Dogs do the SCG: Every Dog Has its Day

We were all a little bit star struck as we entered the Members' Pavillion at the SCG last night. Mark "Tubs" Taylor was in the bar with Wallaby Legends George Gregan and Stirling Mortlock. Meanwhile out in the middle former Australian of the Year and AFL Legend Adam Goodes* was peppering the boundary with the Massai Warriors' bowling.

But the real star of the evening wasn't a player. Wasn't even a person. It was a that small strip of ground where Legends are made. Every one of us had a memory of wonders performed there. I once watched Sachin Tendulkar score a century there in 2008. Philip Thalis had watched Bradman play there as a boy. (Sadly of course it is also the spot where cricket claimed the life of Phil Hughes in 2014). Through the years - from WG Grace in 1892 to Steve Waugh in 2003 - the greatest players had re-written the history books there. But this evening it was the history books of a little known club of (mostly) Pommy émigrés that would be re-written.

We were shown into the away dressing room where MS Doni and Rohit Sharma had been only days before and that still had "India" on the door. We sat on the balcony where Alistair Cook and KP Pietersen relaxed only meters from my seat in 2010 before they celebrated the first English Ashes Down Under win in decades. OMFG.

The rules of the charity match we were playing, against the same opposition we had faced on Sunday, were certainly unconventional. Sides would only face 12 overs. Bowlers could only bowl 2 overs. Batsmen would partner to face two overs each. If you were out, you merely conceded 4 runs and carried on. Ends were only changed once. But as strange as the rules were, we were still playing the same game as Grace, Bradman and Tendulkar...in the same spot they did!

It's wonderful to "get to know" such a hallowed piece of turf. As I fielder I could inspect the grass which at first I suspected was astro turf it was so "perfect". We learned that the ground had a "camber" and as the ball set off from the crease it would begin to head down hill towards the rope. If you lost touch with it as you chased it could easily get away from you. As we shouted fielding instructions to each other our words echoed all around the ground. And getting used to the glare of the floodlights and how to pick up a *white* ball in it was certainly a new experience.

To bowl there is a memory I'll never forget, each of the 12 balls I was privileged to deliver. Some of us

took wickets - but mostly Ed Watson who took a three-for - and Keeper Keith Saunders kept wicket like he'd never kept it before. But Old Iggies' batsmen still spread an impressive "wagon wheel" of runs around this wonderful venue. Despite wickets, their 75 was only reduced to 55.

The moment that particularly stood out from our time in the field? Not only did Ed Watson manage a direct hit on the stumps from the outfield to run someone out, but he had the presence of mind to emulate Freddie Flintoff's famous one-kneed celebration of doing the same thing in 2005. It is only a shame there was zero crowd there to applaud it.

In this setting, it is relatively easy to bowl. Bowling is about becoming a machine and you just do what you do. Batting on the other hand is a matter of mental strength, and I for one fell to pieces amid my awe. I scored two runs but was caught and then run out meaning I contributed a net -6 runs. Philip Thalis, my batting partner, was able to score 9, among them a four with which he was rightly chuffed. Ed Watson, Jon Gill and newcomer Brett Lunn, managed some useful shots and Ed Suttle in particular enjoyed, as he described, a "second ball cover drive; middle of bat; split the field!" But for the most part our star struck state - and a pretty useful Iggies attack - inspired a bit of a collapse. I can't even tell you how many we scored, we didn't speak of it. But it wasn't as many as 55. A third loss to Iggies in five days!

But on this occasion it genuinely was the taking part that counted, not least for the more than $2000 we raised between us for the Primary Club of Australia who provide sporting and recreational facilities for people with disabilities.

This could well become an annual habit. I miss that little bit of ground already!

Here is a dump of some of our photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hz9dflsdt4mphub/AAAdW9cTfz-lNFSrWZcT4ya_a?dl=0.

* I had a bit of a (albeit star struck) chat with Adam Goodes - he told me that even though that piece of ground had been his "office" for 17 years, playing cricket there had also been a bucket list ambition for him too! #HimAndMeBoth.