Strollers stumped again
 
At 10am on match day the Strollers had a strong side; at 11am it looked rather less strong. Georgie claimed he had to drive “to the South West”, Bill Ward was called away to play football, but K***** had the most exotic excuse. In a scene reminiscent of Raymond Chandler, K***** claimed he couldn’t leave his flat as the police combed the area looking for clues after an overnight slaying. The last we heard, Mr S**** is continuing to assist police with their enquiries.

So this out the Strollers down to 8, and weakened the batting considerably. Stumps kindly found us two substitutes in the form of Andrew and Joseph Greenwall, aged 15 and 11, both trialists for Middlesex and very good young players.

Hoping that K***** might be able to shake off the Old Bill by mid-afternoon, the Strollers elected to bowl first on another warm, humid afternoon. As usual, the Stumps were heavily peopled by representatives of that well-known north London cricketing clan, the Dhokias. Indeed, the non-Dhokias were very much in the minority in the Stumps 11.

Boughey and Holmes opened the attack for the Strollers and had to wait until 10 overs had passed before the first wicket fell, caught by Gav at mid on. Graeme pressed with usual economy and had several stentorian appeals for lbw turned down before the umpire crumbled and gave out his older brother Nik Dhokia.

Young Andrew Greenwall bowled beautifully for little reward, getting lift from the bone-hard wicket and was unlucky not to get more than his one wicket, Vijay Dhokia caught at mid on by skipper Boughey. The backbone of the innings was provided by Raj Dhokia, the patriarch of the dynasty, and he was timing the ball very well. He made 57 before Jeremy Gillies bowled him.

Chris Lucas took a quick threefer at the end of the innings, and once again the Strollers bowled out a side with overs to spare. The bowling had been pretty good and the fielding was generally efficient with more catches taken than spilled. The bat was beaten regularly and with a little more luck, Stumps could have been dismissed more cheaply than their 165 eventually achieved.

It was now up to the Strollers’ batting to get the runs and this is where the cracks appeared. Gav was out cheaply, but then young Joseph and old Dickie Betts batted solidly to get to 65 without further loss. Once these two disappeared – Dickie bowled by a slower ball and the Jo to a wonderful instinctive catch at short leg – resistance crumbled.

Only a 42 run partnership for the ninth and final wicket between Stoke on Trent boys Jackson and Boughey took the game back to the Stumps and for a brief period these two flirted with an unlikely and famous winning stand. Jackson hit the ball very well and made runs while Boughey did what he does best and blocked it out. But then an unlucky lbw decision brought proceedings to a conclusion and Stumps won by 32 runs to do the double over the Strollers for this season.

With a solid innings from one of the absentee batsman, the game would have been won. Stumps are a highly beatable outfit and the total should have been well within our grasp. Despondency was only rescued by the supply of Sea Breeze by Dickie from a travelling cocktail set that was last seen in a production of Hay Fever, c.1936.

Simon Boughey
24.07.06

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