Match Report vs Foxy's Testimonial 15th June 2025 @ Bryn-y-Don (Skippers Foxy & Dan (Foxes) ; Steveo, Jim, Cheese (Hounds) and Report Jim)

Sunday 15th June 2025 marked a milestone moment in the history of Cardiff Casuals Cricket Club – the retirement of founding member John ‘Foxy’ Prior-Morris. To mark the occasion, an inter-club game was organised, seeing the Casual Foxes take on the Casual Hounds at our new home Bryn-y-Don, in a game that would be ‘test match style’ (two innings, that’s where the comparison ends). Plenty of Casuals past and present gathered to celebrate the event (or because they heard there was tea?), including two other members of the first ever Casuals XI; Chris Ryde and Chris Durnall.

The Foxes, captained by Foxy and Dan ‘does this game count towards the stats’ Lewis, were offered the choice of batting or bowling by the Hounds’ captaincy trio of James, Steveo and Cheese, with the decision being that they would bat. Tesh and Liam F were sent out and looked to score at a quick rate, taking advantage of bad balls. Liam fell after a quick 19, caught low by Andy F off Goffy’s bowling. Shockingly, Jesus came in at 3, and showed little respect to his fellow Casuals, retiring on 27 pretty quickly, with Tesh soon following having reached 25. These retirements gave the Hounds the opportunity to pick up wickets, with Naren bowling little Goughy and having Muff stumped by Hollywood, whilst Pat picked up the wicket of Big Willy, also stumped. This flurry of wickets brought Foxy together with Chris Durnall, for a partnership full of no quick singles, Foxy stamping his authority by yelling ‘NO!’ on multiple occasions. The innings concluded on 121-4 off 20 overs.

Tesh Hirani 25 (retired not out)
Liam Forster 19 (caught Andy Furnham, bowled Goff Day)
Will Mason-Wilkes 27 (retired not out)
Simon Gough 8 (bowled Naren Marugonda)
Will Goad 9 (stumped Jack Beaumont, bowled Patrick Dean)
Matt Foote 5 (stumped Jack Beaumont, bowled Naren Marugonda)
John Prior 1 (not out)
Chris Durnall 1 (not out)
Rob Owens DNB
Scott Fitzgerald DNB
Dan Lewis DNB

Goff Day 3-0-15-1
David White 2-0-16-0
Gareth John 2-0-26-0
Mark Stephens 3-0-16-0
Pete Obee 3-0-20-0
Patrick Dean 3-1-7-1
Naren Marugonda 2-0-11-2
Steve O’Reilly 1-0-4-0
Ed Stagg 1-0-5-0

Cheese and Shakey opened for the Hounds and were faced with the stern test of Foxy and Pabbers (first time Shakey and Pabs have played against each other?). Scoring was slow initially, but both found their groove, with Cheese soon retiring on 26 and Shakey soon following on 18, as he was boring himself with how slow he seemed to be batting. Ed and Steveo were next in, with both finding runs easy to come by, including Ed hitting Dan for 4 twice in one over. As such, Dan readjusted his radar to serious mode and bowled consecutive maidens, whilst also claiming the wickets of both batters. This included the caught and bowled off Steveo, no doubt adding fuel to the stat and milestone debate (a consistent discussion throughout the game). Hollywood hit a quickfire 13 as the Hounds finished on 115-2 off their first 20, trailing the Foxes by just 6 runs.

Mark Stephens 18 (retired not out)
Ed Stewart 26 (retired not out)
Ed Stagg 18 (bowled Dan Lewis)
Steve O’Reilly 16 (caught and bowled Dan Lewis)
Jack Beaumont 13 (not out)
David White 0 (not out)
Pete Obee DNB
Darren Britton DNB
Rhys Davies DNB
Goff Day DNB
Patrick Dean DNB

John Prior 2-0-5-0
Paul Stephens 4-0-24-0
Matt Foote 4-0-26-0
Scott Fitzgerald 2-0-17-0
Simon Gough 3-0-14-0
Dan Lewis 4-2-12-2
Liam Forster 1-0-17-0

Tea was taken, but unlike the sad meal deals we have become accustomed to in recent years, a proper tea had been prepared, with all Casuals contributing to produce a mountain of food. Savouries included an array of Costco sandwiches (filled with chicken, prawns, bacon, cheese and other goodness), sausages, sausage rolls, homemade onion bhajis and samosas. The sweets, meanwhile, saw a big variety of cakes (including a lovely lemon drizzle), brownies, Welsh cakes and strawberries and cream. Ask any Casual what they see as being the perfect tea and the effort for this occasion would definitely be up there!

An agreement had been reached before the game that, for the second innings, a player couldn’t bat in the same part of the order as they had in the first. For example, if a player had batted in the top 4 in the first innings, then they couldn’t occupy the top 4 in the second. This meant that Pabbers and Richie opened the second innings for the Foxes, with Ed and Rhys opening the bowling. The run rate was positive to start, with the opening pair clearly powered by the substantial tea (or simply taking advantage of wayward bowling), and saw the score rise to 15 early in the 3rd over, before Cheese caught Richie off Ed’s bowling. Big Willy was in next and rotated the strike well with Pabbers to take the score into the 40s. However, having gone for one quick run too many, Pabbers was run out early in the 7th over. Rob entered the party for his first bat of the day and, having seen Big Willy bowled by Cheese showed an unusual level of aggression against the familiar bowling, hitting several 4s over the top on his way to retiring on 28. The Hounds continued to take regular wickets, with Fitzy’s wicket claimed by Pat and Dan’s claimed by Goffy, both caught by Rhys, before Shakey tempted Jesus to dance down the track and miss an attempted slap, Hollywood taking the bails off with ease. Once again, the retiring Foxy carried the Foxes to the end of their innings, ably supported by little Goughy, the 20 overs concluding with the score on 122-6.

Paul Stephens 16 (run out Ed Stewart)
Richard Holliday 4 (caught Ed Stewart, bowled Ed Stagg)
Will Goad 19 (bowled Ed Stewart)
Rob Owens 28 (retired not out)
Scott Fitzgerald 1 (caught Rhys Davies, bowled Patrick Dean)
Dan Lewis 16 (caught Rhys Davies, bowled Goff Day)
Will Mason-Wilkes 8 (stumped Jack Beaumont, bowled Mark Stephens)
Simon Gough 8 (not out)
John Prior 4 (not out)
Liam Forster DNB
Tesh Hirani DNB

Ed Stagg 3-0-25-1
Rhys Davies 3-0-14-0
Naren Marugonda 4-0-18-0
Ed Stewart 2-0-9-1
Patrick Dean 2-0-22-1
Mark Stephens 2-0-12-1
Goff Day 2-0-8-1
James Hodkinson 1-0-4-0
Steve O’Reilly 1-0-5-0

With 129 needed to seal the win, the Hounds opened up with Rhys and Britpop, who decided to take a break from photography duties. Meanwhile, for the first time since 1997, Chris Durnall turned his arm over for a few overs. Predictably, this resulted in some wayward deliveries, both in line and length, allowing Rhys to score some quick runs. Richie was rolling back the years at the other end, making it tricky for Britpop at first, before he remembered how to use his bat and started adding runs to the total. The momentum continued when Tesh and Jesus took over, with the score reaching 63 as Rhys and Britpop pushed as many runs as they could (a couple of 3s were run!!). It was around this time that the Casual rivalry heated up, with Simon Gough (little Goughy) reminding Goff Day (Goffy) who the ‘original Goughy/Goffy is’, following some sledging of some variety from the boundary.

Evidently, this fuelled the cake-filled bellies of the Foxes as they took a series of quick wickets. Rhys fell first, stumped by little Goughy off, followed swiftly by Pete, both off the bowling of Jesus, whilst Britpop had reached his 25 and retired. Goffy and Naren also soon departed, caught by big Willy off Rob and caught by Rob off Pabbers respectively. Goffy’s innings was most notable as he was earlier dropped by Dan ‘the stats for this game should count’ Lewis, having sent a swipe up into the air! 96-4 with 5 overs left, Pat and Cheese restored order by taking the team over the line, with Cheese particularly keen to get the game finished with a quick 20, hitting two consecutive 4s off Dan to win the game, but not before Foxy bowled his final ever over – a maiden!

Rhys Davies 21 (stumped Simon Gough, bowled Will Mason-Wilkes)
Darren Britton 26 (retired not out)
Naren Marugonda 11 (caught Rob Owens, bowled Paul Stephens)
Pete Obee 1 (bowled Will Mason-Wilkes)
Goff Day 7 (caught Will Goad, bowled Rob Owens)
Patrick Dean 21 (not out)
Ed Stewart 20 (not out)
Ed Stagg DNB
Jack Beaumont DNB
Steve O’Reilly DNB
Mark Stephens DNB

Chris Durnall 2-0-20-0
Richard Holliday 2-0-16-0
Tesh Hirani 2-0-19-0
Will Mason-Wilkes 3-0-9-2
Will Goad 3-0-15-0
Rob Owens 3-0-12-1
Paul Stephens 1-0-18-0
Dan Lewis 1.4-0-17-0
John Prior 1-1-0-0

As the sun set, the Casuals gathered round to munch any remaining food, drink some of the assorted cans that were on offer, and listen to stories about the legend that is Foxy. In particular, Shakey brought Foxy-porn, to highlight key achievements in the great man’s Casuals career, but also to give numerous reminders that this was to be his final game. Many a laugh was had as memories were shared by those in attendance. It was a truly fitting end to the 32-year career that John has had. The last of the inaugural Cardiff Casuals XI has packed away his pads for the final time.

Many Casuals past and present attended this game and have been present for many great Foxy moments.

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