The power station glinted in the midday sun. The birds were singing in the trees. The English sparkling wine and unlabelled mystery beers were on ice. People were falling asleep in bikinis at deep cover point without adequate protective equipment. It could only be Battersea Park Pitch 1, for the official Brown-McGilligan Stag/Boyfriends, Wives and Girlfriends (and sisters, and Cragie’s assorted fan club) game, between King’s Road and Team Mitcham CC.

Battersea 1 has a pitch beloved by bowlers, and boundary sizes beloved by batters, making the toss a difficult proposition. Team Mitcham won the toss and elected to bat, hoping to make the Road attack suffer in the heat. The start, though, was all Road, with the pitch and ball doing plenty and the opening bowlers proving a real handful. After eight overs Team Mitcham had just 22 on the board, and had scored no runs in front of square. Their main achievement, though, had been to keep out some almost unplayable deliveries from Pete Sainthouse, jamming the bat down on balls that kept low, somehow keeping gloves away from those that took off, and playing the moving ball with great patience. 

As the batters got their eyes in, and the temperature rose, the run rate climbed, with opener Ephraim Abraham in particular taking a liking to the higher pace of the change bowlers. Captain-for-the-day Chris Brown eventually made the breakthrough shortly after drinks, trapping J Nair leg before wicket. But even wily leg-spinner Rossi, on his return from injury, could not stem the flow of runs (though he did stem a throw that was heading to be a direct hit run out). With Team Mitcham at 165-1 from 27 overs, the Road were anticipating a very difficult chase.

Fittingly, it was Pete Sainthouse, with the final ball of his second spell, who dismissed Abraham. Pete was by far the pick of the bowlers (an economy of 1.86 in a game where no other bowler on either side went at less than 4), and if that final ball had been kept out this would surely have been the finest wicketless bowling performance in Road history.

As it was, that wicket was the crucial moment. In the next over, Ali Tyzack – also in his second spell – took two from two, including the other set bat with his infamous ‘Big Dipper’ slower ball. Tyzack picked up one more, as did Venkatesh, before Captain Brown closed out the innings. With some hitting at the death, Team Mitcham reached 214-7, and going into tea it felt about par, with the Roaders pleased with how we pulled it back in the final third of the innings.

Some of the days biggest plays, as ever, came on the catering front, with Andrew Craigie outdoing himself by bringing two sweets including a delectable pistachio, cranberry and white chocolate biscuit.

Suitably refuelled, Craigie and fellow opener James Pinkney went full Crawley/Duckett at the top of the order, both scoring at strike rates over 100. Two highlights were Craigie’s ‘hold the pose’ lofted drive for six, and Pinkney’s ‘MCC textbook’ cover-drive for four (hitting the ball in the air, he reminds us, is gauche). After this opening flurry, a 71-run partnership between Conor McGilligan and Jamie Keating kept the innings ticking over. But when Keating and then the in-form Dougie Fair were out in quick succession, the game was on a knife-edge.

At this point Conor had reached 46, one blow away from a 50. We explained this to his fiancée as she arrived, and she dutifully trained her camera on the pitch to capture the big moment. Naturally, Conor played back to a straight ball that skidded through and was clean bowled: a moment that he will never be allowed to forget.

Skipper Brown goes out to join Mahony at the crease, and faces up to his first ball with 34 runs needed from 25 balls. Taking the responsibility befitting of a soon-to-be-husband, he finds the boundary immediately. By the time he’s dismissed after a couple more lusty blows, the equation is 10 from 10. This becomes 4 from the last over, the first ball of which sees Abraham bowl Mahony. Enter Ali Tyzack: cool as ice, Ali takes one ball to get his eye in and the next one to stroke a match-winning four. Not for the first time this year, the Road win a tight game.

A note on the opposition, a team that we hadn’t played before. Team Mitcham were a lovely group of people, including several very talented youngsters (and honest umpires, giving us two LBWs!). Even better, most of them went home happy in spite of defeat, as South Africa did what the Road did not, and fluffed their lines in a chase in the T20 World Cup final with India.

Embarrassing moment: Rossi’s intervention in the run out attempt

Champagne moment: Craigie’s lofted drive

Savoury tea: Browny’s sausage

Sweet tea: Craigie’s biscuits (*editors note: this is bullshit as there were some really good cookies which didn’t get any votes)

Overall teasmaker award: Craigie’s biscuits

Man(dy) of the Match: Pete Sainthouse, 7-1-13-1 with the ball (and 1* for the batting average)