High Roding Cricket Club had a memorable end to their 125th anniversary season with a winning match at Lord’s Cricket Ground to play Cross Arrows CC.

The team and about a dozen supporters made their way to London last Thursday.

When the party arrived they found the outfield was rather damp, but the ground staff allowed the match to start at 1.30pm after lunch was taken.

In the meantime they were given a conducted tour of Lord’s and the museum, which included both the home and away changing rooms.

The game started under cloudy and overcast conditions and it was agreed to limit the match to 30 overs per side.

Cross Arrows, who mainly consist of Lord’s groundstaff and ancillary workers, won the toss and elected to bat.

With the score at 18, old Roding player Mel Hussain, who worked on the groundstaff when he was younger, was caught by Orban Holdgate off the bowling of Freddie Burns.

The Arrows batsmen then put on a stand with A Geldenhuys and J P T Knappet taking the score to 83.

Geldenhuys scored scored 63 before being caught by Troy Featherstone off the bowling of Angus Burns, and Knappett scoring 38 being caught by Matt Hammond off the bowling of Mark Gallop.

The wickets then began to fall at regular intervals with only S Felstead scoring a reasonable 23.

The last wicket fell in the 29th over with the score at 176.

The dependable Gallop finished with figures of 4-28 and Grant Marray 2-20.

That left Roding with the task of scoring 177 off their 30 overs.

Roding started at a steady pace and Adam Holdgate and Angus Burns put on 78 for the first wicket.

Burns was the first to fall scoring 30 before being caught by Kastelik off the bowling of Felstead for 30.

Orban Holdgate then joined his brother and scored 27 before being caught and bowled by Phil Knappett with the score on 104.

Rory Burns (0), Ryan Palmer (6), and Matt Hammond (2) soon followed and Roding found themselves 131-5.

Troy Featherstone then scored an excellent 20 and the last over arrived with nine runs still needed for victory.

The last over was bowled by Mel Hussain and after five runs were scored off the first five balls a boundary was needed to win the match.

Freddie Burns duly despatched the ball to the boundary for four and Roding had won by three wickets with the score on 177-7.

This was a wonderful ending to the day with the team and supporters enjoying the hospitality of the Cross Arrows team and a fitting way to end the season.