Alexandra Park CC, Sunday 13 August 2023.

St Anne’s Allstars 6/265 (35 overs: Raghavendra CR 104 ret, Matt Biss 50 ret, Sanjay Dindyal 43) beat Gradcasts 114 all out (27.1 overs: Sheahan Arnott 3/20, Ben Pullinger 3/36) by 151 runs.

Allstars Debut: Ben Pullinger

Report by Sheahan Arnott – Photos by Pradesh Deveraj and Sheahan Arnott

Alexandra Palace is more than just the home of the PDC World Championship. The world’s first ever TV broadcast happened there in the mid-1930s. The iconic broadcasting antenna was used to jam German signals during the Battle of Britain.

And closer to home, I walked every inch of the grounds one government-permitted hour at a time during the first COVID lockdown. The park was an island of normality in a sea of uncertainty throughout 2020 with date night picnics, rule of six catch ups and an excursion to buy my first ever “real” Christmas tree happening within Alexandra Park as we struggled to maintain our sanity as the world burned around us. Ally Pally holds a very special place in my heart.

But after 150 years of history, The People’s Palace can add another historic happening to its honours boards alongside Phil “The Power” Taylor’s 14 World Championships and my post-match-pint-inspired nostalgic melancholy – the St Anne’s Allstars’ record winning margin.

Opposition skipper Mark Hazelhurst called correctly as I tossed the commemorative Wills and Kate Australian 20c piece and elected to field. I’d gone back and forth on what our batting lineup might look like all week, but I knew I wanted de rigueur aggression at the top of order. Enter C.R. “The Ravager” Raghavendra.

Ragha has been one of the finds of the season, with his match-winning century against Mighty Wanderers among the greatest in our club’s history. Today, without the pressure of a chase, he swung injudiciously at the bowling and swatted Gradcasts’ best bowlers around The Racecourse Ground. When he raised his 50 in the 10th over, I mentioned that he would have to retire either at 100 or drinks – whichever came first. Embracing the theatrical history of the location, he raised his century off 59 balls, one ball before drinks.

He was ably supported by Pete “The Kiwi Kavalier” Cresswell and Sanjay “Mike Proctologist” Dindyal after Pete lost his off peg to Boatman, and they took the score to 129 at drinks when Ragha retired.

Matt “Bassman” Biss replaced the retiring Ragha, and he soon found his groove in a brisk partnership of 51 with Sanj. Despite relatively short boundaries, the outfield was slow, which made scoring difficult if you weren’t dismissing cricket balls like Ragha was.

Sanj was run out for a well-compiled 43, as Matt cruised to his 50 off 46 balls, supported first by debutant Ben “Ally Pully” Pullinger (who swung so hard at one ball the bat flew out of his hands), then a trademark hard-hitting innings from Amit “The A-Bomb” Deverathippa.

Richard “Lightning Hands” Slatford and Neale “The Croydon Adonis” Adams added some icing to the cake to take us to 6/265 – a healthy score in any man’s language.

I’d like to make special mention of Barathwaj “BazBall” Nagarajan who graciously took the field for our opposition to help them get to 11. Baz bowled his leggies exceptionally well, and I think we can look forward to him taking plenty of wickets for us to end the season.

A prepared tea is a rarity these days, and we tucked in with gusto during the innings break as we watched the end of Brentford and Tottenham battling to a 2-2 stalemate, and I was quietly thankful we’d not sold our greatest ever player to a German cricket team for pennies on the dollar with a potentially explosive bowling innings ahead of us.

Our fielding innings got off to a perfect start with Pradesh “The Devastator” Deveraj running out the dangerous Gavin Collins for a diamond duck off the last ball of “Slammin'” Samir Hafiz’s first over, bringing Barathwaj to the crease.

Pradesh and Amiya “The Missile” Ranjan were fired up to bowl to their mate, but Baz was more than up to the task. Lipscombe chipped an easy catch to me at mid-off in Pradesh’s third over, and Baz followed suit with a return catch in my first.

Pradesh continued to toil away, as I added a notch for my opposing number to my bowling bedpost, and a third wicket an over later with Harris-Cooke picking out Amiya at mid-off. Boatman survived two wholehearted (i.e. stone, motherless plumb) LBW shouts to finish my fifth over, and we went to drinks with Gradcasts at 5 for not too many. I’d be lying if I didn’t think about the poetry of winning a game by ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY runs at Ally Pally during the break.

Ben Pullinger gave us a bit of everything in his first Allstars over with his Harbhajan Singh-esque action delivering a mix of full bungas, John Howard-style multiple bouncers and some genuinely unplayable balls, to finish his first six legal balls with 2-9 including 5 no balls. Pully added a third wicket in his third over to finish with 3-36.

Samir was typically miserly at the other end, picking up the wicket of Hazelhurst, caught by Sanj at short mid-wicket. Davis and Hancox batted well at the end of the innings to take Gradcasts’ total past 100 before Amiya rearranged Morris’s furniture off the first ball of the 28th over, and ended the contest.

Despite the result, I’m not sure the teams were as far apart on practice as they were on paper. Gradcasts bowled well without luck, and had they held their catches, our total would have been significantly fewer. That said, it was an outstanding batting performance from Ragha, Biss and Sanj to set up the win.

The only dampener on the day was Alexandra Park Cricket Club trying to charge us £4 per jug of squash at drinks!? The People’s Palace indeed! But we march on, and return to the oche against Crossbats at Marble Hill Park on Saturday 26th.