Penn Street vs Morgan

Morgan 399-7 (Imran 75*, B. Khan 69; P. Goodchild 3-76) beat Penn Street 188-10 (P. Jupp 75; J. Samuel 5-26, K. Imran 3-23) by 211 runs

A hot and very humid june day saw the visit of Morgan CC to Penn Street, the officially unoffical home of cricket.

Morgan won the toss and batted giving them first use of the batsmen's paradise the pitch prep guys had prepared, a very true wicket coupled with a lightening fast outfield. Goody and Jacko opened the bowling and started well keeping it tight and skittling the stumps of the Morgan opener leaving them 6-1 after 3 overs. The Morgan batsmen then decided that all out attack was the way forward and proceeded to fling the bat at everything, a tactic that soon paid off as edges flew over or past desparing fielders. Runs continued to flow despite Goody claiming the scalps of both set batsmen, one to a sharp catch behind from Fletch, to finish on 76-3 from his eight overs. Rotating the bowlers had no effect as the flow of boundaries was intersperced only occasionally with wickets as batsmen after batsmen came in and blasted a quick fifty, picking gaps between the boundary sweepers with agonising regularity. Only Andrew Crofts was able to stem the flow, picking up two good wickets despite having a couple of catches dropped. By the time 40 overs had been clocked up, the Morgan batsmen had rattled along to 399-7, a total so large it required Cally to use an extra page in the scorebook. A crime virtually without parallel throughout history.

With the Squirrel unable to provide Tea, Chairman's wife Julia Sutherland, ably assisted by Caitlin and Jon, very kindly stepped into the breach and whipped up a wonderful spread to gladden the hearts of 11 dejected and thoroughly exhausted Penn Street warriors.

Refreshed and undaunted by the target, Captain Fletch decided to shuffle his pack of batsmen and open with the very aggressive pairing of himself and Jacko. They were not to have the same luck as the Morgan batsmen though as both perished cheaply within the first 3 overs. This brought Rob Sutherland to join Juppy at the crease. Rob decided, with typical cavalier style, to began playing his trademark lofted drives over long on. He soon charged to 25 before sadly being bowled to bring the in form Mark Gloyens to the wicket. Mr G and Jupps then concentrated on putting away the bad ball and added a partnership of 80 before Mr G was bowled by a beauty. Both of them tucking in with relish to one particular Kiwi bowler, who served up 6 length balls an over. The demise of Mr G resulted in wickets starting to tumble, including Juppy to a catch in the deep and Ashley Barrett to a sharp stumping chance, until last man Steve Smith missed a straight one to gift Goody a 1 not out to add to his Washington Hayford credentials.

In the end Penn Street ended up in an unsurprising second place, a little wiser and definitely a little older.

Man of the Match: A. Crofts