Twickenham 3rd XI gave themselves a fighting chance of preserving their Middlesex County League Div 1 status with a comprehensive victory over Barnet B’s,only their 3rd this season, at a damp St Mary’s.
Having won the all important toss,stand in skipper Colin Blunden had the perfect bowlers to exploit the conditions in wily seamers Mark Smith and Pete Burke.
The pair proceeded to rip through the visitors batting line up,who in fairness kept the T’s fielders interested with some very expansive shots!
When the pair took a well deserved rest,Barnet had already been reduced to 85 for 8,with Burke claiming 3 wickets and Smith a well deserved 5 for.
Paul Johnson then came on and mopped up the last 2 wickets leaving Twickenham needing 103 to record a vital win.
Veteran openers Blunden and Don Campbell set about getting Twickenham off to a solid reply,but soon found the going tough against Barnet’s equally impressive seamers.
When Blunden went cheaply,and the equally out of nick Anurag Dayal followed soon after,some colly-wobbles started to set in. But the T’s needn’t have worried,as the resolute Campbell and the more expansive Vikram Thakur took their side to the brink of victory before Campbell was surprisingly LBW 4 runs short of victory for a well made 40.
Ross Montgomery came in and smacked the winning boundary,leaving the T’s comfortable victors by 7 wickets,with Thakur unbeaten on 20.
With the news that Stanmore were rained off and Hornsey had lost,the simple equation is that if the T’s win their last game at Finchley they’re guaranteed to stay up.
And,with Hornsey playing Stanmore,they could survive with as little as a losing draw.
All to play for!!