By The Diamond Ruled OK
June 5 2006

Up at dawn, eager for the day, suited and booted soon after first light. Diamond reports with much humour and good spirit on his annual pilgrimage to Lourdes....I mean Lord's. Diamond's Groundhog Day
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Up at dawn, eager for the day, suited and booted soon after first light. The reason for this is the annual pilgrimage made by the faithful to the Pavilion at Lord’s, yes that is Lord’s without the u and the e. This goes back a couple of years when one bright spark amongst us said “ I’ve never been in the pavilion “ , hence suited and booted we arrive for the Essex Sunday fixture, membership cards in hand to be admitted to the hallowed halls of cricket . Usually we are Middlesex shirt and no tie merchants so the havoc of wearing a collar and tie is like a penance to us.

Journey into the Abyss
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My E1 journey to Ealing Broadway was courtesy of Marcus Gronholm, or at least it felt like the guy was driving a rally car! Behind schedule or what! Got off the bus with relief to find my day getting better, yes the Central Line was running, unlike most of the others! This I became aware of when boarding a train full of suit cased passengers all bearing the mark LHR, oh yes the Piccadilly line's out of action again.

Got to St John's Wood and found myself short of beer tokens - no problem - Barclays ATM in the High Street - problem - out of service . Found one of the two Nat West Machines working but with no tenners, stuff it, have £60 instead. Into the ground by 10.20hrs, bright sunshine and filling up nicely, what’s more I learnt on the PA that Hutton had won the toss , glory of glories this pilgrimage thing works! [Question from the Editor - how were your aches and pains feeling by that time, Diamond?]

Neil Williams RIP
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It was so fitting a tribute to a good servant of Middlesex and latterly Essex to see so many of his family and friends had turned out for the day which was to celebrate the life of a great man. The splash of colour in the gardens as I walked past to the pavilion said it all; folks out in the sunshine remembering a man taken from us all too soon on a day he would have enjoyed . To all who attended today for Neil I hope it brought back fond memories of a great man and gave you solace in your great loss. He may be gone, up there playing with Wilf Slack once again, but he will not be forgotten.

Essex dig
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They started well with Grant Flower scoring a four and a two off of Chad’s first over, Irani got off the mark with a steer to third man. No sign of my fellow pilgrims yet , I do hope they have a note from their mum. No hang on they are in with excuses about trains and walking from Edgware Road , get a bus you cheapskates ! Chad bowling a really tidy session makes Grant Flower snick one to Ace our only slip in the 6th over and he is gone for 16, just the breakthrough we needed . I have mentioned spectator psyche before in my reports but this was well spooky. No sooner had I said to Andy ”Come on Chad get us another one “ than he trapped the hapless Bopara LBW for 0.

By this time the slatted benches in front of the pavilion were filling up as was the rest of the ground that was open. Chad and Louw continued to bowl well , tidy but with little penetration. Chad then experienced the horror over going for 12 and was replaced by Chris Silverwood, who then bowled a great first over only ruined by the 4 off of the last ball .Essex reached 51 off of 83 balls with 2 wickets down.

Time for a change
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The 16th over saw the introduction of JD to the attack bowling a very tidy maiden at Irani. I was busy sorting out the Penguin rations for the pilgrims when he and Scott snared Pettini for 9 , 56-3 . Darn missed another wicket! I then went to take out a mortgage to get the beers in and have a visit downstairs to the basement room with the Test on TV screens in the wall , be careful not to wee on your leg. Back topside and the 24th over sees the reintroduction of Chad and the run rate going above 4 for the first time since the 2nd over. He was replaced by the new Daddy, Scott Styris, after just the one over and the 100 and Irani’s 50 were posted soon after.Enter the Ace with ball in hand , a ploy that had worked against the Irish last weekend , 4 runs off of his first two overs showed it was no fluke this lad can bowl.

The first glass of the day was dropped by a female member at 12.55hrs , not bad , nearly 2 hours without a breakage. Good out fielding pinned Essex down and SS removed A.Flower by bowling him for 30 in the 32nd over , Andy’s turn to miss this one , buying the beers!!

The 150 came up off of 227 balls and was not the only thing up; "India 99", the Met’s helicopter, was up and about - I'm convinced those guys only want a free view of the game in working hours! If they had have hung around or hovered long enough they would have seen Ed Joyce take a straightforward catch off of JD to remove Ten Doeschate with the first ball of the 39th over , 154-5. This soon became 157-6 when Ben Hutton with one stump to aim at superbly ran out Irani for 83, 129 balls, 160mins, 8x4’s,1x6.169-7 was achieved when once more that man Ed Joyce took catching practice to remove Foster , in front of the Tavern stand off of Ace .

Ace’s figures 1-8 off of 3 overs !!The two Scott’s then decided to get in on the act when removing Middlebrook. A brilliant take by Ben where his feet barely moved and with next to no time to see the shot as he was stood right up to the stumps. Middlebrook out for 7 , 172-8.

Scott Styris bowled really well , much better than the bare figures of 10 overs 0 maidens 2 for 34 suggest .After a trip to the loo (where I got told off for not wearing a jacket) the Essex innings closed on 202-8. A good effort all round with some great fielding and controlled bowling had given our batsmen a big chance to win the game, but on recent form could they take it?

Interval
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Andy’s hat which is the same as the one Harrison Ford wears in the Indy movies was annoying the hell out of me so I was so glad when one of the members nicked his spot in front of me . All he had missing was the whip and if he could have got it back off the girlfriend the remake at Pinewood would be on tomorrow. Fine physic the boys got and could do all his own stunts ….. not. Brian our third pilgrim had gone walk about as he does when he gets the chance. It was great to see hundreds of people walking on the turf at Lord’s in the interval, it has been so wet of late that this has not happened . The “perambulate” was introduced only a few years ago and is a good thing, if the administrators could see the faces of the kids who will tell their mates “I played at Lord’s yesterday “ it would be worth it for that alone. Just a shame most of them were wearing England football tops and not the cricket ones.

The Middlesex Reply
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203 to win not a big score and with the power of prayer (and two good openers) we will be victorious!

All starts well with EJ playing some super shots off Adams, 2x4’s in the first over. Enter the King of the Dance Hall , Darren Gough, EJ cuts his fourth ball for 4 and his 5th for a 6 into the Grandstand. Foxtrot that sunshine! Unlike last weekend it’s EJ who takes off at a rate of knots leaving ES behind . Not to be outdone ES gets his first boundary with a super back foot shot for 4, weight,pace,placing, all spot on . EJ is on fire by now mashing 4’s all over the ground , almost woke some of the MCC members from their post luncheon slumber . ES treats Adams as though he is a net bowler and bashes him up a lot, 50 up off of 40 balls.

No repeat of last week was to come , both EJ and ES fell soon after the 50 was up . EJ for 32 while the sightscreen at the pavilion end was still moving! And ES to the first ball of Phillips spell. Enter Chad well up the order and Ace , now which do you think would last the longest , yes that’s right Chad! Ace going for 1 to Middlebrook with a poor lbw shout .

Cometh the Hour Cometh the Man.
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Credit where it is due Ace goes and who comes in , surprise surprise Ben Hutton. Time to settle the ship , we are away to a good start , way ahead on D/L but to lose another couple of wickets could cause problems . At 87 -3, "Dancing King" missed a good chance off of Keegan. 94 off 15 overs, steady as she goes skipper.
With the 100 up the Essex fans got vocal in the stands, out of desperation I think, it must have affected Chad because there was no other excuse for the rubbish shot he holed out to Middlebrook with off of G.Flower, must have been the noise distracted him .

Things then got a little cagey, only needing 3 an over BH decided to play to the plan. Nice day for watching aeroplanes coming into the glide path for Heathrow as there was very little going on on the pitch. When BH holed out to G.Flower off of Middlebrook ,( return favour for Chad’s dismissal) for 29 you could almost hear the sigh of relief as people thought “ I will get home in time for dinner “.Enter the new dad , Scott survived a big appeal on 0 , well shouted but not out.143-5 off 30 overs,well ahead of D/L.at 40 overs 184-5. Steady as she goes and watch out for icebergs!!

185 saw the 50 partnership between JD and SS and at 190 SS lifted the ball over the bowlers head and up the pavilion hill for 4 the end was now in sight .At 43.3 overs SS launched a huge shot for 4 which tied the scores and then JD who had batted well since he came in hit the winning ball for 4 as well. Take nothing away from these two guys ,the shots may not have all been "a la Viv Richards" but they saw the job done and well played to them for that.


Result as wanted
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Unlike last year in the Tote we did not have our Lost Ark raided from us by Essex and did a thorough job on them to win with a good display of bowling, fielding and batting. Andy and Brian were off to plan their trek home to Feltham without the Piccadilly Line, should be easy for a Harrison Ford look-alike , just hijack a German WW1 tank ? Me, it was finish my pint time and then back to the cattle trucks they call a Sunday service on the Central Line when half of the Western side of the network is being dug up.

A good day out and one I feel sure Neil Williams would have enjoyed watching or better still playing in . Rest in Peace big man, we do and will remember you .
The only Lost crusade today was that of punters trying to get home , hope you have made it by now folks . Well until next year the suit goes away and it’s back to the whites for games for me.