By Diamond
June 11 2006

The Diamond Ruled OK reports on the C&G match between Middlesex and rivals Surrey. You get the tennis, football and Grand Prix results thrown in for free by Diamond. He's a diamond geezer alright, so read on. Rush, rush, rush.
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My morning’s commitments meant that I could only get to the Walker Ground by 12.15pm. By the time I got there Ben Hutton had already won the toss and decided to bat, not that I saw this because both he and Ed Smith were back in the pavilion by then. The sight of Compo and Ace told me that we might have won the toss but lost our two International players to the England squad already. The two were going well though with the score at 105-2.The first 4 I saw was the one that took Compo to his 50, which he followed shortly after with a return catch to Doshi. Enter Scott Styris, to depart almost as quickly as he arrived, due to a needless run out.


Middle, middle, middle.
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With the score on 125-4 it really looked like Ace needed to be the rock of the innings and hit a big score. While he was there with Morgan the feeling was we had the chance to post a good score. This plan was ruined by Morgan hitting a skier off of Walters and being well taken by Murtagh. Enter the gladiator Ben Scott. From 129-5 he and Ace took the score on to 213 before Ace holed out going for a big one for 76. The best shot of his I saw was the 6 over the Waterfall Road sight screen, really big shot .The 50 partnership was made up of Ace getting the big stuff and Ben taking any singles and other runs available. Both players then took to the bowling playing good shots all around the ground .The 4 Ace brought up the 200 with was a joy to watch, a masterful square cut.


The tail wags and other events.
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With Ace gone it was time for Ben to go up through the gears, rather like Alonzo was doing at Silverstone to win the British Grand Prix. Louw provided some good backup to Ben before he was run out by a very good direct hit. Chad Keegan lasted next to no time before hearing the stumps collapse behind him as Dernbach found his range .213-6 became 241-8. Ben reached a well earned 50 off of 60 balls with 3 x 4’s.

Chris Peploe then provided good support before becoming another Denrbach victim with stumps all over the place. Good batting by the whole side saw us through to a total of 257-9, would it be enough or would we be like the England Rugby team in Australia and come up well short?


Sunny Southgate.
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With so many other events on today it was nice to see the ground as full as it was mainly Middlesex supporters but a few brown hats in as well. Thankfully having cooked since the morning I was quite glad when it clouded over somewhat during the break and the sun moved round behind the pavilion. If like me you don’t like the sun much there are few nicer places to watch cricket from than the shade of the pavilion at Southgate. Few things change there from year to year except the female staff get older and better looking and the blokes have more grey hair. The work they do when the ground is as full as it was today never ceases to amaze me. A wander out onto the wicket revealed a grassy square with a dry unbroken track being used with just the usual pitch marks and little wear. Would we be able to restrict them on this or better still bowl them out?

Holland go 1-0 up on Serbia in the World Cup and Federa goes 5-0 up in the first set of the French Open Tennis Final in Paris, what a feast of sport this weekend is.


Early doors, Louw scores.
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Surrey started of at a fair old rate, as if they were chasing 300, I couldn’t see why? It became clear that they lacked confidence in beating our score as first Newman fell caught behind off Chad and then Batty went attempting a criminal shot off of Swing which was well caught by Ben Hutton a super reflex diving catch to a low one . The wonder boy Clarke then continued the comedy by running himself out, taking on a fielder who has a good arm when 2 wickets down for a dodgy single is not good cricket young man. Still if he likes tennis he would have been in the dressing room to hear Nadal level 1 set all with Federa. 43-3 became 43-4 when Swing trapped Clinton lbw for 10, this had been on the cards for sometime.( Poor gag I know Ed!) [Editor's note: you'll have to explain the joke to me, Diamond].


There’s Orangey!
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Wright and Styris replaced the opening bowlers about the same time Holland beat Serbia 1-0 in the World Cup .Time for the two Scott’s to go to work, another smart catch removing Walters for 6, 66-5 .Styris then had Hamilton-Brown (and they accuse us of having posh players!) "plum" lbw for 6.Murtagh then got some justice, being run out for 1, another fine piece of out fielding and good work by our keeper. The real danger man Brown was still there on 32 (sorry Andy, duff info on the phone!). Nadal takes the third set and BBC five live reckon Surrey “are in trouble at Southgate”, understatement of the year or what! Seeing that everyone else had had some fun Pepi decided it was his turn and bowled Saker and had Doshi caught by Ace in the deep from a good catch.


Collapse of the dream.
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With Surrey “fans” packing up their bags and heading for the gates with their team 7 down I wonder how they felt. I suppose it is a long journey back to the Hovel after all. The huge Heron that flew over the ground would have resembled a vulture to Brown and Dernbach as the Middlesex players circled in for the kill. Will we be out of here before the church bells kick off, will Brown see Surrey through to a win. In a word, no. Chad saw to that by doing to Dernbach what he had done to him, splattering his poles all over the place and thus ending the game and all Surrey’s bragging rights.149 all out in 33.4 overs in reply to a modest 257 is not the kind of score you expect of a crack one day outfit like them, well on today’s showing that is like so much of Surrey, history .Surrey today were like Federa, good normally but today only second best and beaten by an opponent who wanted it more.


Man of the Match.
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You are all thinking it’s one of Diamonds reports and he is bound to pick Ben Scott for his 73 not out and his keeping. Maybe it should be Ace for his 76 and superb catch.

It is neither of these good performances, my MOM award today goes to Ben Hutton; the guy has had a heck of a week and has seen us through to a win today and in the CC inside 3 days. His manner in the field today was one of a true Captain, ok so it’s easier when things are going well but it’s been hard so far this season, oh and he won the toss. Well done Ben and keep up the good work.