Royal Household 28th June 2008

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Royal Household - Saturday 28th June 2008

Finally after several years of cancelled fixtures, LNZCC had a fine line up of Kiwi soldiers that went to take on the Queens merry men.

The day started with the Walsh family driving up the Long Walk (there is a clue in the name) to the Windsor gates to be faced by a less--than-thrilled, machine-gun-totting burly soldier (Not the last political incident of the day). Whist we were to be graced by the presence of the NZ Trade Commissioner, her arrival (at least at the correct gate) caused consternation with her diplomatic plates. Using those finely honed Kiwi diplomacy skills, she managed to convince them she was not part of Al Qaeda and to allow her in.

On with the cricket...

It was a day when non-decision making was all important.

To celebrate the fixture, RHCC kindly offered to put on a BBQ. As it happened the Chef de Maison was playing and hence it was practical that RHCC batted second

Non-decision number 1 - we were batting first up.

With a man stuck at Datchet station, the cry went out for a volunteer to pick him Mr Dormer (the great club man he is) set off with plenty of time to spare (and the match managers daughter as navigator) only to find himself lost and stuck in Windsor Race Day traffic. Ben has been our regular opener during the season was nowhere as the 14:00 rolled by.

Non-decision number 2 - with our opening bat roaming the streets, the options to shake up the batting order soon disappeared

Fanning and Tippen made an excellent opening stance knocking around the RHCC bowlers at will. Once Pete was gone for 16 Blair Simm came in to start where he had left the previous week and knocked up some superb boundaries ably supported by our chairman until he holed out on 56.

As night watchman to the missing Dormer, and with pads gleaming white and a grin from ear to ear, Marshall strode onto the pitch having a rare opportunity to prove that he was not just "a ball man".

It should be noted that Dorms had now returned but could not resist the boyish enthusiasm of Marshall to have a go at the bowling attack which he did with great gusto.

A superb partnership ensued and Simm made another excellent ton in consecutive weeks.

To follow up on Bens honourable gestures, Blair put his team first by the retiring "hurt" to give someone else the opportunity to bat. I am proud and honoured to see this team-before-self behaviour. Dorms finally got a chance to release his arms for the final couple of overs before tea. With pent up frustration we expected Dorms to lose a ball or two into the distant pastures.

Unfortunately non decision number 3 got in before him. With only 43 overs on the clock, Marshall hunting down his 50 and Dorms chomping at the bit, a potentially light bowling attack and an old ball, a few overs more were the skippers prerogative. Wrong

Neither tea time nor the declaration was an option. The clock had struck and we were off the field at 250/2.

By this stage it must be noted that not only did we apparently had too many runs on the board as "180 was plenty".

After an excellent tea, we entered the field unknowingly about to witness one of the great LNZCC performances of all time.

A Bartle-Walsh combination opened the attack on a fairly flat track and an old ball. By the time the score was 8 Gerard had 3 wickets for a handful of runs and was on a hattrick.

Such was ferocity of the bowling attack, Pete (the finger) Tippen managed to dislocate a finger through the gloves and was off to hospital.

Fearing another political incident, yours truly removed the opening pair to ensure these was no right royal embarrassment.

With some heavy handed rotation of the bowling attack to ensure bowlers didn't get into their rhythm, the score moved on with Tom (the RHCC skipper) knocking up a very able 88. With only a few overs under his belt and the frustration of watching the overs ticking by, the Walsh attack was again unleashed.

He set about the task of annihilating the RHCC batting line up with a caught and bowled only worthy of younger men and even an LB decision from Marty (must have been plumb?) Gerard ended up with 7 for 15 off 9 overs. A truly great LNZ performance.

One last opportunity for a political incident, Having been warned of the dangers roaming the Windsor Great Park, a very supportive group of wags took the opportunity to test the Queens security, setting off the alarms whilst taking a constitutional walk.

All in all a great day had by all and thanks again to all our supporters, Marty, RHCC, and of course the Queen (whose car slowed briefly to watch our Chairman dispatch a ball to the boundary and then sped away)

RHCC won the toss and elected to field in this timed declaration match with only one ball used.