Morden lost the toss, batted first and drew the game.
Name How Out Bowler R B M 4 6 A.Lewis ct.Cooper(S) Greggor 4 18 17 P.Bodman ct.Pulling Avery 16 46 58 2 B.Sargent-Cain not out 104 92 117 16 J.Goddard Cooper(T) 28 29 36 4 J.Davidson ct.Cooper(D) Glaister 14 23 31 2 S.Alexander not out 9 4 7 2 A.Gilley S.Malik I.Tyne N.Brooker M.Coote Extras (b.10,w.8,nb.8,lb.2) 28 Total for 4 wickets (34 overs) 203
FOW 1-14, 2-65, 3-129, 4-182
B.Sargent-Cain 14-6-33-3 J.Goddard 12-1-44-3 A.Gilley 5-1-19-1 I.Tyne 4-0-36-1
This was the first ever meeting of these two clubs, but they clash twice more before the end of the season and Morden will be in confident mood after dominating this game throughout. Morden made three changes to their team, with John Goddard and Steve Alexander returning in place of Charles and Russell with a debut for 12 year old Salim Malik to replace Steve Everett. After a rainy morning, the weather improved and the sun shone on the visitor's captain as he called correctly at the toss and put Morden in to bat. News of this was greeted with cheers from the home dressing room because Morden had fielded first in every game so far this season.
Ahmed was the first man out, caught in the 5th over, and Ben came in to slaughter the visitor's bowling for the next two hours. He made 104 not out off 92 balls with 16 fours. The first 50 took 66 minutes and 54 balls with the second taking just 50 minutes and 37 balls. It was his 2nd century for the club, the 4th highest ever score and only the 7th ever century. It took his runs total for the season to 299, easily beating his previous best of 257 and leaves him needing 112 more runs to beat Peter Bassett's club record total for an individual season. Playing his 99th match for the club, he took` his runs total to 1361 which is 14th on the list and just 60 behind the next man. That man is Don Coombes, the club's founder and Vice-President who appropriately was at the match himself. Ben shared 3 successive 50 partnerships, first with Phil, then with John and lastly with James. Phil was second man out making 16 and passing 100 for the season. John then went for 28 passing 50 for the season and allowing James to come in on his 100th appearance for the club. He is only the 18th person to achieve this landmark and he made a quick 14. Steve then made 9 not out to also past 50 for the season and Morden finished on 203-4 which was only the 10th time that the club has scored 200+.
After tea, Ben and John opened the bowling and the first breakthrough came in the 6th over when one of the openers was caught by James at mid on off John's bowling. In the next over, Ben removed the other opener whilst in John's following over the number 3 was dismissed thanks to a catch at gully by Ben. Ben bowled the no. 4 in the next over so after 9 overs the score was 17-4. Five overs later, John struck again thanks to a catch by Phil at square leg, but at 32-5, the fightback began. The Chertsey skipper came in and together with another useful batsman a stubborn stand developed and Alan and Ian were severely punished when they came on to replace Ben and John. 62 runs were added in 10 overs until Ian sent down a wicked delivery to remove the Chertsey skipper for 40. Shortly after this, the 7th wicket fell to a run out thanks to a great throw from the boundary by Alan and good work from the young wicket keeper Neil to remove the bails speedily. Another wicket fell in the next over when Ahmed took a good catch off Alan's bowling. That left 11 overs for Morden to get the last 2 wickets. The opening bowlers were brought back and 5 overs passed with no further wickets and the visitors number 5 looking set to bat out a draw. However, Morden then received some unexpected help...One of the Chertsey umpires was a rather eccentric fellow and something of a chatterbox. On one occasion when Ben was about to bowl, the umpire started a long conversation with the batsman about how far the batsman was standing out of his ground and how this might affect an lbw decision. After this disruption to his concentration, the batsman was bowled 2 balls later. So that was 9 wickets down and 6 or so overs to go. However, the final wicket never came. John finished with a respectable 3-44 and Ben with 3-33, giving Ben 205 wickets over his career which is just 6 short of Peter Bassett who is joint 3rd in the all time list. A draw was disappointing but there were plenty of positives for Morden to take into the second half of the season.