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Sunday 26 July 2009

Match Report

Lord's Taverners XI v Willow Foundation XI on Sunday 26 July 2009

Lord's Taverners 215 all out (30 overs)

Willow Foundation 221 for 5 (29.3 overs)

Willow Foundation won by 5 wickets

To view the match scorecard please click here.

There can’t be many better venues for a game of cricket than the Old Albanians Woollams Ground at St Albans, the facility with two cricket grounds, rugby pitches and a well endowed pavilion.  Both the Willow Foundation and the Taverners were grateful to the Old Albanians for the use of the ground and to the St Albans Chapter, led by Nigel Seale, for putting so much work into organising a really splendid day’s entertainment and cricket, which promises to raise a really good sum of money for both charities.

The Taverners were put into bat and after a lightning start by Simon Francis and Gus Mackay who both fell at the same score which let Chris Cowdrey at the wicket to reveal his talents of yesteryear with an excellent half century.  Manish Bhasin with 12 and Tom Wisdom, the current acting heartthrob, chipped in with good runs, whilst Toby Tarrant hit a splendid 43, which was 43 runs more than the President who followed him in.  Jason Dodd showed what a good player he is with 31 runs in no time at all and Mike Gatting and Paul Tisdale ensured that we ended up with a respectable 215 to allow Andrew Green to gently holdout for a duck off the last ball.

The Willow Foundations leading bowlers was David Seaman with 3 for 32, Chris Hollins with 2 for 29 and Tim Stimpson with 2 for 5.

When Bob Wilson heard of the Taverners team he brought in a couple of ringers, Scott Newman and James Benning, who both made major contributions to the Willow Total, but the star was Lee Dixon who batted throughout for 72 not out whilst Tim Stimpson showed his all round qualities with the bat.  Bob Wilson provided the highlight of the innings with a steady 8 off 28 balls interrupted only by his attempt to throw his cricket bat over the boundary full pitch when he received an unfortunate beamer, a moment caught by the photographer.  The intrepid Bob carried on batting unhurt, but to the amusement of everyone the ambulance driver insisted on driving his vehicle to the middle when Bob at last was out, only to find that the doors were locked, so Bob had to walk back to the pavilion anyhow.  The match was finished in style by James Benning with 2 6’s in the penultimate over which meant that Martin Chivers, Bobby Gould and Chris Hollins didn’t get a chance to display their talents.

Apart from the sponsors our thanks are also due to the umpires Barry Norman, John Price and Mike Denness and our scorer, Trevor Sturgess, who soldiered on unaided despite 4 hours of continuous commentary from the adjoining bench, which all could hear thanks to a splendid sound system.  Sadly this was another loss for the Taverners, although once again the match finished in the last over and was very competitive during most stages of the match.  The President was relieved to know that we have won 3 games this year, but we have some very happy sponsors as a consequence.

To view photos of the match click here. Photographer Richard Washbrooke will donate 40% of all print orders to The Lord's Taverners and Willow Foundation.


Chris Tarrant and Bob Wilson square up to each other pre-match.


Bob Wilson trying to beat the world record for the cricket bat toss.


The Lord's Taverners XI toast the victorious Willow Foundation XI

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