UCC Vets UK tour diary

Day 11 2008 Lord's

Lee Bott found an ideal way to relax between matches.

As the UCC vets prepare for their heavyweight tour of Oxford, we hark back to the previous UK tour in 2008 when Stratford was, briefly, the centre of the cricket world. This is the last in the retrospective series before attention turns to the real action starting at Oxford Uni next Tuesday. If you have enjoyed this diary, please share it by hitting the button at the end of the story or urge others to subscribe. The goal is to reach 100 free subscribers by the end of the tour.

Day 11 - Lord’s

It's not every day that you get to watch a UCC player score a century at Lord's.

And it's not every day that the same player brushes you when you congratulate him on the feat.

The UCC caravan has finally moved to London for the last leg of the tour, buckling from the overwhelming task of staring at endless leaden skies while churning though vast portions of stodge and warm beer, but unbowed by the challenge still before us.

There is a still a match to play and win and being an Australian in England, even with every second Olympics story referring to the discrepancies in the medal count between the two countries, provides natural motivation to keep the Poms in their proper place.

We have checked into the Bank of England complex at Roehampton in the south-western suburbs and have a match against the bank on Thursday.

This is another Nick O'Hara alma mater and the game will commemorate his four year stint as captain here.

 We have lost Mike Ewing, who has returned home after successfully knocking in his bat and needs to prepare for his next GM-crop debate with Prince Charles (it currently reads Quickie 1 Future king 0).

O'Hara toddled off for a long lunch yesterday, the Georges, Murray and Beckwith had a look at the great metropolis while Bott, Bartley and Townsend set off for Lord's.

It was well worth the trip in humour even if the performance of former UCC batsman Ed Joyce, the Irishman who has clearly being living for too long in England, raised the eyebrows.

It also contrasted with Ian Bell who was invited to play for Uni at Wormsley during the week only to provide the most abject apology for his absence.

"I would love to but they have asked me to play for England on that day," Bell texted during the week. "It's a tough choice but I think I will stick with England at the moment."

The three of us joined the Lord's tour, a mostly dreary event from a tour guide fascinated by the bricks used in the pavilion and quite discomforted by questions such as: "Why is Gordon Greenidge on the honour board for Test hundreds scored by England players?"

We were up in the Mound Stand when Joyce, who had reached 96 for Middlesex against Leicestershire in a match played with less intensity than most games on this tour, received a half-ratpower long hop from new bowler Garnet Kruger and slapped it away to bring up his ton.

 The next ball was a wide half-volley outside off and Joyce nearly fell over as he stretched to edge it to the keeper.

If two balls can summarise a competition or state of a nation, these two did. The old urn may remain in the MCC museum next year but there is no way the Ashes will be in England's hands (Editor’s note: LOL).

We finished the tour with one blue-blood Pommy twit trying to ascertain whether Imran Khan came from India or Pakistan, a matter that raised some hackles among the mostly sub-continental tour group, before moving to the Middlesex shop.

While Bott and Bartley were trying on pink breast awareness caps, we suddenly found ourselves face-to-face with Joyce.

"Well done Ed, great to see you get a hundred," we started. Ed said nothing.

"We're here on a UCC tour and thought we would see how you are going." Ed looked rattled.

"The Uni boys are rapt to see you doing well. We follow your results with a lot of interest."

Ed muttered something and scurried off as though we had asked him for a lend of his favourite bat.

Oh well, it was nice to catch up anyway

Ed Joyce during his UCC days. From left: Brett Jones, Jay Leeder, Joyce, Nick Compton, Matt Healey. Geoff Gallop and 2023 tourist Paul St Quintin hovering.