The Gentlemen of West London won by 50 Runs

Match Report

The Gents and 12 Angry Men go back a long way. They first met in 1994 and played friendlies and Pals League matches before 12 Angry Men disbanded as a regular team several years ago. This was their 30th anniversary fixture and their captain David Shannon had gone to great lengths to assemble a squad of 15, comprising old sweats such as Denton and Hibbert and a sprinkling of young blood from the Bullock genes, complete with shirts from Borstal CC, an area with which several Gents are familiar. The sun shone and some fine cricket was played, The Gents continuing their recent strong run, though the result was perhaps secondary to the occasion.

It was not a casual game though, far from it. There was much interesting cricket played, the story of the day encompassing Sachin Desai's elegant 48, an Sciberras/Caveney stand of 71 for the 9th wicket and a brutal 40 from Angry Man Middleton. The Gents batted by agreement, Dubey starting with two boundaries off Davies, whose batting, along with Neil Hadfield's, troubled The Gents so much in the mid-1990s. However, Davies had both Dubey and Kumar lbw on the low, slow wicket and when Dhruv Patel edged the Hibbert awayswinger to the excellent 'keeper Newman the innings stood at a troubled 32-3.

Enter Sachin Desai, now approaching his true form. He shrugged off the cheap dismissals of the Patels to score 9 4s in his 16 over stay before holing out to mid-wicket. Shu Desai and Palmer fell quickly, but Sciberras (4 4s) and Caveney (5 4s) put up 71 in 9 overs as the temperature soared. The total of 182-8 was satisfactory. The visitors had fielded well and used 8 bowlers, in the spirit of giving everyone a game. Hemin Patel would respond in kind. The BBQ took time to organise so the visitors faced 8.5 overs before tea, inevitably losing early wickets, Bullock bowled second ball and Denton lobbing to mid-on after two fine boundaries.

Davies produced some shots of high quality before being stumped by the alert Shu Desai off the wily Sciberras. The contest everybody wanted to see was Dhruv Patel trying to get his revenge on Hibbert, but we were denied this. Patel was replaced after a tidy first over by the nippy Sohail, who had Hibbert caught at mid-wicket. This looked like an inspired piece of captaincy, but it transpired that, fearful of a possible pasting, the pint-sized twirler had refused to bowl at the Jamaican. Dhruv Patel got Lawrence and Dean and when Torode was lbw to the first ball bowled by young James Bullock (the teams fielding one of Adrian's nippers each), 12 Angry Men were 70-7. Max Bullock was staunch in support of Middleton as 49 came up for the 8th wicket. Sciberras got the youngster before Hemin Patel and Shu Desai cleaned up the tail. It had been a good reply and The Gents were grateful that they got Bullock, Denton and Hibbert early and that their feeble catching did not prove expensive.

The match ended at half-past six so there was time to catch up with a team who are a significant part of Gents' history. Everything, from the ground to the weather, the food and the attitude of the two captains was perfect.

©The Gentlemen of West London Cricket Club 2011