Morden lost the toss, batted first and lost the match by 4 wickets.
Name How Out Bowler R B M 4 6 P.Bodman ct. Tafdar Sharling 10 18 23 2 B.Sargent-Cain Patel 11 18 19 2 J.Goddard ct. Vickery Patel 7 18 23 1 A.Lewis ct. Douglas Pinkney 9 41 62 1 A.Gilley Patel 0 1 1 M.Coote O'Neill 10 11 17 2 S.Alexander O'Neill 0 18 16 G.Burch st. Vickery O'Neill 0 4 2 J.Davidson not out 4 5 17 1 P.Hancock lbw Pinkney 1 7 7 R.G.Atkins Pilgrim 5 8 6 1 Extras 12 Total all out (24.4 overs) 69
FOW 1-25, 2-25, 3-37, 4-37, 5-51, 6-53, 7-57, 8-57, 9-64
B.Sargent-Cain 6-0-23-2 J.Goddard 4-1-7-1 A.Gilley 6.3-3-13-1 G.Burch 5-1-21-2
A very poor batting display was largely responsible for Morden Parish’s ninth defeat of the season, and with three games remaining, a significant improvement will be necessary in order to avoid the unwanted record of ‘most defeats in a season’. The current record was established in 1003, when a total of ten matches were lost.
The meagre total of 69 all out is the club’s second lowest score of the season, and followed a promising start to the innings of 25-0 off 5.2 overs. At this junction Ben ‘played on’ in the style of Michael Vaughan at Headingly, and his score of 11 turned out to be the best of the day by a Parish player. Wickets fell at regular intervals after this, and there were very few notable achievements. John Goddard passed 400 runs for the club whilst making his 7, Alan Gilley was bowled first ball and remains 40 adrift of Peter Bassett’s all time record, Matt Coote got his best score of the season with a quickfire ten, Steve Alexander’s recent run of good form ended with a duck, Gaz Burch - one of four changes to the side which beat Capel a week earlier - was also out for nought, although his stumping caused some heated debate, Ahmed battled bravely for over an hour against his former club but eventually holed out at mid-on, and bringing up the rear, R.G.Atkins hit an enormous 4 to the deep cover boundary to complete his first 50 runs for the club (in his 25th innings).
The visitors had to face nine overs before the tea interval, and lost one wicket to John Goddard’s first ball, a first ever catch for Gaz Burch. The other opener was clean bowled by Ben in the final over before the interval, leaving the tea score at 32 for 2. When play resumed, two new bowlers were introduced, and more success soon followed, as Gaz took a wicket with just his 5th delivery, whilst Alan took a wicket with his 7th ball, again thanks to a catch from Gaz. Alan, who passed 50 wickets for the club in his previous game, asked for this landmark to honoured with his full career bowling stats, so here they are; 212.3 - 23 - 874 - 53 average 16.49 - strike rate 24.05 - econ rate 4.11. Alan and Gaz made Corinthians fight hard for every run and at 44 for 4 in the 15th over, Gaz took another wicket, this time it was a caught and bowled which was his third catch of the innings, a splendid effort, and in fact, only the 32nd time any Parish player has ever done it. A stubborn partnership of 22 followed, and only 4 needed to win when Ben made the final breakthough with his 28th wicket of the season, which leaves him close to beating his personal tally of 31 wickets in a single season. In the next over the wining boundary was struck off Alan’s bowling, to complete a 4 wicket defeat for Morden Parish, who have lost both their games between these two clubs.