Away Day: Surrey v Middlesex

Sorry for the delay to this post. It's been a hectic few days.

Following on from the previous days victory against Kent, Middlelegless were looking forward to the game at the Oval and were feeling confident.

Arriving into Vauxhall in the late afternoon the group headed to the lovely but busy Black Dog. T went to get the first drinks in whilst E and N headed outside to find a perch.

Packed!

Clock or a window?

Heaving

T returned from the bar with the first round and found E and N engaged in a discussion about a certain gentlemen across the road standing outside the pub. Said gentlemen was wearing odd socks and no shoes. All were puzzled by this which led to a debate on why he had no shoes on and odd socks. 

Any ideas? 

Following the drinks the group decided it would be easier to head to the ground for a pre match drink rather than queue up again so the short walk to the Oval was made. This turned out to be a good call as on he way to the ground the group past the beehive which was so full it looked as if no one could move inside. 

Entering the ground via the Vauxhall end, the group purchased refreshments (including a G and T for N from the fever tree bar!) and then headed up into the OCS stand to take our seats for the match. 

In position

The match began with Surrey starting brightly with Roy and Finch putting on a respectable partnership. Roy then fell to a decent catch from Malan off the bowling of Sowter and then emerged Pietersen. After facing his first delivery from Finn, a farce then ensued. Pietersen then demanded a runner as the injury he had been tested for before the game apparently had flared up again (a likely story). Whilst the umpires were consulting the 2 captains causing a delay of 15 mins to the game McCullum granted Pietersens wish and allowed the runner (wish he hadn't). thankfully justice was done as a few balls later Pietersen managed to run out the free scoring Finch much to the amusement of middlegless. Shortly later it got even better as Pietersen top edged a ball straight to TRJ who took a simple catch and sent the idiot back to the pavilion for 4. 

Some decent bowling from the Middle left Surrey at 156-7 after there 20, a target which we all thought was achievable. The only frustrating thing was the number of fielding errors made by the middle which had cost a good 20 odd runs. 

Things started badly for the Middle with McCullum falling for a duck after 5 balls. Things got even worse with Malan falling for 12. Morgan and Franklin thankfully managed to steady the ship however it wasn't enough with Middlesex falling short by 15 runs and ending on 141-7 after there 20. If only it wasn't for those fielding errors... 

Shortly after the end of the game, it started chucking it down so the group made the decision to head straight back to the station and head home. However, no journey home would be complete without stopping for a drink so train ciders were purchased for the homeward journey. 

Train Beer!

The group met again the following day to make the trip to Sommerset (blog post to come!)

E