Pitch building or perhaps destruction, 2001. Trick photo by Chris Morgan lying horizontally after a hard night out
 

Zuoz Cricket Festival    July 3/4 1999

This tournament,  which is organised each year by the Zuoz School master in charge of cricket, involves 8 teams within striking distance of St. Moritz, which is around 10 kms down the valley.

Saturday Afternoon

This year we were drawn against  Zuoz school Old Boys on the Saturday afternoon in a 32 limited overs match,and bowled them out for 86 after ourselves making 126 for 5 wickets.
   Chris Morgan not out 38, Nand Kumar not out 22 and David Sweetman with 18 were the foundation of Milan's total and
in reply the Old Boys were never quite up to the runrate required and with economical bowling from Aruna and 3 wickets each from Shanta and Brian Patterson, they were all out in the 28th over, 40 runs short of the Milan score.

Sunday Morning

    This win pitched Milan into the semi final  draw for the main cup Competition and on Sunday morning after the usual
evening of Swiss German lager and midnight fitness training, we emerged to play Munich International for the right to play in the final.Batting first on number one pitch where the bounce and speed of the ball were more pronounced, we struggled against a very brisk set of Munich bowlers and were only 46 after 20 overs.Steve Trow with 32, Mike De Morgan 16 and Shanta 12 were the only batsmen in double figures and even thought the bowling got a little easier later on and the runrate improved, 94 was all we could muster.
       However, the speed of the  wicket and outfield were shown off to advantage by the Munich batsmen who after the early loss of their openers to Aruna and Shanta won at a proverbial canter.Numbers 3 and 4 hit off the neccessary runs
in less than half the allotted overs with number 3, John, completing a fine unbeaten half century.So Munich International won their place in the final, which they in fact won later on that day, beating Zuoz  school.

Sunday afternoon (report from Miles Kirchin)

Having lost our second match we were drawn against Munich EPO the other losing semifinalists in the main competition. The two captains wisely agreed to play a 20 over game, partly because everybody was knackered and partly to enable
everyone to begin the long journey home at a reasonable hour.
        Munich batted first and their two excellent Pakistani batsmen, Haron and Waleed, played superbly well, despite some very fine fast bowling from Vipul who completely beat Haron twice only to see the ball miss the off stump by a fraction each time.At 82 for 1 off 12 overs, it looked likely that we we would be facing a very large total in the region of 150 but in one over we suddenly got back into the game.Bowling his slow left arm spinners really well, Shanta dismissed
both batsmen and at the end of their 20 overs they had set us a total of 124, not as bad as we had feared, but still 6 runs per over.
        The early part of our innings was dominated by some splendid batting from Shanta, who, as well as hitting 4 huge sixes, kept the score moving along at the required rate.When he was dismissed for 41 with the score at 75 for 3 off 11 overs, our remaining batsmen all contributed some useful runs,in particular Robert Cuffley who hit a very rapid 25 and Steve Trow with 20 not out.This enabled us to snatch victory from the second ball of the final over and so we gained an unexpected but deserved win against a very strong Munich EPO side to enable us to finish in third place in the overall competition. All in all a most enjoyable weekend's cricket - we very much hope that Zuoz will be able to continue the tournament next year as there was talk of a golf course taking over the land!
 

Monte Carlo at Grandola     August 28/29   1999.

On Saturday morning, the weather was fairly sunny and the match started on a  wicket only laid the previous weekend and suspected to keep low from time to time.Monte Carlo batted first in a 35 over game and never really got into their stride.David Sweetman took the crucial wicket of Dave O'Nion after a fine running catch at deep midoff from Aruna.
  Jeremy Pierce was bowled by Chris Morgan for 17 and David took two other wickets to help keep the runrate in check.
Bobby Brittain  arrived mid afternoon with a flimsy excuse about traffic conditions ( he was only on a short excursion from London after all ) and guested for Monte Carlo to no avail, dollying it to Miles after having been given a magnaminous runout life by a fumbling wicketkeeper.So MCCC's innings drew to an undiginified close at 88 and Ken Millard and Ross Gower strode out to start off Milan's reply.In only the second over, Ross's long legs lost out on the second attempted run to a strong and accurate arm from deep third man and with Brian Blackwell and Rageesh  both falling shortly afterwards, Milan were in some trouble at 16 for three after 11 overs.But David Sweetman and Ken Millard took things forward till David fell to Graham Rogers for 16.
    Although Ken was out shortly afterwards for 17, Miles Kirchin came out to deliver a few meaty hits and with further contributions from Jagath and Chris Morgan, Milan achieved the neccessary 89 runs with two overs to spare.

  Sunday morning was very cloudy and at 11.00 a.m the appointed start time, there were 9 MCCC players and two from Milan.Fortunately some others eventually arrived and the weather brightened up through the day.So MCC, still minus the  Sri Lankan contingent of 4 due to have arrived from Milan, opened the batting in a  game reduced to 25 overs to accomodate the late start of 11.40 and the need for people to get away early.
      Bobby Brittain and Ross Gower opened the batting and although Ross was soon out caught in the covers, Bobby, supported by Rageesh, began to take advantage of some indifferent bowling from the visitors to accelerate the runrate and with some excellent boundaries including two sixes reached a handsome half century, before eventually being bowled for 67.  Rageesh was run out for a patient 13 and Miles Kirchin added some oomph to the final overs with an unbeaten 16.
.       This set MCCC a fair target of 4.5 an over ( rather more than the previous day's efforts) and after a buffet lunch that
seemed to be appreciated by all the players, MCCC began their reply facing what some have said  to be the prettiest fielding side in the history of Milan CC.The presence of no less than 3 girls (Sophie, Dawn and Helen-- our thanks to all for helping us out in the field) may have something to do with this belief.
       Despite the early removal of Dave O'Nion, Christian Gallagher arrived with the clear intention of hitting any bad balls very hard to all parts of the ground.Milan did their best not to disappoint him with a generous supply of top class buffet balls provided in the main by our professional non bowlers such as Mike De Morgan, Rageesh and Ken Millard.
      Ross Gower and Brian Blackwell took the only wickets, albeit at a price, and although Bobby Brittain delivered a very economical five overs of 0 for 3 from the bank end, the neccessity to "fill in" for 10 overs proved to be our Achilles Heel.
   Ably supported by Graham Rogers with 15, Christian made 43 before holing out in the covers.Jeremy Pierce and Malcolm George were then able to knock off the remaining runs with two overs to spare, making respectively useful  not out scores of  23 and 17 and to record a well deserved victory.
       All in all not a bad 1999 debut for the home ground and the wicket, some good luck with the weather and honours even with everyone having been on a winning side except Bobby and the girls.No suggestions please for a moral to this story.
 

The pavilion area circa 1 million years B.C. before the farmers got at it

Match versus Idle C.C, Lodi.     Sunday September 26th.  1999
 

It was a rather gloomy, cloudy day with rain threatening as the Lodi team arrived at Grandola and
Milan arrived with 8 players.
      Having lost the toss and with Lodi electing to bat, John Thorpe was persuaded to turn out and with an extra fielder kindly donated by Lodi, Milan were now 10 and the game started at around 12.30 a.m. on a basis of 30 overs per side.
          Mark Roper and Chris Morgan opened the bowling and keeping generally a steady line and length, managed to restrain the aggressive Damith and keep the run rate at less than 3 per over.
          One opener was snapped up by Steve Trow in the covers early on off Chris Morgan, but the number 3 Krapps combined well with Damith to take the Lodi score to 54 before Krapps skied one off John Thorpe to long off where Richard Lawrence took a good catch.
          Naseer now joined Damith and began to hit  aggressively, including one tremendous straight drive on to the roof of the cow hotel which now fills the meadow next to the road.
           Aruna now bowling steadily from that end had his revenge when Naseer was caught well by a running catch from Mark Roper at deep midoff and then Damith with a frustrated heave off a short one sent it straight back to a grateful bowler who took the lobbed catch falling to his knees.
           Lodi were now 89 for 4 but the core of  their  batting had been dismissed and apart from a little bit of resistance from Leydi and Osborne,  John Thorpe and Aruna cleaned up nicely to the benefit of their averages, finishing with 4 and 5 wickets respectively.
           These were  well merited rewards  for accurate bowling (including a hatrick chance for John) and Lodi were all out for 101 with just an over left to go.

It rained briefly but after the sandwich break, Lodi took the field and opened with Steve Osborne and Damith who  started as spell of accurate deliveries hard to get away on a wet outfield.
    After the early loss of Ken Millard, Steve Trow joined Richard Lawrence and they moved along slowly but steadily so that after 15 overs Milan had 32 runs on the board for the loss of one wicket.The rain started to come down and Lodi generously agreed to keep playing to allow the match to develop and have a proper result.
           The batsmen increased the pace, running  many good singles and taking advantage of the wet ball and the fielding difficulties.After 21 overs the score was 60 and Milan had reached 88 with 4 overs to go.
           Richard Lawrence was bowled for 43 and Steve Trow given lbw for  38 in the same over from Damith but the foundation for the win was already laid.
            Their diligent and well timed run making had taken Milan to the stage where Chris Morgan and Ross Gower could come in and knock off the remaining runs with 4 balls to spare in the final over and the rain still coming down.

         Weather  wise it was a difficult day but  Milan won what was an entertaining match by 7 wickets and making it 2 out of 2 against Lodi for this season.
 

Spot the belly dancer
 
 
 

Milan vs. Monte Carlo Away at Levens       May 7/8/9. 1999

The first  game played was  golf on the Friday with Malcolm George from the Monte Carlo Cricket Club and Dave and Gillian, a Scottish couple  best defined as enthusiatic supporters of the MCCC.
 Milan was represented by Chris Morgan and Mike De Morgan and we played a friendly Stableford over the somewhat hilly 18 holes of San Remo G.C.
                     Chris had a good round of 81 gross and the team prize probably went to Milan,although nobody was counting too hard. After a leisurely drive to Levens and dinner at a local restaurant, it was a surprise the following morning to see the rest of the Milan team arriving half an hour early for the game ! David Sweetman with his Indian subcontinental contingent and  Ross and Gary in the Milan business express.
                       With Chris Stokes bringing the grand team total to 9, we went down to the ground to find that MCCC were similarly reduced to 9 in number and so with the sky rather cloudy, our captain having won the toss put MCCC into bat in a 40 over match and Milan opened the bowling with Aruna and Jagath.
                       Two wickets fell fairly quickly and the run rate was less than two per over for nearly half the MCCC innings.But Dave O’Nion and Jeremy Pierce came together at 3 and 4 and after consolidating for a number of overs started to open out more against the slower bowlers. Some fine sixes were struck with Dave O’ Nion hitting the ball admirably straight.
                      Dave survived a caught and bowled chance from a firm drive off Jagath and Jeremy a strong appeal for what seemed like a catch behind off the glove.Jeremy also survived a skier to our illustrious captain at midwicket who cunningly let the descending ball pass through his hands onto his boot where it shot off in the direction of the batsman’s wicket nearly causing an inadvertent runout.

But they rode their luck and completed a fine partnership of over 150 runs with Dave finally out for 86 and Jeremy not out 64..  The innings closed after the 40th over at 176 for  4.

Jagath and Aruna bowled exconomically and Gary and Ross both worked hard in the field, saving a lot of runs and throwing in well to our wicketkeeper who was glad for once not to have to make the usual acrobatic stoops and saves to field the incoming missiles.

      After an excellent barbeque lunch preprared by the fair hand of Sophie, Milan went in to bat and soon lost two wickets  against the  accurate bowling of Nick Thomas, who beat both Ross Gower and Mike De Morgan with a  bit of movement in  off the wicket.The Milan innings never really recovered with a succession of chances  from rash shots being converted by MCCC into catches in an exemplary fielding performance.
       Although Chris Morgan managed a fighting 29,the Milan innings  finally concluded  in the 25th over at the abject total of 71 and MCCC had won by over 100 runs and  deservedly were presented with the trophy, an impressive if slightly fading silver cup which Chris Stokes had recently discovered while doing a spring clean.
 About 15 attended a dinner at the Malaussena hotel where a succulent meal served by an equally pleasant  Natalie and a wide range of old jokes were enjoyed by all and sundry.
             The evening finished for some in the salon where Ross and Chris Stokes demonstrated  their dexterity with card tricks. Pity they can’t do it with the cricket ball.

Anyway, the followng morning it was back to the ground again for a declaration game with 20 overs from 15.00 hrs.It didn’t start till nearly 12.30 and MCCC again batted first.
    There were quick successes for Aruna and Chris Morgan who opened the bowling.Then the important wicket of Dave O’Nion fell to a good running catch at midoff by Aruna off Jagath.
    MCCC’s innings never recovered and after 28 overs they were all out for just 60 runs.
Another great salad/barbeque lunch and Nand Kumar and David Sweetman opened the Milan innings but fell to somewhat rash strokes in atttempts to push the runrate.
      Chris Morgan and Gary Dixon came together and slowly but comparatively surely took the score to  over 50 before Gary got out for  15  caught off George.
        Jagath came in and the neccessary extra runs knocked off with 6 overs to spare of the final 20 and with Milan just 3 wickets down.A victory for Milan by 7 wickets except with only 9 men again,
it’s really by 5 wickets I think !

        With the sun finally out in strength, there followed  a few beers and dismantling of all the MCCC impressive superstructure of pagodas,tables and chairs and then it was back on the long journey, largely trouble free, to Milan.     Honours even, more or less, and a very enjoyable weekend.
 

The outfield during a very hot and humid summer, 1879
 
 

Milan CC Vs. Idle (Lodi) CC   Away at Lodi       02/05/99

Report from Miles Kirchin

Whereas 1998 had seen a Festival of Runs thanks largely to the bat of Danith who put on an unbeaten 113 out of 212 for Lodi, 1999 saw a Festival of Dot Balls, thanks largely to the bat of Binary De Morgan who put on an excruciating 11 in 29 overs before the game was finally put out of it’s misery with a wide. And as we all know, 11 for binary is really only 3: 3 runs in almost 30 overs. Pathetic.
Thus came and went the first – and one of the very few – games of the last season of the millenium. At the end of the game Milan’s 12 had just enough in the tank to see them past the 13 of Lodi (so many players were milling around that Lodi were able to sneak in an extra player without Milan noticing until the very end).
Upon winning the toss Chris Morgan decided to field first, opening the bowling himself with Aruna. And so well did they do that after 10 overs Lodi’s score stood on just 16. Danith briefly threatened to repeat his innings of the previous year but the introduction of Rohita soon saw to that: a well-placed beamer catching the top edge before cannoning into his mouth. One down (literally) and another dozen or so to go. Unfortunately, with Danith’s departure Milan seemed already to be into the tail. No one else managed very much at all on what was an increasingly suspicious pitch with as clinging an outfield as there ever has been. Only Steve Osborne managed a worthy total for Lodi and this was achieved in three parts, intersperced by various batsmen returning from hospital or appearing out of nowhere. All the Milan bowlers did well and the fielding wasn’t bad either.
And so came Milan’s turn to bat. Osborne and Nasser opened the bowling and proved even harder to get away than Morgan and Aruna. Five runs apiece conceded from 8 overs each. Clearly too much for Rohita and Lippy Millard who both departed after looping catches up to the wicket-keeper, the small matter of seeing these two off fell to Big Trow and Miles. It was not until the introduction of Vittorio Riccaboni that things became a touch easier, but not for Miles who proceded to top edge his first ball from the said Riccaboni to first slip where it was caught high above his head by Osborne who had just been taken off. With Trow given out LBW soon after and Chris Stokes run out ridiculously immediately thereafter (standing admiring the scenery some 12 inches out of his crease), the scene was set for Binary, Linford Sweetman and Jagath to bring Milan home. Despite one or two hiccups along the way (David getting out to an excellent running catch from Giò and Jagath out to yet another looped catch to the keeper) Milan eventually got home by 4 wickets with 8 balls to spare.
All in all a good day’s cricket in which the ball was well and truly on top of the bat.
 

  Milan CC Vs. Idle (Lodi) CC 02/05/99
Innings of Lodi

Danith             Retired Hurt  16
Riccaboni V.    Bld. Morgan   0
Sanders P.      Ct. & Bld. Rohita   2
Nasser            Bld. Jagath   4
Leydi S.           Bld. Jagath  10
Skibinski J.      Ct. De Morgan  Bld. Kumar   3
Desmond         Bld. Jagath   0
Osborne S.      Not Out  32
Max                Bld. Sweetman   2
Gendarini        Ct. Rohita  Bld. Kumar   0
Giò                 LBW  Bld. Sweetman   0
Landi M.         LBW  Bld. Rohita   2
Anthony          Ct. & Bld. Kumar   0
Extras   4
Total 305 Overs 12 Wkts   75
Bowling Overs Mdns Runs Wkts
Aruna  5  2 10  0
Morgan C.  5  3  5  1
Rohita  5  1  9  2
Jagath  5  0 17  3
Kumar N.  55  1 15  3
Sweetman D.  5  1 19  2

Innings of Milan CC

Trow S.          LBW  Bld. Riccaboni V.  10
Millard K.       Ct. Leydi  Bld. Nasser   0
Rohita           Ct. Leydi  Bld. Osborne   0
Kirchin M.      Ct. Osborne  Bld. Riccaboni V.   2
De Morgan† M.    Not Out  11
Stokes C.      Run Out   0
Sweetman D. Ct. Giò  Bld. Desmond  14
Jagath           Ct. Leydi  Bld. Riccaboni V.  21
Morgan* C.     Not Out   7
Aruna
Kumar N.
Amati A.
Extras  11
Total 384 Overs 7 Wkts   76

Bowling Overs Mdns Runs Wkts
Osborne S.  8  4  5  1
Nasser  8  3  5  1
Riccaboni V.  8  2 13  3
Landi M.  6  0 23  0
Desmond  4  0 14  1
Giò  24  0  7  0
Max  2  0  3  0

MCC WON BY 4 WKTS

      MCC's most successful advert
 

Milan C.C. Tour to Hants. and Oxford 10/15 August 1998

Report from David Sweetman.

Long range planning resulted in a full team turning up in Brockenhurst on the evening prior to our first match  at Hambledon.The day had been spent by most of our players, who consider themselves to be golfers, at a lovely course on the Isle of Purbeck. The standard of golf was not up to most expectations, but occasional golfers usually find that to be the case. Bad scores were quickly forgotten over several pints at our temporary local, "The Hobler Inn", where the conversation soon turned to the following day's match . Failure at one sport is quickly replaced by optimism for the game to come..

Tuesday turned out to be another sunny day, and we were assured that we were very lucky to find such good weather in a generally wet summer.When we arrived at Broadhalfpenny Down we could hardly believe how beautiful it was.
    This ground is known as the "Cradle of Cricket", as the game was first played there in the second part of the 18th. century.Opposite the entrance is the famous "Bat and Ball"  Inn, to which we promptly retired to discuss the match to be played against the "Broadhalfpenny Brigands" C.C.
     This ground had been the centre of the cricketing world in its day, and for a short while was to be a place of joy for us.We wondered if we were the first team from Italy to play there, presumably so.
     The match itself was a very enjoyable all day game of cricket,played against opposition who understood that we had come to do our best to play the game in the best traditions.Milan batted first and a useful opening stand of 30 by Mike De Morgan and David Sweetman at 3 runs an over got us off to a reasonable start. Following that, runs became very hard to get until Lee Nicholson scored a quick 50 and then Anthony Dalton scored an excellent 76 not out, ably assisted by Ken Millard and robert Cuffley (21 not out). Milan declared at 227 for 6 off 57 overs.
               Good bowling by Milan's opener, Bobby Brittain, and Miles Kirchin, aided by excellent fielding,  kept the Brigands score below the required run rate, and with the fall of wickets at regular intervals, Milan were always on top.None of the Brigands batsmen put together  a big score and Milan took the final wicket with two overs remaining and the Brigands still 91 runs short.
          Milan's fielding was so keen that an ambulance had to be called to attend to two injuries, Jim Stevenson and Ken Millard suffering from an injured finger and a damaged knee respectively.
          We are very grateful to our hosts who provided us with such a wonderful day and also to the manager of the Bat and Ball who kept us provided with excellent food and beer right through till the evening.We also hope that the new pavilion,currently under construction, will add even more to an already wonderful cricket ground.

          On Thursday 13th we played Brockenhurst C.C.'s mid week side at Balmer Lawn,close to our B and B at Hilden. The ground is in the New Forest and when we were about to begin play, was invaded by ponies and horses of all shapes and colours.Despite the best efforts of the home team, they refused to leave the ground to the cricketers and play commenced with fielders having to avoid the horses in their quest to stop the ball.
      The early Milan batting was however too slow for their tastes and suddenly they all disappeared into the forest, presumably to find a more exciting afternoon's entertainment.
           At 69 for 4 Milan were in a poor position, but once again Anthony Dalton was in fine form, and together with Miles Kirchin put on an excellent 86 for the 5th wicket before Miles was caught on the boundary for 49.
        Anthony retired for 58 to allow someone else to bat and Jim Stevenson and Bobby Brittain put on a quick 30 in the last 4 overs to enable Milan to declare at a respectable 196 for 6.
           Again, Milan's opening bowlers proved to be very effective and kept the run rate down, thus putting pressure on the later batsmen. Miles Kirchin got one  wicket for only one run off 5 overs and more good ground fielding and catching reduced Brockenhurst to 136 for 9 at the close.So the match ended in a draw, even if Milan could claim a moral victory.
             After the match we were treated to an excellent barbeque, which finished off another highly enjoyable day.

         For Milan's final match, we moved to Oxford to play the Tappers, a team partly consisting of former students, and who had visited us at Grandola last season.As this was Bobby Brittain's former team, he was made captain for the day and both his batting and his bowling showed how seriously he took the task.
           Milan opened the batting on a wet wicket, where the ball played strange tricks, especially  when bowled short, which was quite frequent.It was very hard to keep the score going and with wickets falling at regular intervals, Milan did not look like building a big score. However, some excellent batting by Paul Brooks (son of Eddie Brooks who played for us in the 19'80s.), helped by the captain and the wicket both drying out, ensured a reasonable 183 for 7 at the close of the innings.
            The Tappers did not bat very well against Milan's limited bowling and with Robert Cuffley getting two early wickets, before dislocating a finger when holding a caught and bowled, were 24 for 4. However, Milan had only three bowlers left so the captain decided to bowl all evening from one end, leaving Andrew Betournay and David Sweetman to share the pain at the other.
             And very well Bobby bowled too, and aided by more good fielding and catching, he finished with 7 for 67 off 24 overs and Milan won by only 15 runs with only one over remaining.
          Many thanks to the Tappers for their excellent hospitality on a beautiful ground and we hope to see them back in Grandola  soon (or at least Bobby certainly does! ).