Wembley’s spinners throttle Ts Middlesex Cup hopes for another year

Twickenham’s hopes of progressing into the last 16 of the Middlesex Federation Cup were dashed on 17 June as they were well beaten by premier division outfit Wembley.  Although the Ts bowled and fielded well, their batters couldn’t handle the north Londoners’ battery of tweakers and were dismissed 67 runs short of their target of 215.

The Ts began the game in good spirits following their comprehensive defeat of Harrow Town the day before.  Justin Scriven, fresh from impersonating Russell Crowe’s Gladiator at a fancy dress party on Saturday night, once again called correctly and decided that Twickenham would have a bowl.  That was to be Scriven’s last act as skipper, Maximus Meridius opting to concentrate on his bowling and fielding by leaving Andy Barnes to take over the on-field leadership role. 

Scriven and Mark Ryan opened up for the Ts.  Whilst Scriven prompted a few false shots outside off stump, it was Ryan who struck first when Sialvi looped a straightforward catch up to Dan Hough in the covers.  His opening partner, Bhome, was joined by Australian import Chris Hansberry.  Both, in their different ways, looked to be positive.  Bhome appeared to think he was batting on a fast track in high summer, playing with quick wrists and an angled bat.  Although he played some excellent shots, he always gave the bowlers a chance.  Hansberry, meanwhile, looked a real class act.  The fact that the track was dry and bare didn’t prevent him timing the ball sweetly from the off.  His bat remained unerringly straight and it immediately became clear why Western Australia have offered him a contract for 2008.

As the score passed 50 it became clear that the Ts needed a breakthrough.  Thankfully, one wasn’t long coming, Bhome slicing a drive to Scriven at point off Warwick Paull.  Green, batting at four, was more circumspect than Bhome had been before him and remained content to watch Hansberry push the ball around.  Green’s patient knock of 19 ended when JP Cronje – generating considerable turn and bounce – gave debutant wicketkeeper Don Campbell his first catch behind the stumps.  Skipper Barnes cleverly realised that slowing the bowling down was a sensible option, so rather than opt for pace at the pavilion end he asked Pete Carey (9 overs 0-31) to bowl his dibbly-dobblers and then chucked the ball to Dan Hough to do pretty much the same thing.  Both bowlers bowled as slowly as they reasonably could, wobbling the ball around on a length.  Whilst Carey’s good work nonetheless left him unrewarded in terms of wickets, Hough (2-10 off 3) managed to dismiss Webb – caught by Cronje at point for 3 – and Desai (thanks to an excellent diving catch by Paull) for 12.  The innings had reached something of a critical juncture.

It was at this point that Wembley turned up the heat.  Hansberry continued on his merry way past 50, whilst Greig started driving and pulling with gusto.  Hansberry’s eventual dismissal for 71 – with the score on 172 – saw another quick tumble of wickets, as the admirably consistent Cronje (3-31 off 9) helped himself to two more.  Another flurry of boundaries from Greig saw him register 50 before Mark Ryan returned to pick up another scalp (Malik, for 6) thanks to a well taken catch by Campbell running back from his position behind the stumps.  Wembley’s final score of 214 looked competitive but gettable and the Ts realised that it was definitely game on.

After a solid tea (A- on the Teameter; the whipped cream definitely a treat that went down well) Campbell and Pete Carey opened up for the Ts.  Campbell was certainly the more circumspect, and for the first 8 overs he seemed quite content to watch Carey make most of the running.  The left arm tweak of Greig was nonetheless already causing both players difficulties; the ball regularly bit and bounced and Twickenham soon started to drift behind the required run rate.  The departure of Campbell, run out going for a very tight single, prompted a mini-cascade of wickets; Warwick Paull came and went quickly, out first ball leg before without playing a shot whilst the unlucky Ryan, batting at four, was beaten by the difficult bounce, departing to a soft catch at mid wicket also without troubling the scorers.  Justin Scriven didn’t find life much easier, playing and missing on a number of occasions to the hazardous left arm spin of Hansberry, before relieving some of the pressure by playing two elegant straight drives for four.  58-3 off 20 overs nonetheless left little doubt as to which side was in the box seat as the midway point of the innings approached.  

Things proceeded to get worse for the Ts.  Carey (40) – who thus far had been the only Twickenham batsman to play with any degree of freedom and control – was bowled trying to force the ball through the leg side off the dangerous Malik (2-29 off 9) whilst Scriven soon followed, bowled by one that turned an awful long way from outside off stump.  Throughout this Hansberry kept plugging away, finishing with the remarkable figures of 0-7 off 7. 

Simon Hawley briefly offered some respite from the suffocating spin, plonking Malik over his head for 6 and then following this up with a couple of nicely worked leg side boundaries.  Srinjoy De briefly joined in the fun, picking up a couple of 4s himself, before one of the more humorous moments of the day occurred; Hawley glanced a ball to the boundary for four and yet both he and De somehow thought that the fielder had actually stopped the ball on the line and that they’d therefore have to settle for a single.  Both batters were therefore a little perplexed when Malik asked them what was going on and a few seconds of mayhem occurred while everyone tried to fathom out who should be standing at which end.  All the fun of the fare on a Sunday in North London!

This light-hearted interlude didn’t lift Twickenham hearts for long as yet another spinner – this time of the leg variety, from the opening bat Bhome – accounted for De who was caught in the slips by Greig.  Hawley quickly followed, as Rambo Magan (racing in off a run up of fully 40 yards) dismissed the Hillingdon teacher for 21.  Magan’s tendency to bowl no balls initially prevented him from claiming the wicket of the Lord of the Nipple Rings, Willie van Aswegen, as he bowled the big South African only to find out that he’d overstepped the line.  By about a foot.  Magan was, however, not to be denied, finally getting his man an over later.  116-8, and the game was all but over.  Dan Hough (26) nonetheless tried to make the best of a bad job, registering four boundaries off Bhome, but the end was not too long coming, Twickenham eventually being dismissed for 147 in the 43^rd over.

Although the better side on the day clearly came out on top, there are still undoubtedly some positives to take from the defeat.  The Ts proved that they can contain a premier league batting line up pretty well and that they can hold their nerve when under the pressure in the field.  The wicket also gave wonderful assistance to Wembley’s plethora of spin bowlers and it’s unlikely that the Ts will have to face that sort of attack on that sort of pitch again any time soon.  In short, learn from the experience and move on.