Egham Cricket Club were very proud to host the might of the Lashings World XI side on Tuesday afternoon at Vicarage Road in a charity game for Children With Leukaemia. In front of a crowd of around 400 people and with the sun shining down the Egham side felt the full force of their star studded opponents, losing by a mammoth 148 runs.

Batting first in a 35 overs per side game, the Lashings side batted first and rattled up 244-8 from their allotted overs. However, the stars had a few early wobbles as some impressive seam bowling by Egham reduced Lashings to 32-3 and then 69-4 after the early wickets of Herschell Gibbs, Brendan Taylor, Marvan Attapatu and Phil Simmons. The ship was steadied in some style by a 90 run 5th wicket partnership between Dinesh Mongia and Chris Cairns. Mongia stroked a classy 65 whilst Cairns blasted his way to a stunning 38 ball 70, showing everyone the unbelievable power and distance he can put into hitting a cricket ball. New Zealand colleague Chris Harris chipped in with 39 to take the Lashings side to their impressive total.

Egham's bowlers had nothing to be ashamed of in their performance and Chris Davies 2-39, Jamie Hoddle 1-24, Stefan Kaltner 1-27 and Joel Boucher 2-31 have figures to be proud of.

Egham's batters were always likely to have their work cut out in pursuit of 7 an over against the Lashings attack, and so it proved. Only Chris Watmore, 19, Dave Risk, 18, Noel Smith, 16, Adam Reid, 13 and Mick Watmore, 12, managed double figures as an attack comprising Mohammed Akram, Alan Mullally, Ed Giddins, Phil Simmons and John Emburey proved too strong as they succumbed for a slightly disappointing 96 all out. Simmons 3-15 and Giddins 3-14 doing most of the damage.

Nevertheless, it was a great day for Egham Cricket Club and everyone associated with the club, a very enjoyable day with proceeds going to a very worthy cause.

The Lashing Side: H.Gibbs, B.Taylor, M.Attapatu, P.Simmons, C.Cairns, D.Mongia, C.Harris, H.Olonga, M.Akram, A.Mullally, E.Giddins, J.Emburey, R.Latif, A.Kallicharran.

Sunday 8th June 2008: Egham V Worcester park (Sunday League)

On the hottest day of the year so far the mighty Egham Sunday team took on a strong Worcester park Sunday side packed with their 1^st and 2^nd eleven players. Morale was high as Reidy won the toss and decided to bat first to avoid the heat.

The openers started well till a hungover Risky missed a straight one and was bowled for 17. Next came the imposing figure that is Amod who batted confidently till he was adjudged LBW after a vicous offcutter caught him in front. The Bouch wandered out to the middle and looked confident till he made the mistake of changing bats. After being shown all the bats in the changing room he decided on Reidy’s bat. This proved his undoing as he was barely able to lift the club of a bat and hit the first ball with it to cover who took a great diving catch.

Things then took a turn for the worse as Tony G was bowled by the off spinner and Charlie was caught at mid on. At 49/5 out strode Reidy who then proceeded to hit the ball all round the ground with great support at the other end from Mat Main. Mat got caught and Stef was next in. As he walked out Reidy offered him some advise on how to face the off spinner. "I know what I’m doing came the reply" a forward defensive was followed by him being clean bowled and an unhappy Steff returned to the pavilion. Dahn and Reidy batted well together and took the score to around 170 when Dahn was caught. The younger Sweeney came out and provided support till Reidy was bowled for 93. Steve "Monty" Berry was the last one in promised he would return in 15 seconds and let us all down by lasting 2-3 minutes before being bowled. The score ended up at a respectable 183.

Dahn and Steff opened the bowling and with Steff keeping it tight a one end Dahn quickly struck twice. The opener was dismissed by a ball that reared off a length struck the glove and was caught at slip. The number three was bowled trying to slog his third ball this left the score at 23/2. The Worcester park batsman then settled in and quickly took the score to 102 before the number two clipped a catch to monty off the bowling of the Sweeney. The score edged towards the total though two late wickets a caught and bowled off Stef and a stumping from Bouch kept things interesting. Despite some strong appeals for a run out and two caught behind the winning runs were hit by Worcester Park with 3 ½ over left. Whilst it was a loss Egham left the field with their heads held high with a valiant effort against a stronger side.

Charlie Newton.