Munich Cricket Club

Effigies are a team from London who play six or seven games a season, one of them a touring match and, in true Richard Clare mode, they go to a different country every year and to date have never returned, not, I would add because of their unruly behaviour. They have toured to countries where MCC has not yet been such as Estonia, France, Iceland and Malta.

They provided two umpires for both innings, one of them (Bob Eaton) played for the British Lions in Bulawayo during the South African tour of 1974 and the other (Hugh Ellerton) was wearing a pair of deckchair design trousers owned at one time by Elton John. How he came by them no-one knows and no-one really wishes to know.

As the Effigies had suffered from a number of baillages three MCC members – O`Connor, Soundararajan and Jadwani – volunteered to play for them to make a game of two ten-a-side teams.

Captain Clare won the toss and chose to bat in a 30 over friendly and sent in O`Meagher and Fudge to begin the innings. Fudge started well but was soon out in the fourth over having scored 5 from 7 balls and made way for keeper Garner who hung around until the ninth over before being bowled for 6 off 13 balls. In came Wright for his last innings at the Hirschanger before returning to Australia. He and O`Meagher put on a good partnership of 31 for the third wicket but eventually Wright went for 14 off 20 balls with the total on 68. Captain Clare came to the crease and put on 27 for the fourth wicket together with O`Meagher but was bowled by West for 21 in the 18th over. Hobbs shared a partnership of 19 for the fifth wicket before being caught for 7 off 17 in the 23rd over. Next in was Michahelles for his first innnings ever. He faced five balls before being bowled by Jadwani and joining the duck race – three balls more than I faced to get the same score in my first game for the MCC. Blades and O`Meagher put on another 11 for the seventh wicket but Blades was caught O`Connor in the 27th over with the score on 127. Scott joined O`Meagher and they put on an unbeated 30 runs for the eight wicket, Scott doubling his aggregate and average for the season and O`Meagher cementing his place at the top of the batting statistics. Throughout the innings O`Connor had showed that Sarma cannot be complacent about his title of master sledger

Plentiful teas were provided by Jadwani and O’Connor and included some uncooked eggs, a definite first in the MCC catering history.

After the break, Scott and Blades opened the bowling for MCC and bowled their full allocations straight off, Blades taking two wickets and, after 12 overs, Effigies were 45 for 2 (MCC had been 56 for 2 at the same stage). Clare and Wright took over for three overs each, kept the run-rate below that required and after 18 overs Effigies were 80 for 2 (MCC had been 95 for 4 down). Kavi, fresh from his 3 for 2 last week came on with Garner but was tonked for 24 off 2 overs - cricket can be a soul destroying game. After 22 overs Effigies were 120 for 2 (MCC had been 109 for 4) so the captain brought on a very nervous secret weapon named Hobbs. He and Garner almost did it, Effigies losing another four wickets, one of them the Effigies top scorer, caught by Michahelles, a superb catch in his first game,  before scoring the winning run off 29.3 overs.

An enjoyable, friendly, but competitive match, with some wonderful sledging by O`Connor, finished at around 5.30 pm allowing us plenty of time to attack Helmut`s cool fresh before retiring to the Chinese Tower.

O`Meagher, 68*

Fudge, 5, caught

Garner, 6 bowled, 5.3 overs, 0 mdns, 37 runs, 1 wkt

Wright, 14, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 16 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch

Clare, 21, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 14 runs, 0 wkts

Hobbs, 7, caught, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 12 runs, 2 wkts

Michahelles, 0, bowled, 1 catch

Blades, 6, caught, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 22 runs, 2 wkts

Scott, 12*, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 20 runs, 0 wkts,

Kavi, DNB, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 24 runs, 0 wkts.

MCC, 157 for 7 lost to Effigies, 158 for 6 by 3 wickets.

MCC MOM O`Meagher

MCC, resplendent in their new leisure kit, turned out in force to play a bat 12 field 11 fixture against the Munich Boys at the Hirschanger. Some thought that batting wearing sunglasses under the helmet was going a little too far but, as Basil Fawlty said “you wouldn`t understand dear, its called style”.
Be that as it may, captain Weston duly used Maria Theresa to win the toss and decided to field first. Blades and O`Connor opened the attack for MCC and forged ahead with the wide count; after six overs the Munich Boys were 34 for 0 of which 13 were wides. Apparently the ball was swinging profusely. Rabbani and Weston took over the attack, bowling slightly fewer wides and two wickets fell in Weston’s first over, one a run out, the other clean bowled. After 14 overs the score was 94 for 2 and on came Hobbs, terrified that he would bowl pies and ruin his position at the top of the bowling table. He was sporting a 60`s style Django moustache hoping to scare the batsmen into giving away their wickets. His first over went for 17, including two sixes and a four so pleas for a safety razor were heard. Wright, at the other end, bowled economically taking a wicket in his first, second and fourth overs. With Hobbs taking one in his second and bowling a little tighter, things were looking slightly better but, after 24 over overs when Hobbs and Wright were replaced by Wasiewicz and Kavi, the score was 177 for six down. The problem for MCC was that Khan, who had been dropped when he had only a few runs on the board, went on to score 123 before being stumped by Van Giezen off Kavi, having hit 8 fours and 10 sixes. Khan was in fact the eleventh wicket to fall (bat 12, field 11) and Munich Boys finished on 230 for 11 after 29.4 overs leaving MCC needing slightly under 8 runs per over to win.
After a splendid tea provided by Brunskill, MCC opened with Brunskill and Wright. The target of 8 an over quickly disappeared over the horizon and, after six overs MCC were 19 for 1, Wright having been bowled for 12. Rabbani and Brunskill put on another 9 runs for the second wicket before Brunskill was bowled for 4. He was replaced by the shades wearing Caspari who rather unfortunately played across a straight ball and went to join the duck race. Rabbani and Van Giezen put on 10 runs before Rabbani went for 12, stumped by Ali. In came Miller who went first ball after getting a real bummer of a caught behind decision but, like a good Kiwi, he didn`t hang around to protest. In came Hobbs, very relieved not to have been toppled from the top of the table and proceeded to top score with 18 off 31 balls including 2 fours. Wasiewicz had replaced Van Giezen who went for 9 and O`Connor now came in for Hobbs after he and Van Giezen had put on 26, the highest partnership of the innings. O`Connor had another of those simply unplayable balls and went first ball, clean bowled by a snorter from Amir. In came Kavi, determined to face more than 1 ball and not move up the duck race table. In fact he and Wasiewicz put on an unbeaten 22 for the 9th wicket scoring 11 and 15 respectively. MCC finshed on 99 for seven after 30 overs, slightly short of the 231 required.
Brunskill, 4, bowled
Wright, 12, bowled, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 28 runs, 3 wkts
Rabbani, 12, stumped, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 25 runs, 0 wkts
Caspari, 0, bowled, 1 catch
Van Giezen, 9, bowled, 1 stumping
Miller, 0, caught
Hobbs, 18, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 39 runs, 1 wkt
Wasiewicz, 15*, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 45 runs, 2 wkts, 1 catch
O`Connor, 0, bowled, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 20 runs, 0 wkts
Kavi, 11*, 2.4 overs, 0 mdns, 21 runs, 3 wkts, 1 catch
Weston, DNB, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 32 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch
Blades, DNB, 3 overs, 1 mdn, 12 runs, 0 wkts.

MCC, 99 for 8, lost to MBCC, 230 for 11, by 131 runs.

MCC MOM Wright.

With four other league clubs playing in T20 knockout matches this weekend it was back to our old friends Pak Orient for a friendly match – no arrogant messages about putting out a good team from them, they like to stuff us by as many as possible. Heavy overnight and early morning rain made an abandonment a distinct possibility but the heavens cleared and we were ready for a 1 pm start. Captain Weston, bleary eyed and hung over from leaping around in his army boots in a disco until 4am and burning up 1700 calories in the activity, won the toss and chose to field. I think this decision was based on giving opener O`Meagher, who seemed to have celebrated Friday night even more than Weston, some breathing space before batting.

The wonderfully named Sher Khan and Janan opened for Pak Orient to face MCC opening bowlers Gill and O`Connor. They batted as if there was no tomorrow and, after 9 overs, were 94 for 1. Jadwani had replaced O`Connor but his style was also very much to the batters liking – they even complained he was throwing but as they were tonking him for fours the protest was not taken seriously by the umpires.  After 12 overs, with the score on 112, the skipper brought on the first of his secret weapons and Hobbs bowled a modest first over going for only 7 runs. After the drinks break, Clare who had kept wicket and not given a bye or dropped a catch, was replaced by Turner who arrived just in time for the drinks. Sobek now joined Hobbs and his first four balls were “w”s - wicket, wide, wide, wide. Why on earth he was allowed another over no-one knows but the captain. However, the concatenation of the lightning fast Turner behind the stumps and the donkey-drop tempters from the two slow bowlers was simply breathtaking. From 129 for 2 after 15 overs, Pak Orient subsided to 168 all out after 26.4 overs, Sobek with a three-for, Hobbs with a six-for, including a hattrick. However the bleary eyed captain fell down on his counting and allowed Hobbs to bowl 7.4 overs when he should have been restricted to five. As so often in our matches the wide count was very high – the third highest score but the ball was very wet and slippery.

After teas MCC opened the batting with O`Meagher and Clare. Two wicket maidens later the score was 0 for 2 and Weston and Hobbs were at the crease. Weston went for 9 with the total score on10 but then Hobbs and Turner put on 23 for the 4th wicket, Turner facing 24 balls, keeping his end up in scoring his 3 runs. Next in was new member Anil Kavi who hadn`t played for two years. He decided the only prize worth going for so late in the season was the duck race and went after facing one ball. Now came the other secret weapon, Sobek, who put on 12 for the 6th wicket with Hobbs and another 12 for the seventh wicket with Gill. Gill went for 2 and in came Soundararajan, determined to improve on his performance of last week. Sobek went for 10, the only double figure score so far after the umpire tried desperately to find a reason why he couldn’t give hime out LBW and this introduced a nervous Jadwani to the struggle. He and Soundararajan put on 10 for the 9th wicket before Soundararajan fell for 4 and allowed number eleven, O`Connor, his chance to shine. This he did excellently remaining on 8 not out and putting on 30 for the 10th wicket in a partnership with Jadwani who top scored with 19.

MCC finshed on 89 all out after 26.4 overs so were soundly beaten but had a wonderful day with many memorable happenings. We sat around sampling Helmut’s cool fresh until 7pm then decided to go for one more at the kiosk in poofters alley. At 7:30 the heavens opened with torrential rain for almost two hours so we were forced to extend the one more into two more and so on while`st watching the rivirs of muddy water streaming past.

O`Meagher, caught

Clare, 0, caught, 1 catch

Weston, 9 bowled

Hobbs, 8, bowled, 7.4 overs, 1 mdn, 24 runs, 6 wkts, 1 hat-trick

Turner, 3, bowled, 4 stumpings

Kavi, 0, bowled

Sobek, 10, LBW, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 20 runs, 3 wkts

Gill, 2, bowled, 6 overs, 0 mdns, 54 runs, 1 wkt, 1 catch

Soundararajan, 4, caught

Jadwani, 19, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 31 runs, 0 wkts

O`Connor, 8*, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 38 runs, 0 wkts

MCC, 89 all out lost to Pak Orient, 168 all out, by 79 runs.

MCC MOM: Hobbs