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Result - Honourable Artillery Company

Sun Jun 30th HAC won by 7 wickets

Match report

Summer arrived, at long last, in England and a talented Grannies XI began assembling in the stellar surroundings of the HAC. Or at least 9 of them did. Opening bowler Peter Schutzer-Weissmann having assembeld himself at the Hurlingham Club, and opening bat Tom Smith needing to be reassembled somewhat from scattered remains in Barnes cricket pavillion.

Thus temporarily under-powered, debutant manager Stringer was rather alarmed to lose the toss on an excellent wicket on the hottest day of the year. Yet, inexplicably, we were asked to bat.

Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Stringer mustered. John Gibbons, giving every bit the impression that he had been there warming up expectantly since dawn, was promoted to open. Jay Stockham joined him and began the innings in his usual composed style but unfortunately chose this day of near-perfect batting conditions for his triennial waft outside the off-stump, which was edged & caught.

Joe Huxley took leave of his travelling entourage to replace Jay, and the sound from his first pull through midwicket had passers-by assuming that one of Armoury house's many ceremonial cannons had just been let off. But the fireworks sadly ended there, after another caught behind.

Tom Brierly then entered the fray and thus began a truly great partnership which put the Grannies in a commanding position in the match. Gibbo's early-morning focussing session was paying off and he shot to a fifty and then to his century before our Chairman could rouse himself from the Sunday papers and began asking ernestly after our new opener's availability for this and all future seasons.

When the partnership was eventually broken, the pair had taken us from a shaky 40-2 to an intimidating 171 (Gibbons 123 from 104 balls, Brierley 27). Unfortunately, the middle order had now had plenty of time to become distracted by fanclubs, families, cocker-spaniels, etc. and 171-2 tragically became 179-7 (though with credit, where it is due, to an exceptionally accurate bowling spell from HAC which stemmed the runs & forced some risky shots).

But Shutz (40), fresh from Hurlingham, joined Harry Yeates (36 n.o.) to put together the second of our two excellent partnerships to take us, along with a final charge from the Chairman, to a sporting but competetive decleration of 265.

With about 50 overs left in the day, the challenge for the bowlers was then to keep a strong HAC batting line-up below 5 an over. And openers Gibbs & Stringer did indeed manage to do just that. But only just! And though all the bowlers did look dangerous for a few balls at a time, we all sent down just two or three too many bad balls to put real pressure on a good batting side on their own, excellent wicket.

Two truly magnificent catches from Chris Good & Peter Shutz and a solid take by Jay (no doubt all thanks to our pre-innings session with fielding coach Will Addison) did swing the match back our way for phases. But, crucially, the HAC were able to rebuild immediately after each wicket. This was probably all that seperated the two very strong freindly sides, but on such a good wicket it made a world of difference, and was enough to see them home with couple of overs to spare.

But what a ground. What a match. And what a day for it! Bring on next year.



Match info

Phenomenal fixture smack bang in the city of London, with twin antique cannons covering long-on and long-off at one end, and corporate towers at the other.

Location
Armoury House,
London,
EC1Y 2BQ

How to get there
Not The Hurlingham Club