An indifferent display with the ball and in the field cost
the Barbarians as they lost the first ‘Headstone Manor Derby’ of the summer,
falling 26 runs short despite courageous innings from Simon Peck, Loz Horsley
and Barbarians debutant Peter Doole.
On a surprisingly warm and dry Harrow
evening Captain James Wheeler lost his third consecutive toss and once more The
Barbarians were to field first. With the field restrictions allowing only two
fielders outside the inner ring for the first six overs, Wheeler turned to his
key man Ian Ridley who started the game with a steady maiden. Dubliner Ray
Conboy, playing only his second game for the club, opening the bowling from the
Allotment End and his first few overs were incredibly steady as the West
Harrow opening pair of Mabs and Rafi struggled to get the innings
going.
However, on a good wicket and against a hard yellow ball, West
Harrow eventually started to get their innings going by picking up
the odd boundary which was backed up by some indifferent fielding from the
Barbarians. Off spinner Rajan Modha, in his first Barbarians game of the
season, was brought on and despite some good deliveries, he failed to stem the
flow of runs. Conboy, who bowled his four overs in a row from the start of the
innings, picked up his first Bessborough wicket when Rafi was brilliantly
stumped by wicket-keeper Peter Doole on his Barbarians debut.
Despite getting a breakthrough, the runs continued to flow
and catches continued to go down with the Barbarians dropping a total of five
during the game. Also the ground fielding left a lot to be desired and it did
happen to be just one of those days for the Barbarians. The only bowler to
escape real punishment was vice-captain
Richard Edmands who bowled four tidy overs of leg spin bowling, going for only
23 runs and getting the vital early wicket of opening batsman Mabs who he clean
bowled for a well made 51.
A late surge from West Harrow saw them finishing 178-3 off
their 20 overs with the only other wicket to fall was a run-out off the final
ball of the innings.
Needing nearly nine runs an over from ball one, it was
important for the Barbarians to get off to a quick start. The brand new opening
partnership of Simon Peck and Lawrence Horsley started very positively,
especially Peck who opened up his account with a booming square-cut for four.
Peck in only his third game for the club started to show his class with
boundaries all round the ground off both front and back foot as well as being
able to nudge the ball into gaps. Horsley,
in his first game of the season, struggled early on to find his timing, but
after a few overs he found his feet with a couple of booming drives and an
outrageously brilliant paddle sweep for four.
After an excellent opening partnership of 66, Peck was the
first Barbarians batsman to be dismissed when he was clean bowled by Sayal for
34. Horsley, Andy Carr and Barbarians debutant Scott McCarthy were all then
dismissed in quick succession, it was left to the middle order to try and get
the Barbarians over the line. Captain Wheeler managed to strike the only six of
the Barbarians innings by slog sweeping the impressive off spinner Humayan into
the brook, but he failed to go on and was dismissed for 14. Wickets began to
fall and both Edmands (9) and key batsman Richard Clarke (12) were unable to
keep up with the rate and a big defeat looked likely.
Bessborough legend Peter Doole in his first Barbarians game,
came in at number eight and played a little gem of an innings to make the
defeat respectable, finishing 23 not out in an innings which consisted of four
boundaries. Dooley managed to show his class by piercing a heavily congested
offside field on three occasions as he dragged us to a total of 152 which
despite being the highest Barbarians score of the season, was still 27 runs
short of victory.
Kiwi Simon Peck was named man of the match in only his third
Barbarians appearance after his impressive innings of 34 and showed everybody
at the club that he will be an important member of the
Barbarians squad.
Next up for the Barbarians is a home game with Bushey on
Thursday evening (June 27), with the Barbarians looking to avenge their defeat
against the same opposition two weeks ago.
MATCH SCORECARD