Which concerns itself with George the first, George the second, and George the third; two successful debutants; and the match when cows stopped play.
The weather was extremely kind for the annual tussle with Incogniti played (as ever it seems), at the bucolic and sun-kissed Exning Park. Revenge was keenly being sought by the Phillies following a 100-run mauling in 2023. Game on!
A late drop out brought one debutant, Emmy Brown, in to join another, George Means. In fact, George had tried twice before to be a debutant but had been thwarted respectively by weather and then by the opposition pulling out of a fixture.
Losing the toss the Phillies found themselves batting on a fairly benign, if low and slow, wicket. Skipper for the day, Mihir Chandraker, opened with himself and the evergreen Ragnauth and they put on 42 before Ragnauth became a victim of the low bounce and cut the ball into his stumps. He departed for 26, which brought Ed Pearson to the crease. What followed was sublime and more than worth the entrance fee. The pair took the score to 170 before Pearson was caught on 77. This had been an exquisite period of play with the two playing wonderful shots all around the ground.
Chandraker continued to play beautifully, first with Lockie (16), then Davidson (18) and finally Rutt (6 no) before reaching a well-deserved century. At this point, the innings was declared at 250, and the serious matter of tea was addressed by all, thanks to the hard work of Dean in the kitchen.
After tea it was Rutt, having returned to full fitness, who opened proceedings, and looked threatening from the word go, but it was Davidson who made the initial breakthrough trapping one of the Incogniti openers LBW.
Enter George the first – Deano seemed to have the ball on a piece of string as he tore into the opposition’s upper middle order and bagged 3-27. At the other end, debutant Emmy Brown was working hard and forcing errors from the opposition but seemingly without luck. But, after two dropped catches she tempted Incogniti’s Khan to hit into the deep where Coteman, who had been grazing, pouched a respectable catch.
Enter George the second. This was George Means, who finally got to make his debut, and did so in the most refreshing way with some really good leg-spin – a craft missing from the Phillies’ attack for some long time. During this period, and in his attempts to keep things respectable, the Incogniti skipper stopped play no fewer than three times whilst cows wandered slowly behind the sight screen. But these bovine interventions failed to have any impact on the progress of the Incogniti innings.
And George the third was, you’ve guessed it, the Phillies’ royalty that is George Pearson who had arrived to offer support and much needed reassurance to the Führer as he willed his team to victory from a ‘pop-up‘ bunker underneath the trees.
By now Incogniti had gone into survival mode and Means wore them down completely finishing with 2-12 off ten overs. But there was still work to do. Coteman took 1-2 off four overs but his wicket was with a filthy full toss. Emma Radley bowled three tidy overs before Chandraker re-introduced Rutt and Davidson with two wickets still required. Rutt duly obliged with the ninth and Davidson with the tenth in the penultimate over of the allotted final twenty. The visitors had finished well over a hundred runs short of the Phillies total.
This was a really good victory, having been achieved in no small part as a result of Chandraker’s leadership, firstly with the bat and then in marshalling his forces. Everyone got in the game and had a thoroughly good time. Well done, Mihir!
Our thanks go to Christopher Dean who, whilst officially umpiring for Incogniti on the day, almost certainly has Philanderers tattooed somewhere on his body. He officiated with fairness and good humour, as always.
And here, at the glorious Exning Park, was yet another example of why this brand of cricket is so good, and so precious.
Gerald Coteman
Mihir the century man
The two debutants - George Means and Emmy Brown
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