The geese of Chiswick Sports Ground welcomed the Badgers against Her Majesty’s Treasury and Cabinet Office in what was supposed to be a T20 game. After some concerns about the weather and potential bad light, this evening game was shortened to an 18 over affair, which promised fireworks, but had everyone wondering how many overs each bowler was allowed!
Batting first, the Badgers were challenged by some tricky bowling that was tough to get away (a big variety of full and short pitched deliveries – even attempted bouncers) and pesky geese interfering with the play – and even helping claim the wicket of Cole – saw the Badgers struggle to just 96 for 8. Fitzpatrick played some beautiful shots for his 19, and Barker provided dogged support (and scored the same amount), but no Badger mustered more than 20 in a total that felt a little short.
However, the fearsome bowling combination of Tom (Rex) & Jerry (Jamieson) was a bit too hot to handle for the civil servants and they made heavy weather of the modest target. In fact, they needed to channel their HMRC colleagues to pinch some singles and steal an extra run on numerous shots into the outfield. Some felt the Badgers’ fielding was a little lazy and it was all a bit too much for some of the Badger bowlers to handle, wasn’t it, Mr Foord?!
But consistently tight bowling helped the Badgers bring it down to the wire, with two needed off the last delivery for victory. With a fired up Foord steaming in, some felt the Badgers had a chance, but typically, HMT managed to squeak the required two runs from a shot that may have only brought a single on another day. So, despite the best efforts of Tom and Jerry, that’s all, folks!