Botten Tops And Blizzards Reign As Bowman Bows Out

The inaugural MRG cricket fixture took place last week under blue skies and at a venue that even the locals standing outside had never heard of. The cricket was not quite of the calibre a full house will witness at Lords on Sunday, but skippers Poustie (BMRB) and Hiddleston (Universal McCann) ensured it was keenly contested throughout. Publicised skipper Overy (BBC Magazines) led from the front by not turning up at all (not his fault apparently).

The opening over set the pattern for the game – a four, a six, a handful of wides and a wicket – no tentative playing yourself in here…..Hiddleston’s boys and girl went on to total 136-6 from 18 overs, built around a splendid 52 not out from IPC rookie Dan Botten, a steady 18 from MediaTel’s Derek Jones; a bludgeoned 20 from a chap called Sumo; and a last-gasp, finely constructed 2 not out from Carlton’s Catherine Blizzard (nee Davie) – 2 more incidentally than Mr Blizzard made when he batted !

Overshadowing even the impressively long run-up of CIA’s Anthony Jones, the bowling success for Poustie’s side was Peter Bowman, whose mix of chinamen, googlies and ones that never bounced at all netted him two wickets with his first two balls. Unfortunately for Bowman it also resulted in an ankle injury, sustained while celebrating his first wicket in the style of one of his Chelsea heroes. All the more remarkable that he managed to disguise his injury to such an extent that he still took a wicket with the next ball, but this may have had something to do with the fact that his bowling action required absolutely no run-up at all. As a foot note, Bowman sadly announced his retirement from the third-class game directly after the match.

Poustie’s chaps set out at a fair rate (mainly because Nick Hiddleston opened the bowling), but were pegged back a little by accurate spells from Blizzard (Mr), Tim Grime and Botten, and finally bemused completely by some canny manipulation of the bowlers and the chucking action of Blizzard (Mrs).

Top scorer for Poustie’s XI (ish) was Nick Wiggins of Fox Kids with a feisty fifty not-out. The BMRB duo of the skipper and Rob Laurence contributed 18 and 13 not out respectively in hugely contrasting style (with Poustie generously dropped off his first ball), but a final total of 122-4 fell 14 runs short of the required target.