SCORECARD

Annual Tour – Match 1
Gardeners Cricket Club 177-8 (40 overs)
Old Mo 178-4 (37 overs)

Old Mo win by 6 wickets

Nestling in the border region between Leominster and Rhayader is the home of Marches League club Kington whose proud history includes an appearance at Lords in the final of the National Village Cup competition. The magnificently appointed ground sits in the shadow of Hergest Ridge and next to the meandering River Arrow.

Technically (or historically) this was actually the international leg of the tour since Kington is on the western side of Offa’s Dyke *See historical postscript at foot. And it wasn't against Kington - but Gardeners CC from London http://www.gardenerscricket.com/the-club/ who were also on tour.

Full English all round ensured that 11 players took the relatively short journey from Hereford to Kington arriving in plenty of time for the 13:00 start time. A bronzed volume approached on foot from where he’d been camping it up for a few days at very deep third man, and an independent traveller from Birmingham (Raj) arrived a day early for his tour game – thus ensuring plenty of ammunition for the day.

The Bowling/Fielding

A lost toss presaged a bowl, and the cunning plan of Caesar senior (5-3-4-0) opening at the River end duly led the Gardeners to assume a gentle stroll in the park. However, Ralphie (8-0-34-4) disappeared into the distance for his run up, and first ball gave the oppo a less than gentle reminder that our bowling attack might not be entirely dibbly dobblies. First ball at Ralphie’s usual pace sent the off stump cartwheeling.

It didn’t really let up from there and after 10 overs there were a few cockney jitters looking at a scoreboard reading 22-3.
However, some talented and gritty determination from the Gardeners left handed opener ensured a platform was laid as he stroked his way to 66. Admittedly he almost fell to Nutt’s (6-0-45-2) cunningly flighted grenades on a couple of occasions but was well worth his half century.

He was joined by the local youth policy and together they laid a platform to allow late order biffers to post a total of 177-8 – a score that looked very distant just a couple of hours earlier.

The FitAttack remained vigilant and included a decent spell from the home made leg spinning action of Tour Leg End Strickers (5-0-34-1) and a grunting spell form Los Squideros himself Sharif (6-0-24-0). Keepperrrr, focussing mainly on keeping bodily functions in check, somehow got one of his stumping chances – can’t recall who the lucky bowler was but probably someone v slow.

He was ably backed up with miserly stuff from Umberto (5-1-9-0) and The Golden One (5-1-12-0) to ensure that (along with some generally decent fielding) an excellent pitch conceded a gettable target.

The Tea & Hospitality

The tea (along with the hospitality of Kingston CC) was superb. The barrel of Wibbly Wobbly was also delightful and all for a very reasonable £2:50. I don't think we could have found better hosts - on either side of the border.

The Batting

The reply all started so well, before the first casualty as Tom ‘walked’ following an LBW shout for 10 at a fairly hung-over and sedentary strike rate of 48.

Horatio was not to be moved though and provided the rock of the response with a crafted half century knocked up at a creditable 82.
Geraint, was intent on crease occupancy, but with the Admiral in control his 41 ball 22 was perfectly acceptable and was even showing signs of mastery (inspired by Offa’s Dyke to the East?)when he fell for a pretty soft C&B.

Cometh the hour, cometh the Skipper who despite the rising excitement all around him almost kept his strike rate below 50 in his 58 ball unbeaten 31 featuring a variety of strokes as he steadied the boat . Lord F fell going for a big hoik and was replaced by a fumbling Tuckeerrrr who lasted 8 balls for no apparent reason.

Umberto made up for lost time and ended the event with a magnificent late charge for Man of the Match as he smote 41 at a strike rate of 164 – game over.

Prosecco Moment: Awarded to Ralphie for the first ball stump assault.
Oppo Prosecco moment – can’t quite recall, but the skipper’s speech was akin to an episode of 24. Should really have been the left handers 66 – possibly was?

*Historical Postscript (s)
Despite being on the western side of Offa's Dyke, the town has been English for over a thousand years though presumably it was Welsh in and before the 8th century. After Norman popped over with his army (1066 and all that), the King gave the town to Adam Port. Adam promptly did a runner, returned a couple of years later with a load of Scots and lost the Battle of Alnwick – apparently the King wet himself at the poor effort.

The Doomsday book actually recorded the place as ‘Chingtune' (olde English for Kings Town or a very early oriental download site).
Of more excitement is The Black Dog of Hergest which is said to haunt the area around Hergest Ridge and his sighting reputedly presages death. It is also rumoured to have been the prototype for The Hound of the Baskervilles as Conan Doyle is known to have stayed at nearby Hergest Hall shortly before he wrote the novel.

Talgarth
The Gardeners were also touring the area and staying in the village of Talgarth

This small market town/community increased its population (1645) by 1% for their stay. It was the capital of the early medieval Welsh Kingdom of Brycheiniog and boasts the 13th century Pele Tower. However from the opposition accounts of their stay, there were no redeeming features for the town other than the now abandoned Mid Wales Psychiatric Hospital….and one pub.