VCC won by 33 Runs with 219 for 7
SCC at 186 runs for 9
40 over match

Comrades!

Blue skies and sunshine marked our journey over to Essex and Halstead CC. A lovely day and the longest too. Such fine weather and cricket too is enough to make a person very smug indeed. And Yuri here, was quite chuffed to couple that with a night off the twins and a stay at a local pub, The White Hart – so smug and happy! The VCC are old foes and of course, mostly old friends so it’s always nice to wheel out against them and enjoy a game of cricket.

They were into bat first and their hope was two sweat us down to the remnants of a team for our innings. But did they manage? did they indeed! Our commy steel is more weathered than that and with decades of booze behind us, we are picked enough to not feel the effects of the heat. Their opening bats, however, were quite hard to pin down. Our openers of Hodderoff and myself, Yuri, were being hit about a bit. The pitch was bouncy and anything short was being attacked and sent to the boundaries. Now, I would like to avail you with lots of details from their innings, but their score book was less than well kept, so I will rely on a few splendid memories.

Jontin (Now on the VCC side) was caught by Vlad from bowling by Busteroff. Marx-B caught and later bowled out Bee, Stocko and Shelley. A great bowling performance by the skipper and great leadership shown. Ripper and Atif both retired with 54 and 53 each, bravo! These scores set up the VCC for a most respectable end total. The other wickets were less expensive for us, Madders run out for 26 and Kankanamge caught and bowled by me! A series of flash frames is all I remember. But apparently, after the middle drive came back at me, I tipped left and secured the bowl – I myself am still somewhat impressed, eve though i have almost no memory of pocketing the ball at all!

Other great actions in the field? Top marks to Sewelski for the enigmatic and balletic stop, roll, recover, roll and throw we have ever seen. We wondered when it may end but as ever with Sewelski, it aint over till the fat lady sings and she was in the pavilion guzzling egg mayo sandwiches. Standing beside Robski whilst he wicket kept impressed me! Robski now has hands like leather as he was stopping very fast balls from Busteroff. And the rest of us kept Robski guessing! Great work.

Top thanks and congrats to Matt (Marx-B’s brother in law). A man who is more accustomed to the rugby field than a wicket. He was kept very busy for us in the field – Thank you, comrade! And finally, great throwing in the field all around and especially from Busteroff and the Hodders.

Finally we got to tea and escaped the heat. A little about Halstead CC? Twizzleoff, son #2 of Captain Marx-b, is a regular player at Halstead. We can imagine him cutting a fine presence there, amongst the hedgerows and sheep of Essex. Poor sheep. Our roving fixture with the VCC has regularly been arranged by Marx and today’s was no exception. A lovely pitch and surroundings.

Our innings and we had a goodly total to reach. I remember several conversations throughout the match that had us predicting 130/140 score. We would have been proud still but little did we imagine scaling the heights we did. And how did we? Well, from the start it felt a little like an SCC match. We sadly lost Vladimir Boringski, Brandonovski and Sewelski for 8, 4 and 1. Although of course, fine dotting! Then the brothers’ Hodder, Sam and Tom were out there together. However, with Sam nursing an injury and Tom injuring a nurse, the expected double century came out to 12 and 4. But great boundaries.

Father and Son, Marx and Busteroff to the crease, please. What followed was a partnership of an hour and a quarter and and an addition to the tally of over eighty runs. Marx, careful and protective with spurts of adrenalin laced vigor. Busteroff, youthful, vigorous and moments of nail biting risk. But smashing. Busteroff taking 81 with twelve 4s and a 6. Marx on 42 with seven 4s to boot. Top work comrades.

New blood Matt survived eight balls brilliantly well. Congrats on a fine debut. Then Robski came in with the bit between his teeth. Jeepers, in a few balls he had take four 4s and created 21 runs for us before being bowled by Jontin. Good addition, Robski, thank you! The last two in were myself for 6 n/o and then Ilyeva. He had to survive three balls for us to be not all out. And guess what, he did! Beautiful work comrade commissar treasurer!

Comrades, we had a great game and achieved our highest score. We shall have a win one day, but what we did win was a moral victory in challenging our old foes to play up and not down, for if we had taken perhaps four stronger overs, we would have beaten them. The glory of the game is in the playing of it, the comradery of the teams and players and in the knowledge that sportsmanship was upheld.

Yuri