The Buccaneers skipped west across West Sussex and settled in familiar territory for the 55th match against the OHJs in the last day of their cricket week. The captain suffered the usual angst of winning the toss, but with only nine players present and the sun beating down it was an easy decision. Perhaps Max thought otherwise, as he chipped his third ball back to the bowler. Eswar and Jim steadied the ship and started to dispatch the ball across the large outfield – hats off for an all run four. As the drinks break (sherry for some) arrived we were 53 for 1 and by lunch 133 for 5 with Eswar, Jim and Ludo making the most of the runs and Jeremy and Fred not.
A quality lunch (beef, ham, chicken, trout and smoked salmon) with all the trimmings, topped off with strawberries and cream put everyone in good spirits and enabled everyone to have a go at batting. Ludo scored freely and declined to score another century, while Simon and Ollie hit and ran well. Harry, Tom and Rob didn’t. All out for 244 and 53 overs bowled at us.
We were set for another express opening from Harry and Ollie Mann, but the first ball was smashed past mid-off for four. Three slips and a gulley looked good, but when OHJs took tea at 70 without loss the prospect of losing by ten wickets was not out of the question. However, a cup of tea and some egg sarnies worked their restorative magic. Tom induced their run machine to sky one to Ollie and Simon started to work his wonders from the bottom end. Mark Semmence (who has scored more centuries against the Buccs than anyone else) entered and looked elegant. An on-drive over mid-on was unbelievably plucked from the air, in a one handed reverse grip catch by Harry. That lifted the spirits. Not to be out done, Simon, (who had had to be rung up earlier to alert him that the match was not on Sunday) produced his own ball of the century – a chinaman that turned feet and embarrassed the batsman who had left it and had to watch as it spun in to clip the top of off stump. Ludo came steaming down the hill and castled a couple of the batsmen. The threat of defeat diminished as Simon took more wickets (eventually ending with six) and we had seven overs to wheedle out the last pair. Resolute defence from the OHJs meant that they were undefeated during their cricket week and not even 52 overs from the Buccs was enough for them to take the ten wickets.
Some re-hydrating beers were taken as we listened to the Last Post as the flag was lowered on another OHJs cricket week.
Innings of Buccaneers
Max Sutton 0
Jim Mann 23
Eswar Kalidisan 57
Ludo Milne 75
Jeremy Milne 0
Fred Campbell 6
Simon Leefe 37
Harry Mann 4
Ollie Mann 21 not out
Tom Rydon 3
Rob Rydon 6
Total: 244 all out
Innings of OHJs
Gilligan ct Ollie Mann bwld Tom Rydon 53
Warrender bwld Simon Leefe 20
Meredith bwld Simon Leefe 4
Semmence ct Harry Mann bwld Simon Leefe 4
Moulton bwld Ludo Milne 13
Harrison ct Harry Mann bwld Simon Leefe 32
Batchelor bwld Ludo Milne 0
Brehaut not out 12
Khot bwld Simon Leefe 23
Lunn LBW Simon Leefe 4
Hall not out 8
Total: 183 for 9
Bowling
Harry Mann 10-2-30-0
Ollie Mann 5-0-23-0
Tom Rydon 8-3-28-1
Simon Leefe 19-4-54-6
Ludo Milne 5-1-17-2
Rob Rydon 4-1-20-0
Fred Campbell 1-0-4-0