TCC 3’s v. Southgate CC 3’s – Saturday 28th July  

T’s second away game in a row following the aborted trip to North Middlesex saw us travel to The Walker Ground to take on second place Southgate. Only a couple of weeks earlier this ground had been the scene of the “downfall” (literally) of a number of senior members on a famous spectating day at the Middlesex Festival. Twickenham skipper Phil Parker lost the toss for a change and we were promptly put into bat. With plenty of experience at the top of the order in the shape of Don Campbell and Parker you might have been forgiven to expect a sedate and circumspect start, but the score progressed steadily at four per over until the ninth over when Parker(19) picked the wrong line of a straight one from the opening young Southgate quickie Vinson and was cleaned up off his pads. Van Niekerk joined Campbell at this point and continued to demonstrate the recent form which had bought him two consecutive league fifties. Together they took the score beyond eighty after 20 overs at which point Steve(31) holed out in the deep off the first change bowling of Craddock (84 for 2 off 21).  A brief cameo from Matt Bendelow (8) dispatching two fine-looking boundaries before he clipped one to mid-on, then brought new boy Howard McCann to the crease, playing in his first league game for the 3’s. Howard’s own incredulity at being sent in at number 5 was soon forgotten as he immediately began to demonstrate that he’s not the type to give away his wicket easily. His partnership of 85 with Don was one of the highlights of the day (the other came from another debutant when we were bowling). Don Campbell was out in the 44^th over for a hard-grafted 65 with the score at 181 and then McCann cut loose with successively Dave Green(14) and James Richards (4 Not Out) as partners, enabling a declaration (after 54 overs) on 248 for 5 – McCann reaching a very impressive 83 N.O. on debut – more was to follow with ball in hand later. As we took tea it struck us that the opposition fielders were “arrogantly” bemoaning the fact that we had batted on for too long, but 46 overs to chase this target seemed perfectly reasonable to us for a side who were second in the league and on home territory.

Very tight and accurate early bowling from openers Jacques Grobler and Matt Huntington limited the aggressive-looking Southgate opening batsmen (Gunn and Wloch) to the odd streaky cover drive, that area being well policed by the young legs of Bendelow and Jack Parker (the other debutant) in the 3’s for the day. Huntington made the first breakthrough with an LBW given against Wloch when he was on 14 and beginning to look dangerous. Grobler then joined the party by  clean bowling Webb (2) with one of his trademark in-duckers. Suddenly the win looked on as it had become patently obvious that Southgate were not at their strongest today. Our target had to be Mr Gunn who had resisted us for 43 not out earlier in the season before rain stopped play. A change of bowling brought young Parker on to bowl at the ever-confident Gunn. Second highlight of the day – Parker’s first ball, a gentle loosener, was left by Gunn to wander aimlessly into the keepers gloves. The second ball was faster and straighter and Gunn respectfully defended it out into the covers – no run. Jack dropped his third ball short of a length and Gunn shaped to pull it, then halfway through the shot he decided to abort the pull and took the ball under the right side of the jaw – to the mirth of the close fielders. After a brief stoppage Jack resumed, his fourth ball being much fuller length, Gunn offered no foot movement to this delivery once again defending it out in front. At this point Gunn enquired of his colleagues on the boundary as to the borrowing of a helmet! With no response coming from them he settled to receive the fifth ball which nicked his off-stump – perfect! From then on the game decidedly turned in the T’s favour. McCann, having recovered from his fine knock earlier then bowled 10 very tidy overs of seam-up taking 3 for 12 in tandem with Steve Van Niekerk (10 overs 2 for 13) as the Southgate tail shut up shop. There was time for one more bright point in the game – the decidedly MOST misguidedly arrogant of fourth team players we have ever come across – L Stokes came in at number 8. He had single-handedly chirped and moaned at us all day long but when he refused a single off an edge down to third man shouting “No run – I’ll take this bowling all day long” to then be bowled the very next delivery by a simple straight one by Howard McCann our day was complete – except for the win as the Southgate Captain came in at 11 and stuck his bat behind his pads for three overs at the death. The nine wickets had been shared around by the five bowlers used as Southgate finished at 129-9. Totally outplayed by a much better team on the day, most of the opposition decided not to be around to clap us off at the end, with only the umpires and last batsmen being around to do the honours. A very sad indictment of a so-called senior Middlesex club. Twickenham 4 points Southgate 1 point.          

Phil Parker.