T’S LOSE TO BRONDESBURY AS BATTING FAILS

Brondesbury Fours 217 for 4 in 50 overs

TCC Fours 110 ao in 37.3

Twickenhams fourth string travelled to Mill Hill Village’s ground and, shorn of it’s batting strength, succumbed following a weak attempt at a chase as 5 ducks were recorded and the last 6 wickets fell for 29 runs to give Brondesbury victory by a country mile.

After an uneventful, barring the massive potholes on the final approach to the ground,  journey up the North Circular the T’s arrived in good spirits. These were raised after temporary stand-in skipper Walker ( Kriess unavoidably detained at work until later in the day) won the toss and inserted the home side on a green track.

The field was set to protect the short boundary on the downward slope and the opening attack of Burman and Bowman (I think this caused the scorer a little confusion as I called out the names twice over) roared into action. After a couple of loose deliveries in the opening over from Burman , which the bat put away for boundaries, the T’s pair exerted no little pressure. Chances came and the first wicket fell fairly quickly as Davies took a very casual catch behind the stumps as Burman struck.  The second wicket pair accumulated runs slowly and both bowlers can count themselves unlucky not to have picked up more victims; a couple of good looking lbw appeals were turned down, Chinese cuts scraped the stumps, aerial shots landed out of reach of fielders, balls just passed over the stumps etc. During this period the 10-man Twickenham fielding unit put in a good shift and , indeed, when the skipper appeared on the field after 19 overs only 48 runs had been scored with Bowman in particular returning very miserly figures. With the slope and short boundary this was a top performance.

This trend continued for a while and then a flurry of wickets fell. Davies took his second victim , this time off Bendelow who replaced the luckless Bowman, and a sterling bit of fielding from O’Brien (Dave) saw the remaining opener, Anteh, run out by some distance following some poor calling.

The next man in decided to up the run rate by swinging the willow and this strategy proved successful as he scored a fairly brisk 39, cross-batting away merrily. He was undone by a straight, full delivery from Dassani  who had replaced Burman.

With 11 overs remaining it looked like the T’s would be looking at chasing a fairly low total but the home bats had other ideas. The next passage of play saw the game taken away from the West Londoners whose positivity in the field began to wane. Welbourn blasted away for a classy quick-fire 66 and he was ably supported by the obdurate, and no less classy, Horne who ended up with 36 as Brondsebury finished on 217. Neither bat looked 4’th team standard and one can only assume the higher sides are well blessed with batting talent.

And so to tea. A bit of a curates egg this one and a recalibration of the Hendometer may be required. One cannot complain about the quantity on offer but as for the quality and variety...First the good bits;  There was a lot of it. The fruit fetishists were looked after with quartered oranges and watermelon. Nice. Cakes, sorry cake was a chocolate sponge/roll which was ok. This was supplemented by some biscuits of the custard cream, nice and malted milk (this correspondents favourite plain biscuit it has to be said. Oh and has anybody read Magnus Mills?) variety. But the sandwiches?  Cheap white bread with 3 fillings; tuna/mayo, egg/mayo and cheese. No real variety, no aesthetic appeal and no ‘enrichment’ in the form of pickle, onion, sweetcorn etc unless you count a few crisps. And a scalding hot cup of tea to boot. There were a lot of sandwiches on offer and when we had finished there were still a lot of sandwiches on offer.  A grade of C- which could be moderated to a C if the quantity is taken into consideration.

After a quick visit to the smallest changing room in the world to prepare for batting the T’s took to the field with Sanchez and pinch-hitter Burman in place. The bowling was sharp and accurate and Sanchez fell early, caught in the slips, after contributing a nicely hit boundary. Quantrill joined in and batted sensibly. The pinch-hitting experiment didn’t really come off as the bowling was too tight so Burman also adopted a more sensible approach to batting and this pair added 43 for the second wicket.  Quantrill looked like he had played himself in and was set for a decent score before going to a good catch in the covers for 15. The T’s then pressed the panic button as 3 wickets fell for 5 runs as the ‘mystery’ bowler Haroon entered the fray. Nobody seemed able to read the massive in-movement or alarming change of pace (slow or medium-fastish balls were delivered with the same action) the bowler was able to deliver and the T’s struggled as batsman after batsman fell, Burman ending on a decent 22. It looked briefly as though Walker and Kriess has steadied the ship and an assault on the winning-draw target was possible but this reverie was rudely  shattered as were the skippers stumps.

A run of ducks ensued from the T’s and the home side rotated the bowling intelligently in an attempt to unsettle the away side further as the Twickenham’s thoughts turned merely to survival. The sun pierced the gloom directly behind the bowlers arm at one end which just added to the T’s problems. Bowman displayed admirable straight-bat technique and patience as he and Walker attempted to see through the last 12 overs. Sadly Walker fell, caught at silly point, with 6 overs remaining and Bowman, bowled by an off-spinner that really turned, went in the next as the innings closed on 110 ao a massive 117 short.

A disappointing end to the game which , at one point, looked promising for the T’s but ultimately victory went to the stronger side on the day. Some good bowling , especially from Bowman and Burman (apart from his last very expensive over) and an excellent fielding display were the highlights . Tea was a big disappointment especially as this was once considered one of the best on the circuit. 

As far as the league position goes I think this now means the T’s slip into the bottom third. We should however  be safe from relegation and next week take on local rivals Teddington at Broom Rd.