The Philanderers v I Zingari, Sunday 7th September at Exning Park

The Phillies’ final fixture of 2025 was blessed with great weather and, with white smoke finally coming from the bunker, all was set fair for a tough match against one of our strongest opponents. Although posing as a hot summer’s day one felt the hand of autumn on one’s shoulder, with leaves blowing constantly across the ground and conkers falling regularly from the horse chestnut trees around its perimeter.

Having won the toss skipper Chandraker felt confident as he inserted I Zingari on a typical, albeit slightly green, Exning wicket. The ever-dependable Rutt and Sherwin opened up with what, by common consent, was not a quality ball before young Seb Taylor made his Philanderers debut. The fourteen-year-old bowled an excellent line and length with some nice shape away from the right hander.

IZ moved slowly but determinedly onto a score of 51 before Rutt struck the first blow having changed ends. Experience was then the order of the day as Hegerty came on from the pavilion end and Coteman at, well, the other end. This occurrence had the statisticians rushing to their archives – had any other pairing with an aggregate age of 145 ever bowled in tandem for the Phillies before? A second debutant, Cillian Harrison, also aged fourteen came on and bowled his left arm orthodox spin nicely and was rewarded with a wicket courtesy of a stumping by the indefatigable Gill.

For IZ, the obdurate Robb departed for a longwinded but useful 59 (another stumping by the tallest wicketkeeper in club cricket) with the score on 154 after 35 overs. The Phillies had managed to keep the lid on things courtesy of the slower bowlers in particular.

A sumptuous BBQ lunch was taken at 1.30 after which IZ came out of their shell and a rapid and hard hitting century partnership between Hollingworth and Smellie took them to 255 at which point the declaration came in the 44th over. The four Phillies’ wickets were shared – two to Rutt and one each to Dean and Harrison. Hegerty had taken an important catch at deepish mid-off.

After keeping wicket for a long spell Gill opened the Phillies’ reply by tucking into some erratic bowling (IZ conceded 46 extras compared with 15 for the home side). His partner was the young debutant, Harrison. The latter looked very comfortable before edging one behind for 6.

A third debutant, Ram Goli, then entered the fray and would stay there, unflustered, for the duration.

Tea was a pleasant cheeseboard and delicious apple cake affair, following which the home side sought to build a strong response to the IZ total. Following Rob Gill’s departure after a typically aggressive half century batsmen came and went with all three results still possible until Rutt was out with Phillies still 35 short and just a few overs left. This signalled an attempt to shut up shop, but this was ultimately unsuccessful as the final three wickets fell without addition to the score. For IZ Ed Moore took 5-39. Ram was left high and dry at the non-strikers end on 63 and IZ had completed a satisfying (for them) victory. It was a thoroughly good game, well skippered by Chandraker and with everyone taking part.

We were blessed with two good umpires in the persons of David Pimblett and Christopher Dean, and a guest scorer, Sathya Babu from Northamptonshire – a huge thank you to them all.

All three debutants had made a great contribution to the match and to the team and had all said how much they enjoyed the day. It is worth noting that the age difference between the two youngest and the two oldest players on the day was an amazing sixty years. This says so much about the game of cricket, and this type of cricket in particular.

Phillies’ players left the ground in positive mood as more leaves, and more conkers fell onto the grass - a sign that cricket is all but done for another year. All who played today will relish the thought of rejoining the battle next season.

Gerald Coteman

Age gap - the youngsters and the veterans - l to r: Seb Taylor, Gerald Coteman, Cillian Harrison and Graham Hegerty