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Result - Thoiry

Sat Aug 24th Grannies defeated by 5 wickets

Match report

A heterogeneous 9 and a half assembled outside Paris at the Chateau de Thoiry (next to the Reserve Africaine) and a 35-over contest ensued.
We batted first.
Our guide and philosopher Stringer opened the batting, saying 2 broken ribs precluded him from much bowling. He pinged a couple off the very middle, but the longest grass you ever saw on a cricket field meant they went nowhere. He got 8.
John Newton got two airborne and to the boundary and went for 12. He then umpired and got a fearful crack on his shin from a Westy Exocet, which spilt blood everywhere, probably sniffed in the adjacent lions' enclosure, whence there came an audible roar.
Charles Walford went for a breezy 12 and West for 18.
There then followed a partnership to quicken the pulse between Harry Yeates (13) and a 12-year-old guest, Marcus Richards,(14 - runs that is!) thought by the opposition to be 16 and therefore fit to be sledged along with the rest of us!
Youth ultimately gave way to age and Stanners (29*) in harness with Percival (8) put on plenty till Walford, a former lodger, ungraciously gave the latter out LBW.
When the 9th wicket fell, the fielding side headed for tea, only to be sent back, when a new Paris resident sussing out Thoiry C.C. with his 2 small children agreed to go 11, so enabling Stanners to carry the score to 149 - a score, it should be said, worth on another ground nearer 250.
Apres 'le five o'clock' and a heavy shower, our bowlers, thinking the (Astro) pitch to have been spiced up (!), fair tore into their top order.
Walford and West elicited edges snapped up with considerable athleticism by the man thought to have only 22 good ribs.
Yeates H. bowled really well and was unlucky to be 0 for 30 in his 7 overs, particularly with the wicket-keeper diving only 8 feet for a 9-feet wide catch.
Stanners was the most successful bowler taking 2 for 24, one to a catch off a very firmly hit shot to the man with a hole in his shin; he should have had more, on one occasion, when their main run-getter had only a few, hitting the 'top of off' (usually a good place to aim at), firmly, only for the bails not to fall. But the star turn was young Marcus, who bowled their no. 3 with his second ball, neatly depositing one of the stumps across the keeper's pads, and ended up bowling a maiden and taking 1 for 30.
Ultimately Thoiry ran out winners by 5 wickets with 14 balls to go.
An excellent game to start the cricketing leg of the tour, only narrowly lost to our extremely welcoming hosts.

Match info

The Grannies tour of old is revived thanks to current Parisian resident Martin Stringer, who takes us for the first time to Thoiry, not far from Standard, our traditional opponents.

Location
Thoiry,
Paris