Gaieties 6 July 2022

Manager Alex Wildman

Lost by 7 Wickets

SOA 159 for 6 dec (C Hutton 58, A Mallick 51)

Gaieties 161 for 3 (B Ling 2-17)

Queen’s College is always a welcoming ground for a fixture, and on what felt like the first sunny cricketing day for a long time, losing the toss and being asked to bat did not feel like a bad start to the afternoon.

Ayyaz Mallick and SOA debutant Steve White opened the batting against a lively Gaieties opening pair, Steve being bowled for 5 in the 3rd over to a ball that nipped back to take his off stump. In at number 3 came Chris Hutton exuding an aura of calm, or possibly exhaustion, after 8 straight nights on opera hosting duties. Hutts and Ayyaz batted well to well earned half centuries in a 118 run partnership before each falling as they looked to accelerate. After 34 overs, as tea was looming cameos from Dan Edwards, Ben Ling, JJ Smith and Alex Ross nudged SOA to a respectable 159 -6 off 32 and with time running on the excellent Queens College tea was taken, the innings declared and SOA hopes were high of taking the 10 wickets needed to repeat last year’s SOA win.

24.5 overs later post match drinks were enjoyed in the evening sunshine as Gaieties toasted their 7 wicket win, having outscored and outplayed a decent SOA side, mainly thanks to a whirlwind 82 from 56 balls by opener Robert Crowe. His carefree knock simply took the game away from SOA’s bowlers. Alice Potter was unlucky to see a ball ricochet from pad to stump but not dislodge the bail and aerial shots which may have gone to fielders on another day did not on this. Ben Ling took two late wickets including that of the familiar looking Aziz, J who was masquerading as a Gaietie for a day. When the formalities were complete the SOA team were gracious in not criticising their skipper for his sporting declaration.

Our thanks as always to Gaieties for continuing this always enjoyed long-running fixture, to George Honey and Steve Hyatt for umpiring, and to Richard Grover our scorer.