The Gooding Pinter Cricket Match

An annual cricket match played by members and friends of Gaieties CC in memory of Ossie StC Gooding and Harold Pinter

Toss:   H Thurston won the toss
Result: Match Drawn
Umpires:Jeremy Coney & others
Scorers:Several
Debuts: None
Man Of Match:Tim Schneider

HUGO THURSTON's GAIETIES XI Innings
*H Thurston bowled        Brockton   11
I Smith     c Alexander  b Khan       1
T Schneider not out                  45
C Peerless  c Brockton   b Brooke    20
+P Bulteel  bowled         Fish       7
R Wyse      run out                   0
M Burton    bowled         Fish      29
I Thomas    not out                   1
M Warburton st Alexander b H Thurston 0
Extras      (b8,lb2,w7,nb2)          19
TOTAL       (7 wickets dec,30 overs)154
Dnb:ME Blumberg,AN Missing Gaiety

Fow: Missing

Bowling-Khan 5 0 25 1,Brockton 7 1 15 1,Brooke 5 1 19 1,Fish 5 1 17 2,J Schneider 4 0 17 0,Thurston 3 0 36 0,Dutta 1 0 15 0.

JAMES SCHNEIDER's GAIETIES XI Innings 
B Nealon     bowled       Burton       0
S Dutta      bowled       T Schneider 20
*J Schneider c Burton   b Smith       39
+K Alexander bowled       Smith       16
G Kennedy    c Burton   b Smith        0
T Brockton   not out                  17
I Khan       c Peerless b Thurston    36
Extras       (b6,lb0,w0,nb0)           6
TOTAL        (6 wickets,32 overs)    133 
Dnb:D Thurston,C Fish,O Brooke,R Davidson

Fow:1-0,2-50,3-71,4-71,5-82,6-133.

Bowling-Burton 7 1 27 1,T Schneider 15 1 60 1,Smith 9 0 37 3,H Thurston 1 0 3 0.

The Gaieties Cricket Club had long played an inter club match. Following Ossie Gooding's untimely death in Autumn 2002 it was decided to play this match in his memory and invite the Gooding family to celebrate his memory. The first such Gooding match with superb Caribbean catering from Ossie's family was held at Tadworth Cricket Club in 2003 and played annually since.

Following Harold Pinter's death in December 2008 the club decided to play the interclub match in memory of both these former tyros of the club.

This year the match was played on a beautiful summer's day at Old Hamptonians Ground. Following a sumptuous spread for lunch the match began around 3.00pm with a slightly flexible format wherebye the side batting first batted for 30 overs buteither sidecould claim up to 5 overs for the second innings if a clear result could be achieved.

Hugo's side's total owed most to Tim Schneider's unbeaten knock of 45 and some fierce hittiing at the tail from Matthew Burton. After some serious tea Ben Nealon broke his run of centuries with a duck and Dutta and James Schneider struggled to reach the required tempo against tight bowling from Matthew Burton and Tim Schneider. Ian Smith with 3 wickets seemed to have snuffed any attempt to raise the tempo when the innings revived with great gusto as Iqbal Khan hit a series of huge sixes before being well caught in the deep by Charles Peerless.

When the time came to deliberate upon the extra overs there was some confusion and the match was declared completed as a draw after 32 overs although arguably there could have been a dramatic finish as 22 runs were required in 3 overs with 4 wickets left! Probably there was a stage management error here.

Following the match Club chairman Roger Davidson thanked the Goodings for all their contributions and presented a fine bouquet of flowers to Mrs Rhona Thelma Braithwaite, Ossie's sister. Ian Smith spoke of Ossie Gooding and Harold Pinter and reminded everyone that he had attended Corpus Christie College Oxford which was where Man Of The Match young Tim Schneider was now studying.

In addition to the injured Jeremy Coney who umpired for a while Roland Oliver attended the match.