Veser makes the 500 club while’st Man of the Match Konchada falls short in the duck race
The last match of the season and that against a team from the Scot Lands. The Ship Inn from Elie are a very friendly team – they only play friendlies – and their home ground is on the beach – so they can only play when the tide is out. Once it is out they roll the sand and can get in a 30 innings per side match in the six hours available. They also have their own playing rules which is that every player except the keeper has to bowl two overs before anyone can bowl a third. They also play that a batsman must retire once he scores 50. They had 14 players in their party so it turned out to be a scorer’s nightmare as they used thirteen bowlers. Most of them were staying in the Euro Youth Hotel where club member Andy Mayston had kindly lapsed his Oktoberfest rule not to take bookings for groups as they were MCC guests. On arrival at the hotel one of the Elie squad was greeted with “we don`t see many wearing cravats in here”.
Captain for the day Clare cheated quite brazenly to win the toss and chose to bat, opening with Parlour and Veser. Despite swapping out the bowlers regularly the score ambled along in test match fashion and after 10 overs – equals six bowlers – MCC were 35 for 0. The pace was upped somewhat and in the 20th over Parlour passed his fifty so MCC were 127 for 1. In came Konchada, desperate not to get a duck and scored only 1 from the first 12 balls faced. Veser meanwhile had passed 50 and so with 2 down MCC were 130 and in came Arunachalam. He and Konchada now went over to very aggressive batting and put on 68 for the third wicket, before Konchada was run out, much to the joy of Kantor who had been patrolling the boundary in full kit hoping for a last knock of the season. There were only two balls left and Arunachalam was facing but, joy of joy, it was a no-ball and they ran so Kantor was able to get a much celebrated single.
After teas provided by Kantor and Sestan, MCC opened the bowling with Sestan and Kantor – take note members, bring the teas and you get to open the bowling. Captain Clare had decided to bowl those first who hadn`t had a bat so didn`t stick to the two overs for everyone first rule. The openers bowled only three wides in their nine overs and took one wicket, a splendid catch by Konchada off Kantor and Elie were 35 for 1. Kulanagayam and Scott took over the attack, both bowled tightly and took 2 for 5 and 2 for 10 respectively and after 15 overs Elie were 50 for 5. Gaikwad took two in his first over to make it 52 for 7. The eighth wicket put on a soixante-neuf but was broken by Arunachalam in the 29th over. Konchada came on for the final over and went for 4 w . . . w so Elie were all out on the last possible ball of the innings for 124.
Helmut had stocked up with three crates of cool fresh which didn`t last long – thirsty fellows these Scots – so we retired to the Chinese Tower for several Mass and then, around 9pm, to be soaked when Daniel really let it down once again.
Veser, 50*
Parlour, 55*
Konchada, 31, run out, 1 over, 0 mdns, 4 runs, 2 wkts, 2 catches
Arunachalam, 31*, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 5 runs, 1 wkt
Kantor, 1, not out, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 16 runs, 1 wkt
Gattinger, DNB, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 33 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Clare, DNb, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 28 runs, 0 wkts
Gaikwad, DNB, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 3 runs, 2 wkts
Kulanagayan, DNB, 3 overs, 1 mdn, 5 runs, 2 wkts
Scott, DNB, 4 overs, 1 mdn, 10 runs, 2 wkts
Sestan, DNB, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 19 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
MCC, 203 for 3, beat Ship Inn Elie, 124 for 10 by 79 runs
MCC MOM Konchada
