I found this very frustrating, but having now seen the full solution I think it was a fair enough puzzle. My timeline was similar to others - 90 minutes to solve the grid (except one letter, 44a), half an hour to get the final g, an hour to fill in the missing letters and figure out the message, 45 minutes frustratingly googling Mr L til eventually coming across the relevant quote (sounds like this step would have been a lot simpler if I had the OQD), 2 hours grid stare during which I only got G and E, give up and look on here to see the other three batsmen. So close to 6 hours and a fail for me, despite having the grid basically done in 90 minutes. Having said which. I think I probably should have figured out the other three, so fair enough.