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Result - Hon. Artillery Company

Sun Jun 29th ABANDONED: Grannies 256/6 then rain.

Match report

As the penetrating drum beats of the Indian wedding celebrations finally died away, 12 Grannies cricketers, two wives, several girlfriends, assorted children/grandchildren, one spaniel, and the Huxley travelling entourage had all successfully assembled at Armoury house.

Rob Cranston, having had the match booked into his schedule since mid-2012, arrived nursing a sadly damaged finger, but happily in the company of new recruit Hassan Aslam, currently working with Rob in London but having learned his cricket on the concrete wickets of the middle east.

The pitch inspection revealed a surface not so very different from this, leading to some fairly unequivocal demands to the skipper to win the toss and bat. This was achieved and Tom Smith and John Gibbons accepted their invitation to open proceedings with an enthusiasm only surpassed by that of the dancers at the party that had now kicked off on the balcony behind them. At 1pm. Never a dull moment in EC1.

Their performance is probably best summarised by the HAC�s square leg fielder who, after half-a-dozen overs, felt obliged to wander over to the umpire and comment: �well these two look a bit of alright�. Batting-wise, certainly, few could have disagreed; many an excellent delivery from the two nippy openers was played down nicely or well-left, and anything less than a good delivery seemed to get smartly dispatched through the covers. Or, occasionally in Smithers� case, just dispatched however seemed best possible under the circumstances.

The first change bought in a possibly even nippier medium pacer from the MCC, with the occasional cheeky bouncer, but all that was dealt with nicely and, at 83 without loss from just 15 overs, everything was going swimmingly. However, at the other end, on came an older gentleman bowling slow, innocuous-looking �drifters� and everyone who had witnessed this sort of thing in the past braced themselves for the inevitable.

Five overs, four wickets and 9 runs later from Mr Dewan (for that was his name) and things looked rather different. Both openers (36 & 38 respectively), Huxley & Aslam were all trapped on the back foot in fairly quick succession, leaving Harry Yeates and Will Devitt with the job of steadying things.

Having presumably got the memo about what not to do against this chap, these two put on an excellent partnership of 80 in 13 overs, Will playing handsome shots all round the ground for 27, and Harry making a terrific 63 containing 11 boundaries, many of which were directed though square leg/midwicket at extremely short notice from exactly the kind of straightish, not-quite-short ball that had decimated our upper order. Clearly the answer to Mr Dewan�s flight and guile was simply to turn off one�s targeting computer.

The Force did eventually run out though, bringing Chris Good to the crease, and� the opening bowlers again� But, deftly surviving a few that were a bit quick for the big man, early doors, Goody settled in to an excellent cameo, and resumed use of the scoring areas with which Gibbo & Smithers had begun the innings. Leg-side long-hops were bowled, but apparently they only teach you to hit thorough cover at Winchester.

With declaration becoming a rather pressing issue, and treatment of such deliveries having been pretty central to Stringer�s high school curriculum, the skipper joined the fray and the two put on a final 40 from 4 overs to set the HAC a challenging target of 256, and about 40 overs left in the day to chase it.

With the vengeful Huxley and Peter Shutzer-Weissman now straining in the traps to open the bowling, this should then have been an excellent contest. Unfortunately, one of the �scattered showers� we were expecting turned out to be a torrential downpour, and the groundsman was probably right in refusing to let us back on the square in time to get any sort of game in.

Thus, to the Artillery Arms. Disappointed not to get back out to bowl and feeling a little sheepish at having been the only ones to have enjoyed the city�s finest batting track. First world problems though, and all the more time for a few drinks to help us come to terms with them.

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,
EC1