Ontario beat MCC in tour opener

19 September 2005

On a beautiful fall day, the Maple Leaf cricket ground at King City was busy, as is usual on a Sunday, with five of the fields being used. Whilst the MCC was taking on an Ontario XI, there were three Toronto and District Cricket Association championship matches dominating the interests of their supporters. The fifth field being used, was occupied by the children, who improvised wickets with white plastic lawn chairs. This spontaneous self-organisation of a game, by the youngest of our cricket community, bodes well for the future administration of Canadian cricket, which we desperately need at the national level.

Whilst the main event was sedately followed by the spectators, there was raucous enthusiasm for the other four games, one of which was being scored electronically.

The visiting M.C.C. batted first and were contained to a total of 178 all out in 49.3 overs. It was fitting, for your correspondent, that N.R.D Compton was the top scorer with 45. Being the grandson of one of the most flamboyant cricketers in the history of our game could be a burden. This did not appear so, as Nick was generous with his time listening to memories of the exploits, on and off the field, of the first professional cricketer to be personally sponsored by a corporation.

The Ontario XI looked to be in trouble with the score at 154 for 8, when the 48 run eighth wicket partnership was broken with Coddrington dismissed for a very useful 21. A patient innings by Panchybara, scoring 23 in 75 minutes, brought the score to within 10 runs. The last pair, Thuraisingan and Roopnarine, eked out the remaining runs in five overs for the one wicket win. Maxwell was top scorer for Ontario, with some of his usual thumping, making 35 runs from 31 balls which included 5 fours and a six.