Salix v. Gentlemen of West London

Sunday 13 September, GlaxoSmithKline SC, Greenford. Salix won toss. Cloudy, 18C

Lost by 50 runs

The Gents lost only their second game in 24 matches when they were blown away by brilliant Salix batting. It was going to take something special to beat the 2009 Gents in a 35 over game and three Salix batsmen provided it: the veteran Tony Fletcher, the elegant Kunwar Singh and the violent Tasmanian Nick Goold, whose 67 scored in only 11 overs at the crease transformed the match. When Salix lost four wickets quickly and stood at 102-6 in the 22nd. over the visitors were on top, but 122 quick runs then came to shatter Gent hopes. The truly impressive aspect of the innings, the highest against The Gents since 2006, was that it was achieved against a talented attack, lacking perhaps only Iqbal and Lalam from the best the visitors could possibly have fielded.

The warm sunshine of the Saturday had disappeared to leave the ground swathed in cloud with a biting northerly wind. This was to be the last game here and both sides were hopeful, Salix because of their excellent record against The Gents and the visitors because of the self-belief engendered by a record-busting season. The captain warned his men to be careful of extras. So it was, then, that Stuart Snelling opened the game with three wides. Inkollu had Clews caught by mid-on running in but Fletcher pulled and drove strongly, putting up his 34 in only 11 overs before holing out to long-on. Padmore, a centurion the previous week, became the hundredth wicket for Sciberras, who went onto take three more in a sound spell. Him apart, only Inkollu provided economy. Singh flourished in his ten-over dig, striking seven fours, the same as Fletcher.

Although runs were coming at five an over, The Gents kept taking wickets and when Darling, Singh, Kulasingam and Shaw fell in five overs their tails were up. Enter Goold. Not since Village XI’s youthful Roland Heyman (132) and Robert Jones (89) of Village XI pounded 215 in July 2006 has a Gent attack been subjected to such a venomous assault. He hit seven fours and three sixes, one off Rudru and two in successive balls off Sciberras. The innings was not chanceless, Newcombe putting down a couple of vicious drives in the deep, but he deserved his fifty and plaudits from team-mates and opponents. After Goold fell, Lumsden and Heaton carried on the assault.

The temperature plummeted and the light began to fail but The Gent fought a good fight. After four overs they were 29-0 but that was the only time they were ahead of the required rate. Khan’s 55 glued the innings together and there were solid contributions down the order, but the task was just too great. A chasing score of 174 was far from shoddy, but still left the visitors 50 short. There were four wickets for the slow left-armer Ellis and no weak links in the bowling but the standout performer was, once more, Goold, who was very tight. A flurry of wickets came in pitch darkness to add to the gaiety of nations, including the run out of Hemin Patel, who having made his ground forgot to ground his bat and was run out by a direct hit. Fielding twelve batsmen, The Gents were ten down and so Salix just failed to take all the wickets, an achievement reserved for just five of The Gent’s 2009 opponents. The result was the right one and Gents were pleased to toast the victors after the match.