T's 3rd X1 vs Royal Ascot 2nd X1

Due to decent early season availability, an additional friendly fixture was hastily arranged for Saturday so the 3rd X1 made the trip to leafy Berkshire to face Royal Ascot twos on their second ground.

After losing the toss and surprisingly being asked to bat first in the beautiful April sunshine, the T's openers Campbell and Sanchez set about the task.

With the indifferent bounce and the exceptionally slow outfield, it became apparent early on that run scoring would be difficult and a total of around 150 would probably be a reasonable score.

Campbell was the first wicket to fall and was soon followed by skipper Johnson edging to second slip.

Sanchez was joined at the crease by Dave Green and the score was steadily pushed along to about forty when Sanchez who looked in fine touch was adjudged lbw for 21.

Next man in Grobler played in his usual fashion and after finding a couple of boundaries he managed to hole out to mid-on for 9.

Jerry Paxton then joined Green at the crease and batted sensibly feeding Green the strike who was looking in excellent form with a combination of good defence and picking the right deliveries to hit over the top which seemed to be the right approach on a difficult pitch.

After Paxton departed the T,s looked to wobble slightly at 65 for 5 but a decent cameo innings from Karl Rand (25) and with the continuing big hitting from Green, the score started to approach respectability.

Twickenham lost a few late wickets trying to push the score along in the last few overs including Green who was finally out for a brilliant 61 including 3 sixes and Bill Wright who hit a superb six over long on.

Declaring on 45 overs the T,s made a very respectable 166 for 9.   

After an excellent tea the Twickenham bowlers began well especially Matt Huntingdon who's away swing troubled the Ascot openers who departed in quick succession.

With the introduction of Bill Wright's off spin the Ascot batsmen found scoring difficult and when the required rate reached 5.5 an over they were always up against it.

Their only glimmer of hope was a mid innings partnership with the number 6 deciding to cut loose along with the Ascot skipper Benneyworth who played well and made a fine 51.

Once this partnership was broken the Ascot innings fell into further decline and they were finally all out for 130 with Bill Wright finishing with superb figures of 5 for 45 of 14 overs.

Huntingdon and Grobler both took a wicket each and there were also promising starts for Fraser Donaldson (1 for 27 off 5) and JP Bowman (2 for 28 off 5).

A good start to the season with some decent performances and fair play to the Royal Ascot team who continued to chase the total insead of playing out for a draw.