Media owners beat agencies in the burly at the Hurly
In the 39th year of the annual Media Agencies versus Media Owners cricket match, the team of media owners captained by Jamie Jouning, Conde Nast’s chief client officer, overcame the Media Agencies XI captained by Nick Lawson, global CEO of EssenceMediacom, by two wickets.
In the first match since 2019, a sunshine-filled day at Fulham’s Hurlingham Club (better known these days for a being a regular stage set for C4’s Made in Chelsea rather than a playground for Medialand’s finest athletes) saw a high-scoring match won in the late afternoon before transferring to a packed ballroom where numerous media luminaries danced and dined the evening away.
The annual match, the brainchild of John Ayling, founder of the JAA media agency, has raised over £4m for its chosen charity The Lord’s Taverners since its inception in 1983 and the day started yesterday with a demonstration of visually impaired (VI) cricket by the Taverners VI team which had members of both media teams bewildered and in awe of the talented blind, and partially-sighted cricketers as they showed how they play the game despite their lack of perfect sight.
The game itself was a feast of cricket on the batting friendly Hurlingham square, and in a first in the history of the fixture, this previous bastion of masculinity welcomed its first female player.
Sarah Walker, chief marketing officer at EssenceMediacom, turned out for the Agency team and kept wicket adroitly during their time in the field.
The Agencies chose to bat first and put up a commanding total of 239 for 5 from their 30 overs with a fine unbeaten 50 from Publicis Media’s Fawad Ahmad and a quick fire 44 not out from Essence’s planning director, Lewis Catlow.
Francois Vainker was the pick of the Media Owner bowling with a fine spell of left arm spin, picking up three wickets for 40, ably supported by The Media Leader’s own Greg Grimmer with an economical stint of 1 for 28.
At the break of innings the smart money was thinking there were enough runs on the board for the Agencies to defend, but there were also rumours of a long batting line up for the Sales team unafraid of an eight run an over chase.
Matt Warne (no relation), business director at Bauer Media, and Abeed Janmohamed, founder of Volando and ex semi-pro cricketer, opened the batting and soon found themselves behind the required run rate as they failed to notice the short boundary on one side of the ground.
Once this mistake had been rectified, Janmohamed hit three straight sixes and was quickly retired with an unbeaten 54.
The long batting lineup was used to the full as both quick runs and quick wickets followed. As an injured Jouning (pictured- main image left) came out to bat and was promptly bowled for one, the Media Owners found themselves eight wickets down and in danger of being bowled out.
The calm and elegant Phil Dunnett, investment lead at Footballco, then took himself to a half century and hit the winning boundary to allow both teams to hit the bar and claim cricket was the real winner.
The GQ sponsored Man of the Match, voted for by the umpires including ex-Kent and England captain Chris Cowdrey, was Dan Beynon of the Agency team (pictured, main image right) with a fine 50, 4 wickets and a stunning diving catch.
Once in the Hurlingham ballroom, the teams mingled with guests from all over the commercial media world including Meta, JCDecaux and Reach and the charity auction organised as always by the omnipresent Claudine Collins of Mediacom, and hosted by the avuncular Mr Cowdrey, yet again raised large sums of money for The Lord’s Taverners’ good causes.
A successful day and evening for the great and good in the world of commercial media and a proof point for those that doubt it, the collaboration between Media Owners and Media Agencies is as strong as it always was.
2023 will be the 40th year anniversary of this stalwart of the Media World’s social calendar.
The event is open to all and this correspondent cannot help but notice both skippers are not as young as they once were so new blood on both sides would not go amiss.
If you are interested in playing in or attending next year’s fixture or supporting The Lord’s Taverners in other ways please contact the appointed trustee – Abeed Janmohamed. abeed@volandoglobal.com