365 Sporting Days

This is all a bit odd as I’m having to go back in time – less than a week but boy I’ve seen some sport in that time!  But, I must keep a record of every sporting event I go to especially in 2015.  (Can’t see me stopping in 2016)

On top of this being a little after the fact it’s also now out of order, horrors!  Hey ho,  I just had to write about the Ashes!  England WON THEM – those Ashes!

Back to the game in hand – I had the pleasure of attending a Members Forum Lunch at the Oval before the match started.  The lunch/forum was held in the John Major Room which was very swish.

Richard Gould the Chief Executive was first up, he spoke about the season so far for the club, explaining that the home T20 games had netted a crowd of 120,000 with a further 20,000 missing out due to rain.

He went on to show the plans for developing the ground, a £9.5 – £10m project – exciting times at The Oval!

We also had the pleasure of hearing from Alec Stewart, a superb cricketer in his day, he was also a very good speaker, with a quick wit.  A most enjoyable lunch.

And so to the cricket – Surrey won the toss and chose to bat.  Jason Roy has had some good times with the bat this summer and this game was no exception, his fellow opener Steve Davies made 13 runs before he was caught by Ed Barnard from the bowling of Jack Shantry.

Kumar Sangakarra – Sri-Lankan superstar joined Roy and more than played his part in adding 76 of the runs in a partnership of 144 before being caught by Daryl Mitchell, the bowler was Shantry again.

Rory Burns back to full fitness joined Roy, his century only a run away Roy was, much to his disgust, caught behind by Ben Cox from the bowling of Joe Leach.  Such a shame to see him leave on 99!

Burns added a very useful 61 before the bails flew as he was stumped by Cox, the bowler was Saeed Ajmal.

We then had a very bizarre state of affairs as the final wickets to fall – Zafar Ansari on 18, James Burke on 3 and Gary Wilson on 34 were all run out!  I for one have never seen that in an innings!  Surrey finished their innings with a score of 328 for Worcs to chase.

I’d been sitting in the pavilion for the Surrey innings but moved round to sit with a Surrey friend Charles at ‘half-time’ (not cricket I know!).  It was great to see him again and chat to his friends, lovely, friendly people!

Daryl Mitchell and Tom Kohler-Cadmore opened the batting for Worcestershire,  Jade Dernbach, he of the lots of tattoo’s opened the bowling along with Sam Curran – the non-top knot Curran brother.  A hugely impressive young bowler who is just into his 18th year and still at school I believe!  His 1st over was a maiden.

Now this is where I find myself at a disadvantage – we had the strange sight of a runner during the innings, seeing 3 ‘batsmen’ on the pitch at the same time really is an odd thing to behold!  my disadvantage?  I can’t recall which batsman was hurt 😦

Kohler-Cadmore was the 1st to lose his wicket – Ansari taking a catch from Sam Curran’s bowling he’d scored 18.

Tom Fell joined Mitchell and the pair had a partnership of 46 before Gary Wilson caught Mitchell from the bowling of captain Gareth Batty – he’d scored 59.

Joe Clarke was next in, and again the batsmen swapped after Fell became both Sam Curran’s and Wilson’s 2nd victim, he’d scored a very useful 63.

Brett D’Oliveira (there’s a famous surname!) wasn’t to last long, he’d made 3 before older brother Tom Curran sent his stumps flying.  It felt as if Worcs were running out of batsmen, they were on 191-4.

Joe Clarke on 54 wasn’t far behind D’Oliveira he was caught by Sangakarra from the bowling of James Burke.

Rather than list the wickets that fell I would comment that in addition to Tom Curran’s ball to despatch D’Oliveira we saw another 3 wickets fall in the same way.  Burke, Sam Curran and Dernbach all notching up a wicket with the bails flying.

It seems to be something of a dying art in the red ball game and was a delight to witness at the Oval.

Worcestershire fell short of the Surrey total being ‘bowled’ out for 292 in 46.4 overs – the day/evening was hugely enjoyable all round!  Good cricket and good company.

No extra little detail to add, the game is part of the membership and everything else remains the same.