The formal evening celebration of the weekend too place on Saturday night. But on Sunday morning, the MCC troops, having valiantly hauled themselves out of bed, spent a few hours training the juniors, then were treated to a hot lunch of traditional Luxembourgish food, including classics such as Judd mat Gaardebounen and Wäinzoossiss mat Moschterzooss.
In order to increase our chances in the afternoon’s game, the tactic was to encourage the MCC boys to wash this all down with bottles of excellent South African Pinotage and more local white from Alice Hartmann. This all worked a treat. Our fantastic ‘bourgemestre’ Francois Sauber even joined in the shenanigans by turning up 30 mins before the start and insisting that the visiting side partake in a (newly invented) tradition that any visiting side should drink a shot of Marc de Moselle, a local firewater.
The MCC boys were of course too polite to refuse – cue a lot coughing/choking noises as they realised the trap they had fallen into.
Onto the cricket – this match the longest format of the weekend – 40 overs. MCC of course won the toss and chose to bat. Optimists were strengthened by the presence of England legend, Monty Panesar who was added to the XI. Ed picked up a wicket with his fourth ball with a beautiful away-swinger and the OCC thought they had started some rot in the batting side. David Cummings came in at three to steady the ship, only to be followed by Elliot Matthews, one of the young stars of the MCC side. Matthews promptly dismantled any bowling which the OCC could throw at him, with a combination of classical shots as well as powerful reverse sweeps, powered his way to 144, the highest individual score of the tour. It was a masterclass in modern batting, but only registering one six, showing that hitting the ball along the floor can also bring its rewards.
By then the OCC had been run pretty ragged and the MCC ended their 40 over son 301 for 5 - an Everest which the OCC batters were unlikely to climb, but might reach base camp given some friendly bowling.
Which is what the MCC skipper was kind enough to do. Having relatively cheaply dismissed Tony Whiteman, Joost Mees and Vishwajeet Deshpande for 13, 12 and a duck, respectively, the foot was released from the pedal allowing skipper Will Heath and Tim Andrews to put on 34 and 29 respectively, before both self-destructed (caught off a slog and stumped off a slog). 1st Team skipper Ed Packard tried to counter-attack from no. 7 but was out from a good catch on the boundary by David Atkin. Despite some enthusiastic cameos from Pankaj Malav and Mark Fitzgerald (32 & 22), the innings subsided before the end, for 190 all out.
As with all the matches vs the MCC, the match was played in a great spirit and enjoyed by the large crowd which had come to watch in the early summer sun.
The post match chats and discussions lasted well into the evening in what turned out to be a magical end to the 50th anniversary celebrations. Photos of the day can be found under the Photo Galleries section of this webite.