Cricket vs Stragglers of Asia 13th May 2021

The opening match of the season for the wine trade was also our first against The Straggler’s of Asia who can trace their heritage to the army in India in the 1920’s (I was a member of The Straggler’s in the 1990’s!).

Sadly, our all-day match at Royal Hampton Wick was turned into a 35 over game because of heavy rain in the morning. However, this didn’t stop the match starting with lunch and a few glasses of wine obvs!! We needed to show how the wine trade build their innings!!

The Stragglers elected to bat first and started at a good pace as the Wine Trade were showing early season rustiness. The introduction of Olly Lawson with his wickedly dipping leg spinners stemmed the tide and his opening 5 over salvo included 3 maidens and a wicket. Christo Eliott Lockhart might have a couple of gripes as catches did not stick but all in all a creditable fielding performance as the Straggler’s got to 195 for 7 in 35 overs set up the chase….

Leading from the front and No 1 in the order was Kieran Gandhi who with the author set the ship pointing in the right direction with a 2nd wicket stand that was worth well over 50. All going well but in traditional Wine Trade fashion we had a mini collapse in losing 3 quick wickets and when things are going badly you need the Captain to put his hand up (cue a tear in the eye with a faraway look and stirring military music) and he and KG set about repairing and then smiting all to parts of the ground. With 10 runs and 12 balls to go the Captain decided to get out to a very smart catch.

The WTSC with Kieran Gandhi to the fore were not to be denied as we cruised over the finishing line with 2 balls to spare (easy, easy I hear you say) and win by 5 wickets. So I expect you are wanting me to tell you how many KG made? HE MADE 126 NOT OUT which out of 195 must be a record of some kind with nearly 65% of our runs to his own bat. I might just add that he was running on the fumes from the previous night spent in Liverpool but that is another story left in Liverpool because we all know what goes on tour stays on tour!!!

With thanks to Mark Leveson-Gower for the excellent match report.