There was a hive of activity at the PWCG on Thursday, 4 June. From early morning, the Walferdange Commune arrived to erect the tents for the upcoming weekend celebrations. A mobile bar was delivered, destined to become the pride and joy of Tim Andrews, alongside a full complement of food, drinks, freezers and fridges.
At 13:00, the MCC were ready to begin their tour with a T20 fixture against an Optimists Chairman's XI. It served as a warm-up ahead of the potentially more demanding encounter against the Luxembourg International side later that evening.
The OCC side was captained by Richard Neale, while David Atkin led the MCC. Following tradition, a ceremonial toss was conducted, with the MCC elected to bat first.
Opening the bowling for the OCC were Shameek Vats and Ben McIlroy. It did not take long for Vats to make the breakthrough, aided by an absolutely outstanding one-handed diving catch from Ben Lyon. It was a moment of genuine brilliance and one that immediately set the tone for the fielding effort.
However, the OCC had not accounted for the arrival of the powerful hitting, Sandy Dias. Together with Elliot Matthews, Dias kept the scoreboard moving, and at the halfway stage the MCC were well placed at 63-2. Matthews eventually departed, caught sharply by Pattabiraman off the bowling of Mark Fitzgerald.
From that point, Dias began to accelerate, launching several lusty blows into the cow corner region. The OCC rotated their bowlers in an attempt to vary the pace and contain the scoring. Fitzgerald bowled with both purpose and control, returning impressive figures of 1 for 17 from his four overs. Unfortunately, Ben Lyon — perhaps still buoyed by his earlier catch — endured a tougher spell, conceding 44 runs from his four overs, including 16 from the final over as the MCC stepped up the scoring rate.
Eddie Hudson, who has taken up leg-spin this season, was somewhat unlucky. He bowled well but found himself in the eye of the storm as Dias took calculated risks to maintain the momentum. The OCC's secret weapon proved to be Deepak Gianchandani. His cleverly flighted off-spin deceived both the hard-hitting Dias and new batter Loader. Despite increasingly aggressive swings of the bat, neither could consistently make clean contact. Gianchandani claimed a wicket with a fine caught-and-bowled effort and helped restrict the scoring during the closing overs.
After 20 overs, the MCC had posted a challenging total of 169, leaving the OCC requiring 170 for victory.
Richard Neale and Malith Gamage opened the reply. Neale struck several boundaries against the MCC opening attack but was eventually bowled by a delivery that kept a little low — although some may argue shot selection played a part — with the score at 24-1 in the third over.
Joost Mees joined Gamage at the crease, only to witness a classic Optimists collapse. Gamage was dismissed first ball of the next over, and when Ben Lyon (still riding the wave of that spectacular catch) nicked off for a golden duck, the MCC celebrated a team hat-trick. The score of 31-3 quickly became 31-4 when Pattabiraman's trademark cut shot failed to deliver and he was caught. At 39-5 following Yama's dismissal, the OCC's prospects looked bleak.
To their credit, the OCC fought back. Former skipper Joost Mees led the resistance, first alongside Shameek Vats and later with Eddie Hudson. All three batted positively and restored a measure of respectability to the innings. Mees top-scored with 33, while Vats contributed 19 and Hudson added 13.
Victory was never realistically within reach, but nobody appeared to have informed OCC veterans Fitzgerald and Gianchandani, both of whom arrived at the crease intent on attacking. Their entertaining cameos were brief but spirited.
Ultimately, the OCC were dismissed for 113 in the 14th over, giving the MCC a comfortable victory.
The match was played in exactly the right spirit: competitive, enjoyable and followed by handshakes all round. It was a superb start to the club's 50th Anniversary celebrations, and the game concluded just in time for the bar to open.
Arguably, that was the best piece of timing the Optimists produced all afternoon.
Photos of the afternoon can be viewed in the Photo Galleries section of this website.