Midweek SMS – 23.05.2012

The 2nd’s took on an unbeaten Thames Ditton side on Saturday on an overcast afternoon. Another toss won and the 2’s bowled first. Sharad Patel tore in to the top order of Thames Ditton, reducing the visitors to 56-7 after his opening spell accounted for 5 wickets, with 2 wickets for Corns at the other end. Sagar Mehta again bowled a consistent and probing spell, building on the openers work to tempt out 2 further batsmen. Sharad came back on to wrap up the innings with his 6th wicket, finishing with 9.5-1-45-6. Corns taking 2-11 from 10 and Mehta 2-13 from 10. The only disappointment was S&M hampering their own chances by allowing extras to be the top scorer for the visitors – an area which will be have to be improved. The chase was always comfortable and after the loss of two early wickets Dan Langan and Ed Lawrence put on a 50 run partnership to condemn Thames Ditton to their first defeat and leave the 2’s top of the league after 3 games, Langan batting with the responsibility the Captain asked of him to finish 38 not out. Well done on a good result, but we need to build on this result on Saturday with a further 10 points to solidify our position at the top. (P Corns)
2nd X1 League position – 1st / 10
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This was a very different type of game to last week. Having been sent in, S&M got off to a strong start with Thompson again doing most of the damage with a muscular 46. Things stuttered in the middle overs as a slow scoring rate and some in-between scores left us 68-4. Although the middle and lower picked up the rate (in particularly Safi who played intelligently for his 30), a score of 193 was only adequate at best. Also, it meant that we only had 46 overs to dismiss the opposition. From the offset Chertsey did not seem interested in trying to chase this score down, and their particularly brand of anti-cricket yielded them a winning draw. The attacking instincts of Whiley showed them what could have been as they ended 19 runs short and 6 down. What could have been a close, intriguing game ended up being particularly frustrating. (C Sowton)
3rd X1 League position – Joint 3rd / 18
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The 4th eleven played their first premier league match against Wimbledon and turned up to find kids with football boots playing on the square, the goal was placed on the actual strip, the pitch had hardly been prepared with daisies on a good length and running track crossing the field and no boundary line, welcome to the big leagues. What followed in the match wasn’t much better than the facilities and after losing the toss and being put into bat the 4’s were quickly reduced to 7 for 4. A decent partnership between skipper Henderson and the debutant (and very hungover) Shukla followed by some sensible batting from Bell and Gladstone got the side up to 79 all out. Wimbledon knocked the runs off in very little time for the loss of just 1 wicket. Harsh lessons to be learnt. (A Henderson)
4th X1 League Position – 9th / 10

No rain for once so off to Catford to play on a difficult track against a very young Catford side. We also are reasonably youthful save for Barrington and I. The skipper wins the toss and put them in. Tight early bowling from Barrington Wilks (12-3-23-4) and Eliot Charles (6-2-13-1) was backed by fine keeping from Curtis Knott and sharp fielding from all. Particularly impressive were Jim Roebuck, Chris Banks, Adam Goodyer and William Clowes. William Clowes then came on to bowl a devastating spell of rapid and accurate league bowling (9-1-20-5). The young man looks a find. With Lewis Knapp bowling three lovely overs of his thoughtful leg spin that was it in 30 overs leaving us to get 72 off 61 overs. The track had been sufficiently spiteful for us not to assume this could be done easily. We were right. After the skipper was run out in a farcical procession of miscommunication and good intentions it looked like Kirk Smith (12) would see us there. Kirk hit two powerful boundaries and was making both sides and all his batting partners nervous. The forceful left hander then decided to step out of his ground thinking the ball was dead, it wasn’t. He was. Bizarre events continued with Basky being caught when his edge ricocheted off the keepers body in to the hands of a grateful first slip. Even so it looked like Curtis Knott might see us there as he battled for a long time for his 12 runs. Unfortunately no one could stay with him for long. When Curtis played on unluckily trying to keep out yet another ball keeping low it was all over. Well done Catford who exploited our foolishness and nerves. I think it is fair to say we were all sick. (L Johnston)
5th X1 League position – 5th / 10

The Sunday 1’s completed a routine 8 wicket victory whilst the Sunday 2’s found the going much tougher and were defeated.

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