After much organisation and pre-match sledging, the social cricket match of the century so far was played at the Country Club Johannesburg in Auckland Park this past Sunday. Played on a soggy but magnificent oval in the heart of Joburg, the two teams braved the chilling early May conditions and hangovers from various Saturday night activities and assembled for the 30 overs a side battle.

the stunning setting for the match

After winning the toss, Government school captain Ben Karpinski did not hesitate to chose to bat first and strode confidently out to the middle with fellow opener Brad Broskie. The pitch was a little sticky early on, and together with some decent new ball bowling by Simon Black in particular, natural stroke play proved to be a lot more difficult than first expected. It was Black who made the first break through with the Gov’s skip playing a short of a length delivery about two days too early and his opposite number form the Private’s, Al Cronin, taking the comfortable catch.

The WAGS

The poor start was further compounded with the dismissals of Colours du Toit and Broskie both falling cheaply. A steady middle order stand between Matthew Karpinski and Warren Griffiths added some solidity to the Government’s innings but when Karpinski was sharply caught by Cronin and Griffiths holed out to Von Vught at cow corner, the Govs looked to be treading water up shit stream without the proverbial paddle.

The timeless bowling action of Ian Terbrugge - simply majestic.

The Private’s bowling was steady throughout and with the ability to take wickets and keep the run rate quiet, the Govs never managed to get on top. Some valuable runs were added by Kris Erasmus who top scored with 26 lower down the order, but with wickets tumbling at the other end, the Government side was all out for 123 within their 30 overs.

Government batsmen - All the gear but no idea.

Easily 30 runs short, the Govs returned with ball in hand and ran in with great gusto from the start. That man Erasmus again impressed this time with the ball as Terbrugge and Frankish went early to his challenging pace bowling. The Private’s turned it on however with Black and Carmichael taking the bowling by the scruff of the neck and reducing the deficit to a large bra size in no time at all.

Trying hard - The Gov's bowlers battled to get the break throughs needed at the top of the order.

Black lived a charmed life, and though devastating to anything pitched up, he was all at sea with anything shorter of a length relying heavily on the County Club’s famous tree to prolong his innings. At the other end, Carmichael who was sweating a double shot of whiskey per over, was his usual solid self and never looked threatened by the Gov’s attack. Black was eventually run out though and Carmichael retired ‘stikkend’ prompting an embarrassing collapse as the likes of Taylor, Keizan, Winstone, McIlroy, Cronin and Stone all coming to the crease and doing bugger all.

Key moment in the match - Ball deflects from Simon Black, brilliantly taken down the leg side. Huge appeal, Black stands, Privates march on.

The late inclusion of the elder Karpinski to the bowling attack sent some real shudders into the Private’s dressing room as his fiery fast bowling got the Govs back into the game late on. Sadly though, there simply wasn’t enough runs on the board and Anton von Vught managed to hammer his first ball away to the fence to record a famous victory for the Privates on the day by 2 wickets.

M Karpinski's blistering pace late in the innings had the lower order Privates at 6's and 7's.

All in all it was a hugely enjoyable day for all who were involved and the start of one of the greatest sporting rivalries since one country was so pissed off for losing against another country that they decided to burn the stumps…

The winning team - The Privates.

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