Lord’s beckons as Milford off to the Home of Cricket
Director of cricket Stuart Phazey paid tribute to Milford Hall’s members and volunteers after the club booked their place at Lord’s in the National Village Knockout final.
Milford Hall will travel to the home of cricket for the first time in their history on September 3 following Sunday’s 39-run semi-final win over Stayley.
Tom Webb and Dominic Afford both hit half centuries, while Chris Dean took four wickets in an excellent team performance.
But Phazey reserved particular praise for those members, who first ensured the match got going in the first place after another weekend of inclement weather and then stayed to be part of a 500-strong crowd cheering the home side to victory.
“When I got to ground on Sunday morning the outfield was squelching. There wasn’t a bit of the square uncovered to ensure we got a game on,” he explained.
“We started an hour-and-a-half late but there were eight people taking the covers off to ensure the players could focus on the warm-up.
“I go on an awful lot about the volunteer nature of the club but it runs like a very organised business. Without the support we’ve had over the last few rounds we’d never have done it. The work that goes on behind the scenes is incredible.
“The nature of the support and engagement of the membership has been fantastic and the lads have bought into it fully.”
Phazey also paid tribute to Steve Dover, a long-standing member and coach at Milford, who passed away earlier this year.
He added: “Steve was a member of the club for donkey’s years. He was involved with the Staffs set-up too.
“He came back on board as a coach but passed away in January unexpectedly. He loved the club, loved the competition. A lot of the old boys around on Sunday were appreciative we had done something he would have loved.”
Milford, beaten at the semi-final stage nine years ago, had been due to travel to Stayley after the first staging of the match had been abandoned due to rain at Main Road the previous week.
But with the Manchester club’s pitch particularly wet, they relinquished their right to host to avoid the tie being decided by a bowl out.
Afford and Webb put on 129 for the first wicket after Milford had been asked to bat but while the final total of 181 looked disappointing, it proved sufficient despite the visitors being well placed at one point on 131-5.
“At the 25 over mark they were going well but I just had a gut feeling we’d won it,” said Phazey.
“Everyone seemed switched on. There was quite a calm nature among the lads.
“The excitement which kicked in when we won the game was incredible. Seeing the kids all run on. The atmosphere, the energy, from young to old was incredible. It was really satisfying.
“I had a couple of conversations with the chairman after the match and we just started laughing.
“We had joked about it a few weeks ago and then it started to get more serious of: ‘Are we going to Lords?’.
“Then on Sunday night it was: ‘Yes, we actually are going!’.
“It’s a huge thing for the club, obviously, but the fact we have been knocked out in the semis before, lost in the quarters a couple of times, lost to the winners a couple of times, you start to wonder if it is ever going to be your day?
“Luckily it all fell in line and we have one more game to go and win now.”
