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Sunday 27 September 2009

Match Report

Mike Brearley’s Lord's Taverners XI v The Gaieties XI
Lord's Nursery Ground
This match is in recognition of the late Harold Pinter.

To view the match scorecard please click here.

Lord's, 27th September 2009. A golden day to end the season. An inspired idea to pull together both a cricket match and a Long Room event to honour the memory of Harold Pinter.

So it was that Mike Brearley's Taverners locked horns with the team that Pinter played for over many years, Gaieties CC, on the Lord's Nursery Ground. An old fashioned game it was too, a declaration affair rather than that new-fangled overs rubbish. And the weather was as old-fashioned summery (Oh, my Compton and Edrich long ago....) as we could possibly have hoped for as well.

The Taverners had the rare experience of batting first. We were treated to a tense first 45 minutes, with Mike Gatting and Mike Atherton needing to be fully on their respective mettles to deal with exceptional opening spells from Rupert Stanning and Nick Cowley. Both batsmen fell on 24, Gatting to an extraordinary catch by James Schneider at mid-wicket (off Ollie Wills) which was later declared the game's champagne moment.

Ed Smith of Kent, Middlesex and England then was blown away by an exceptional piece of leg-side stumping by the hugely impressive Ed Hughes. [Yup, Hughes won the Ed-to-Ed contest.....]. The ever-improving Toby Tarrant hit three boundaries in his 12 before falling to the miserly bowling of Ian Smith. At lunch the innings was poised delicately on 89 for 4, a scoreline which deteriorated almost immediately after, as Tarrant Senior had his castle demolished by the jubilant Smith.

Any thoughts that the innings might then dribble away were dispelled by a fluent unbroken partnership between the evergreen Clive Radley (Middlesex and England) and tv sports presenter Andy Steggall. Classic stuff. By all accounts the batting had Mike Brearley purring out in the middle during his stint as umpire. Rad was undefeated on 71, Steggs on 65, when the declaration came with the Taverners on 235 for 5 off 43 overs.

Gaieties chased the runs in what turned out to be 38 overs. Wickets fell at regular intervals, but the scoreboard kept ticking over, not least via the efforts of James Elliott (61), Ian Smith (29), skipper Shomit Dutta (47) and Ben Nealon (22).

Skipper Mike Gatting turned to his full range of bowlers, including Mike Atherton (bowling his leg-breaks apparently in response to the offer of donations to the charity and picking up two victims) but not Sam West, who was apparently sponsored not to bowl, though to be fair he had a fetlock strain to cope with. (Great to see Sam in Taverner colours, though). Simon Hughes, John Lever, John Stephenson, the two Tarrants, Struan Rodger and Graham Rose all chipped in and chipped away on the bowling front, ably supported by the agile Charlie Dale behind the stumps....but the Gaieties were never out of sight of the Taverner total.

The final over began with Gaieties requiring 11 to win, boasting just one wicket left with Will Sutton and James Schneider at the crease, facing the bowling of Mike Gatting, who already had three wickets to his name. Up went a catch to deep square on the boundary....and down it dropped. Let out of jail, Gaieties needed no further invitation....to, er, mix an unfortunate metaphor in such a literary context. Will Sutton duly despatched Gatting over mid-wicket for 6...and a famous victory was won.

Congratulations to Shomit Dutta and his impressive side. Shall we do it again next year? Sincerest thanks to Mike Brearley for headlining the game so graciously...and to Tav umpires Richard Kershaw, Barry Norman and Mike Denness. Trevor Sturgess was his usual immaculate self as scorer, while John Duncan charmed with his commentary as always, including perhaps his best-ever John Arlott impression, which had Lord's in stitches. Talk about rolling back the years.

Among the spectators it was such a delight to have with us Harold Pinter's widow Lady Antonia Fraser, as well as such venerable thespians as husband-and-wife Prunella Scales and Timothy West.

Finally, huge thanks to MCC for letting us onto the hallowed turf once again....and to Matthew 'Harry' Burton for the massive amount of work put into organising the game on behalf of Gaieties...not forgetting his wife Nicki for catering that was made in heaven. We shall think about that fine cuisine now and again through the long winter evenings.

A report on the Long Room Harold Pinter Tribute appears elsewhere.

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