Sat 7^th July TCC 3’s v South Hampstead (Home)

Another astutely tossed coin enabled Phil Parker to insert the opposition on what looked like a green-topped and potentially lively wicket at Broom Road on a bright but breezy day. Having been rain-curtailed for the previous three weekends the lads were itching to put someone to the sword. Without a win between both the sides in the league so far this season we knew we would be in for a keenly contested game and so it certainly proved.  With the wicket not performing to earlier expectations the opening T’s bowlers Biggs and Saunders laboured without great success until Richie Saunders managed the first breakthrough. With plenty of bowling at his disposal the captain rotated the attack in 6-8over spells and, whilst wickets fell at regular intervals throughout, the visitors managed to start putting together a reasonable total with their innings being anchored at one end by the Clive Lloyd lookalike, Devon Plummer who finished with 52 with some lusty blows to the leg. At 160-ish for 4 with a good number of overs left the T’s might have been forgiven for believing that the decision to put them in was a little misguided but the introduction of Steve Van Niekerk’s flight and guile combined with an accurate second spell from Phil Biggs yielded five more wickets and a reasonable hope of dismissing South Hampstead for less than 200. But once again proving that you should “never count your chickens”, in at number 10 came I Zazai to spank an unlikely 38 not out and enable the South’s captain to declare on 237 for 9 after 51 overs. A declaration which was later seen to be a more “sporting” one than he might have first imagined. The wickets, once again were well shared around by the bowlers: Biggs 11o-3m-2w-42r, Saunders 8-1-1-31, B.Smith 7-0-0-25, Van Niekerk 10-1-3-45, Burke 7-0-1-43, Grobler 8-0-2-39.

With Karl Rand exhausted after an impressive 51 overs behind the stumps the T’s needed a “volunteer” opener to accompany the skipper to the wicket after tea allowing Wilf to get his feet up on the boundary. Up stepped Travis Birtwhistle without hesitation and after a brief “look” at the bowling which lasted perhaps a full one over, Travis set about dismantling the confidence of SH’s opening pace attack. With a “watchful” Parker in support, Travis constructed a hard-hitting fifty as the score accelerated to six runs per over. The first 100 run opening partnership of the season gave T’s a more than solid base for a decent run chase. Unfortunately, when the breakthrough came, as South introduced Mehboob’s leg spin to the game T’s lost two quick wickets as first Birtwhistle (56) was bowled off his legs by the spinner and then Parker(36) played a “tired” shot through cover off S.Uddin in the very next over and dollied up an easy catch (105-2 after 18 overs). But the chase was far from off course, Mark Smith(6) joined Steve Van Niekerk at the wicket and another useful partnership of 44 runs developed before Smith nicked one to gulley (149-3). Dave Green was then given out (questionably) off a caught behind for nought. But Van Niekerk was in his best form of the season by now and had managed to accumulate 19 runs while Dave was being given out. Seasoned performer Richie Saunders(15 N.O.), much underrated with the bat, then joined Van Niekerk, and under captain’s orders, anchored the innings to it’s logical conclusion. Steve fell for a fine fifty-four and Jacques Grobler (24) was sent out to do his usual “damage” lower down the order. T’s did manage to lose another couple of wickets late on after Jacques’ dismissal, Karl Rand(6) attempting an “optimistic” third run to a ball coming in from the deep. A little “rush of adrenaline”, as he called it, following his earlier heroics behind the stumps. Ben Smith(1) got the first straight one of the day from the opener C.Smith, back for a second spell, but Richie was then joined by Pete Burke and it was “extras” which saw us through. Balls going for 2 and four byes respectively allowed Twickenham to pass their target with two overs to spare finishing at 239-8. With the first 10 point win of the season secured - the party then started! The rest is history.