’s open barbeque with extra baps MAD Moment: B. E. L. Walker’s no ball confusion leading to run out confusion

Opposition: V101 / 03 Ground: G040 / 73 Captain: C024 / 24 Match No: 20 / 130