On the day when in 1882 Australia beat England by seven runs causing the death of English cricket and thus the birth of the Ashes, when in 1925 Babe Ruth after a night on the town turned up late for batting practice and was fined $5,000.00 thereby setting a precedent for future MCC behaviour for Friday nets and in 1896 in New York the Chinese ambassador Li Hung Chang invented chop suey, Manev Alagh made a curry for the tea break.
The friendly had been set up with both teams having eleven players on the Wednesday. On Saturday three Tegenseers bailed and for MCC Gattinger called in with man flu. Skipper Weston won the toss and chose to bat and we supplied a couple of extra fielders for the opposition. After a while Stefan of MIC turned up carrying his whites as usual and joined the Tegernsee squad so they had a full complement of fielders.
Veser and Toke opened and put on 14 before Veser was run out by sub Konchada to be replaced by Sarma, he of small stature as per the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Two runs later Toke went and made way for Bowes who put on 24 with Sarma for the fourth but was out LBW much to his disapproval. In came Captain Weston to join his vice in the middle for 25 runs before Sarma left to be replaced by Michahelles. George didn`t last long, nor did the curry cook Alagh who took his place. In fact MCC were now 81 for 6 down after 15.2 overs. Arunachalam stayed with Weston for a 56 run partnership before Weston retired on 53. Konchada went for five and Hashimi was stranded on four, just short of his maiden fifty when Arunachalam was out for 36 and the total on 168 all out.
Then came the teas, a superb curry and so plentiful we were able to provision the opposition too. C C Alagh has certainly staked his claim for permanent tea making which, of course, is a clever way of getting selected.
Tegernsee opened with Caspari and Sharma to face MCC opening bowlers Hashimi and Arunachalam. Caspari went with the score on 20, Sharma with the score on 22, Amit with the score on 22, Eliah, a 13 year old who had bowled superbly taking three wickets – it would have been four had his dad not dropped a dolly – also went with the score on 22. Khan went for a duck and they were 28 for five down. Chakrit and Charles showed that alliteration in C works and put on a splendid 104 for the sixth before Chakrit was run out. Michahelles got his customary one wicket by getting Charles LBW and they were all out for 135.
It had been a super day, 30°, very friendly, and superb teas. After the match CC Alagh surprised us by producing a bottle of Jägermeister to celebrate his engagement to a young Indian maid (not called Redwing) whom he will marry in November in Delhi. There was no cool fresh in the fridge and without the Gore no-one thought to buy a crate earlier so we retired to Fräulein Grüneis and then to the Bombay Tandoori to see the ghost of Bakerson flitting around.
Veser, 8, run out
Toke, 1, bowled, 4 overs, 0 mdns, 20 runs, 0 wkts
Sarma, 20, caught, 3 overs, 1 mdn, 6 runs, 2 wkts
Bowes, 4, LBW, 2 overs, 0 mdns, 28 runs, 0 wkts, 1 catch
Weston, 53*, 1 over, 0 mdns, 6 runs, 0 wkts
Michahelles, 1, bowled, 2.3 overs, 0 mdns, 20 runs, 1 wkt
Alagh, 1, caught,3 overs, 0 mdns, 11 runs, 0 wkts
Arunachalam, 36 caught, 5 overs, 0 mdns, 12 runs, 1 wkt
Konchada, 5, caught, 3 overs, 0 mdns, 5 runs, 0 wkts
Hashimi, 4*, 6 overs, 2 mdns, 18 runs, 2 wkts
MCC, 169 for 9, beat Tegernsee, 135 for 7 by 34 runs.
MCC MOM: Arunachalam