Despite the 3's slumping to the bottom of the league,they can honestly say that Saturday's defeat at Ealing has been the only time this season they've been truly outclassed.

Twickenham arrived at the attractive St Benedicts School ground in Greenford,and on winning the toss 'regular' skipper Mark Johnson had no hesitation in asking the hosts to take first hit.

After the usual Saturday morning reshuffle, promoted Taufeeq (fresh from his 8 for in the 4's last week) and Sourav Burman took the new cherry.

Despite some useful deliveries beating the bat,openers Kiernander and Podmore looked in little trouble,as the scoreboard ticked along at 5 an over.

Anurag Dayal replaced Taufeeq,and his tight off spin soon tied up one end,although Pete Buke,who'd replaced Burman,found it more difficult from the other.

The score had reached 93 before Podmore was tempted down the wicket,but failed to pick Dayal's leggie and was easily stumped by Jon Trippet for 43.

This brought the classy White to the crease,who soon showed his quality by playing some exquisite straight drives off Dayal in particular.

Paul Johnson had replaced Burke,and nearly removed Kiernander in his first over,but a sharp piece of work from Trippett to remove the bails went unrewarded.

He did eventually get his man though as Dave Brady held onto a good catch at cow.

When White played onto Dayal soon after,Ealing had 'slumped' to 130 for 3 off 35 overs,and the T's started to wonder what else they had.

Well they didn't have to look much further, as home skipper McCrea and left hander Soni took the attack to the bowlers from the off ,in order to force the declaration.

The ball went all round the ground as the T's fielders wilted under the onslaught. Misfiields and dropped catches meant that McCrea could declare bang on his usual 50 overs,without further loss,with score on exactly 250. Both batters finished with unbeaten half centuries,and for the T's Dayal with 2 for 84,and Paul Johnson with 1 for 60 were the only bowlers to register in the wickets column.

After a nice tea,T's veteran openers Colin Blunden and Don Campbell strode to the crease hoping to set a solid base for the replay.

Things got off to a disastrous start though as Campbell registered his 2nd 'Golden Duck' in 2 weeks playing onto the last ball of Bhettay's first over.

Anurag Dayal came in at no.3 and played some belligerent strokes,as his way,but the pace and bounce of former Ealing 1's bowler Bhettay was causing both batsmen problems.

Any chance the T's had of salvaging something soon evaporated when a 'shooter'' from Bhettay cleaned up Dayal for 19.When Blunden went the same way soon after the writing was clearly on the wall.

Some spirited resistance from Dave Brady,with a hard hitting 21,and Samim Nazir with an assured and mature 19 gave fresh hope. But a procession of middle order wickets saw Twickenham slump to 80 for 8.

The tail wagged,lead admirably by Jon Trippett,23*. But when Sourav Burman was last man out,Twickenham had been routed for 125.

In truth,both teams have gone in opposite directions strength-wise since the T's had won the first game between the sides earlier in the season,and this was plain to see.

Next week sees another 'easy' game at home to leaders Richmond,followed by 2 potential Cup finals against Hornsey and Stanmore!