The 3's put in a pretty dismal batting display to lose against Hornsey at St Mary's.

After winning the toss,skipper Mark Johnson followed the 'trend' and asked the visitors to take first knock on a glorious looking batting strip.

This was even more valid,as some of the Hornsey players were still tackling the obstacles on the North Circ,forcing them to re jig they're batting order.

In very humid conditions,T's openers Pete Burke,and the seasons debutante Dimi Nicolaides swung the ball from the off,and the near perfect start was made with both Hornsey openers back in the hutch inside 3 overs. The first one an LBW to Burke,and the other clean bowled by Nicolaides.

Wickets continued to fall,one more to Burke,and the other 2 to Nicolaides,both good catches at mid on by debutante Jeremy Keates,as the visitors slumped to 59 for 5,and the T's started dreaming of an early finish.

It was then though that Hornsey's 'proper' batsmen started to take hold,with the classy looking Jonz,in particular, dispatching the tiring Twickenham attack to all parts.

The score moved past 150 before the 6th wicket was taken,a 2nd catch for Colin Blunden to give Keates his first wicket for Twickenham.

Jonz cruise past 50,as a post 250 total looked on the cards,and in the hard hitting Rizvi,he found an able partner.

The introduction of Paul Johnson finally broke the partnership,as first Jonz was smartly caught by Chris Kay at mid wicket for a well deserved 76.,and then Rizvi was stumped by Jon Trippett for 39,both off Johnson.

By this time,Hornsey had gone past 200,but another late wicket for Johnson,and a brilliant direct hit run out from Blunden ended the innings in the 44th over for an eminently gettable 227.

All the bowlers toiled well with 3 wickets each for Dimi Nicolaides and Paul Johnson,and 2 for Pete Burke. A special mention for Jeremy Keates as well, who deserved better than his 1 for 61 off 11.3 overs.

Twickenham had 55 overs to get the runs,but openers Colin Blunden and Chris Marshall were soon put under pressure by some accurate if unspectacular Hornsey bowling.

When Blunden edged behind without scoring it set the trend, as a procession of T's batters got themselves in,then played loose shots to get out,without showing the the necessary application needed.

Only Paul Pannell,with a classy 39 and Paul Johnson with a more  resolute 28 managed to score over 20,but 6 other players got into double figures!

Cameo's from Marshall,14, Keates 15, Kay 17, Burke 16, Mark Johnson 19 and Trippett 10, all weren't enough,as Twickenham were bowled out for a disappointing 183 in the 51st over.

For Hornsey,Groeneveld was the pick of the bowlers with 5 for 64.

This was a bad defeat,as just a little more application from a couple of the batters would have surely won the game.

Next week we travel to bottom of the table Stanmore for a 'must win' game.