Tour to Paris August 24-28

A triumphant  tour of Paris (no Thoiry this time due to a soggy outfield, which of  course tragically also meant no pizzer ia!) which also gave Virgin CC*  its first ever 100% successful season ( OK it was only five games, but  at our collective age it is nice to be able  to break a record). The  tour was also notable for a few other reasons: Charles Fellows-Smith  pathological desire to take the 4 wickets he needed to join the pantheon  of Virgin all-time wicket-takers (did he succeed? read on.. ..), Bill  Johnson and Richard Clark's attempts to out-dress each other, Bill  Rodwell's baritone jazz singing, and utter failure of the collective  intelligence of the assembled team to find the right platform at the  Gare du Nord to catch a train to Chantilly. So to the games themselves:

Proving  that we have the navigational skills of Mark Thatcher in a desert  rally, the late arrival of the team resulted in a shortened game over 3 5  overs a side, albeit one set on a beautiful ground on the edge of the  picturesque town of Chantilly. Batting first, opening pair Jeremy  Lascelles (untypically getting off the mark with a pulled 6) and Andy  Smith had comfortably put on 104 against - frankly - unchallenging  bowling, when Smithy - huffing and puffing and looking every minute of  his ever-advancing years - decided he had to retire. This caused a  problem for the scorers. Should the entry reflect the true nature of  events, namely "retired unable/unwilling to run 2's and 3's"? Or perhaps  " retired hungover"? Or maybe "retired old"?  Generously, we settled on  "retired ill". Jeremy was eventually out for 76,  but Bill Johnson  helped carry the score to 182, being dismissed shortly aft er completing  his own half-century. The middle order scraped enough runs to take us  to the reasonable total (on a large ground with a slow outfield) of  214-6.
 Chantilly  got off to a brisk reply, but were undone by both openers getting  themselves run out, one of whom looked like a decent bat. Their nos. 3  and 4 then put on 100, and although they had fallen well behind the  run-rate, there loomed the bizarre prospect of Virgin winning a game  when none of their bowlers had actually taken a wicket. However, a  collapse ensued and= in the end victory was comfortably achieved by 63  runs.

                                                               
A bit hairy this one. A poor batting performance was rescued from the  perils  of 75-6 in the 22nd over, by a solid partnership of 45 between Richard  Clark and Charles Fellows-Smith (was the word "solid" invented to  describe CFS?), which enabled us to crawl our way to the pretty feeble  total of 140-7 from our allotted 40 overs. However a stirring team talk  by the skipper between innings (basically offering to provide the finest  wines for the end of tour dinner if we managed to win all three games)  seemed to inspire Virgin. With Young Jack Hardy (well, not quite so  young as he used to be, but then frankly who is? Apart from Cliff  Richard of course. And maybe Silvio Berlusconi.) going well for the  opposition things looked ominous for a whi le, before a fine returning  spell by Karl Thorns (bowling with more control off a short run - it  would be hard to have had less control than his first spell!) and some  wily off-spin by the now-recovered Andy Smith ripped the  heart out of  the middle order. And all this in spite of dropping 7 catches. It was  fitting that Rodders should take the final wicket - he informed us  proudly that on each occasion he had bowled in France he had taken the  match-winning wicket. (Or some such rivetting statistic).Actually at Cabris, Entrecasteaux and now SAC-Ed. 

Could  we make it three on the trot? Well, you know the answer to that  so I  don't know why I bothered asking the question. Losing the toss for the  first time on tour, Virgin took to the field in determined mood - it's  amazing what the lure of fine wine can do. A very fine all-round bowling  and fielding performance ensued against a strong SACC line-up, with  none of their quality batsmen making a significant score, and when they  were finally bowled out for 115, the bouquet of a Chateau Latour '59 was  being conjured up in 11 pairs of nostrils.
Well, life of course is never that simple. Getting off to the worst possible  start, losing a wicket  in the first over, Virgin had crawled to 29 when disaster struck. Four  wickets were to fall on that score, including a hat-trickto their leggie  (illustrious victims: Johnson, Woolhouse, Mann), and when the 6th  wicket went down with the score on 46, things looked pretty grim.  However, it's not over till the fat lady sings. Or in this case, it's  never over till the fat no.8 has fallen on his stumps and demolished  them going for a quick single (not sure that that phrase will quite   catch on). Enter the mighty Charles F-S to join Karl Thorns at the  crease.  A slow but eminently sensible partnership started to build.  Boundaries were very hard to come by (indeed only 6 were struck in each  of VCC's innings over both games at the SACC, due yet again to the long  boundaries and very damp outfield), but despite some at times bizarre  (and hilarious) running, the runs were being clocked up. The stand had  realised 54 priceless runs, but with only 16 runs required and victory  in sight, Chucky F sliced to 3rd man, and then two further wickets fell  for just 7 runs. And so it came to be that Ollie Smith, the calmest man  (boy?) in Paris, strode out at no.11 to  join Karl with 9 needed off 7  balls. A rare and beautifully struck boundary by Karl off the last ball  of the 39th over meant 5 were needed off the last over. Following a wide  off the first ball, Ollie - as cool as you like - paddled the ball away  for a single, leaving Karl to smash the winning runs  with 4 balls to  spare.

Full Match Scorecards

* Virgin  CC in the early 20th century met formally to agree to a merger within  Nomads CC. By a narrow majority the Virgin members present voted to  continue as an independent club. However two of those present namely  Jeremy Lascelles, a founder Virgin, and member of Nomads and Michael  Blumberg,a Virgin member and Hon Sec Nomads subsequently took the  decision to encompass Virgin XI within Nomads CC and there has been no  howl of protest since.Those  games Match Managed by Jeremy Lascelles and Jamie Lane remain  designated Virgin XI matches,three in 2007 plus the Paris tour. As a  result Jeremy continues to compile the 'Virgin' statistics. The same are   included in Nomads stats. Jeremy has always adopted for the published  all time bowling stats a minimum qualification of 25 wickets. It is this  magic figure which had become a  manic obsession of Charles Fellows-Smith