143. Career Best

By Fozzie
July 31 2011

Fozzie describes Ladies day with Mrs Fozzie.  There was not so much Champagne consumed by them as most and they nearly paid the price. But they were able to enjoy their complimentary glass of bubbly and watch some Champagne moments as Middx take the initiative on Day 2.Some great photos provided by Mrs Fozzie. 

What better prospect for a bright and sunny Saturday morning than to go to Lord’s to see the Middle build on their good start on Day 1?  But this was no ordinary Lord’s Saturday – it was also Ladies Day, a date that Mrs Fozzie has earmarked since the day the fixtures were published. She has prepared for it with military precision, and an array of frocks, jackets and hats were laid out for selection before we could set off.

This was also her first visit to the Pavilion, and we arrived in good time to look round before play started.  Our first sight on entering the ground was the encouraging one of Gareth Berg bowling in the nets and looking in good shape.  Once in the Pavilion I showed Mrs F the Long Room, with strict instructions that we must whisper so as not to wake the MCC members. After admiring the pictures, with Mrs F displaying good skills in identifying 1980s England players, we tiptoed around a pair of comatose members who looked as if they had dozed off watching Trevor Bailey in the 1950s and had yet to come round, and made our way to the middle balcony.  With blue skies overhead the ground looked a picture, and Mrs F, duly impressed, whipped out her camera and started taking snaps.

Having seen Derbyshire’s bowling in the CB40 game on Thursday I was wondering if we might put together a really big total with little difficulty, and three boundaries in the opening two overs certainly suggested this might be the case.  First Robbo cover-drove to reach his 50, and then Scott hit consecutive fours of Clare with impressive power and timing. So it was a surprise and a disappointment when Clare immediately responded by trapping him LBW without playing a shot, and Scott left the field audibly and visibly annoyed with himself.  Chris Rogers never quite seemed to settle against his former team-mates, and when Clare had him caught behind it was 141-2, with things not going according to plan.

Enter Dawid Malan, and he and Robbo played carefully against some accurate seam bowling before AC got going with some well-timed and pleasant strokes. Robbo drove Palladino for four, only for the bowler to respond by drawing him into playing and missing, typical of a period of tight, competitive cricket. However, at this point it was announced that the Ladies Day champagne reception in the Harris Gardens was open, and a troop of ladies in brightly-coloured frocks upped and left.  Like a good trooper, Mrs Fozzie announced that she would be staying put watching the cricket. 

Much more fun watching this than drinking champagne

Meanwhile the off-spinner Greg Smith was wheeling away steadily, but as lunch approached the 50 partnership came up, quickly followed by reaching 200 and our first batting point.  At  lunch the score was 203-2, with Robbo 93 and AC 33, and although it had been hard work it seemed as if the foundation had been laid for the rest of the day.  We went down to the Long Room to applaud them in, and it was clear from their faces just how hard they had had to concentrate.

Off to the champagne reception, and the Harris Garden was heaving as we joined the lengthy queue for the bar.  We were stuck behind a portly MCC member in a most striking blazer, and although Kev had asked for the report to include some local colour I’m not sure whether he really had maroon, green and salmon-pink stripes in mind.  I was seeing stars by the time the blazer had moved out of my line of vision, and even more so when I ordered two glasses of champagne and was asked for £17.50 in return.  At which point the conversation went as follows:

Fozzie: Oh…I thought this was a free reception?

Barman (suspiciously):  But you haven’t just arrived, have you?

Fozzie:  Of course we have – we’ve been watching the cricket!

Barman (with raised eyebrow and pitying smile): OK….

Still, we got our free glasses of champagne, and quite delicious they were too.  But then it was back to the Pavilion in the hope of seeing Robbo reach his century. Whiteley, Derby’s seventh bowler of the innings, opened after lunch, which seemed a surprising choice; but at 94 Robbo cut him hard only to be caught by Madsen diving at gulley. I had just been telling Mrs Fozzie that Robbo had scored 94 twice already this season, so I fear that I must take the rap for this dismissal.  Mrs F’s had a bit of a motherly soft spot for young Sam since seeing him get a duck against Sri Lanka, so she was most pleased to see him come good, even if he did fall short of his century.

Well played Robbo , but sadly 6 short of century again

At 222 AC reached his first Championship half-century of the season, but runs were hard to come by, and at 231 Dex drove a return catch to Smith.  The new ball was taken, and AC and Jamie had added 32 at little more than 2 runs an over when Jamie was caught, just as he was starting to look settled. At least we had the lead, but at 275-5 at tea it was looking precarious.  The momentum had slowed, and Derbyshire had taken the honours in the afternoon.

Derby had stuck to their guns well, but it must have been hot work in the field, and after tea they started to show signs of tiredness as Middlesex wrested the initiative back.  AC moved into the nineties with two straight-drives for 4, one of which was all-run after a calamitous misunderstanding between two fielders on the boundary.  At 99 he had a scare with a loud appeal for a catch behind off Turner, but then cover-drove for 4 to reach his century to loud acclaim. An eventful over ended with Simmo being caught behind, and though he had scored only 14 he had played his part in a stand of 56 in pretty good time.

AC Celebrates a ton

Tom Smith was quickly out, bowled by his namesake and fellow spinner, and at 329-7 it again looked as if the lead might fall some way of expectations. However, Tim Murtagh provided good, sensible support to AC, and together they added a quick 46 before Murts gave the persevering Smith his third wicket.  Before much longer AC was out for 143, his highest score and an innings that mixed watchfulness and caution with some lovely strokeplay. I imagine he has made quicker centuries, but it was great to see his application, which was just what was needed.

There was just sufficient time for Corey to be hit on the foot by a booming yorker (or alternatively, perhaps, hit himself with his bat), which led to a lengthy delay while Finny commiserated and probably also started calculating how much extra work he might have to take on tomorrow if Corey was crocked.  Thankfully, though, he recovered well enough for both to score boundaries and take the score to 397-9 at stumps.   Not quite the runfest we were hoping we might see, but a day of good attritional cricket in which Middlesex showed resilience and resolve to achieve what should be a decisive lead of 145 . Full credit to AC in particular.

Following the close of play I had the honour of presenting a bottle of vintage sparkling water and a medallion to Sam Robson as MTWD’s player of the month for June – or at least I did once we managed to get me, various other MTWDers, Fletch (who had clearly enjoyed his day to the full) and Robbo in the same place at the same time.  Although we didn’t quite believe Robbo’s claim that this was the proudest moment of his career to date, he did seem genuinely appreciative of the high regard in which we hold him, particularly once we confirmed that the water was indeed OK to drink.

So after handshakes all round, Robbo departed, doubtless to return to his monastic athlete’s cell for ten hours sleep before resuming combat tomorrow, and we headed off towards St John’s Wood station. En route we passed the Pavilion, where we saw Dawid Malan signing autographs for a little group of awestruck children.  It was a pleasant sight to end a good day.