Rain
deprives Twickenham of victory at
Acton in
season-opener
Acton -
198-8 in 40 overs
(D. Fyfe 50, R. Nell 43no, P. Cassidy 2-31)
Twickenham - 100-0 in 15 overs (J-P Cronje 56no,
D. Hough 36no)
Twickenham CC’s 1st XI started the
2008 season in encouraging fashion at the Park Club against old
rivals Acton on 19th April.
Acton
managed a respectable 198-8 off their 40 overs.
However, Twickenham were making excellent progress towards
their target when the rains came to deprive new skipper Carlos
Nunes’s men of victory.
Playing cricket in
England
in April is – in case anyone is in any doubt – not for the faint
hearted. Three jumpers,
thermal underwear and a lot of staying power were pre-requisites for
the hardy cricketers of Acton and Twickenham as the 2008 campaign
creaked into life in what felt like Arctic conditions.
Twickenham’s side had a familiar look about it,
the only noticeable changes from the 2007 promotion winning team
being the replacement of Kiwi Pete Carey with Queenslander Grant
Hughes and the absence of old stager Jon Varney (who has retired to
the golf course). He
was replaced by debutant Michiel Vosloo. Vosloo was immediately brought into the action, opening the
bowling alongside the old warhorse Justin Scriven.
Acton
openers Fyfe and Hunt began hesitantly but both players quickly
demonstrated that if the ball was there, they’d give it a whack.
Hunt in particular took the initiative with some nice drives,
seeing off both Scriven and Vosloo in the process. Mark Ryan and
Paul Cassidy replaced them and it was the metronomic Cassidy that
made the breakthrough, Hunt cutting into the hands of a frozen Grant
Hughes at point. 47-1
became 48-2 when Keith Hunt, batting at three, was removed by Mark
Ryan for 1. The Ts went
on the attack, keeping plenty of catchers in the attempt to make
further inroads into the Acton order.
Fyfe decided that the best from of defence was
attack, as he began striking some lusty blows down the ground.
However, he too succumbed to Cassidy for 50 (61 balls) as
Acton
began to wobble a little.
When J-P Cronje removed McKee (stumped by the agile Nunes)
for 13, Acton looked as if they’d struggle to make
150. However, their
middle order ensured that they managed considerably more than that,
as South African Nell (43no) and Ghumra (39) led the charge.
Hughes bowled some encouraging leg breaks and was unlucky not
to have Nell caught in the covers, whilst Warwick Paull bowled a
nice little spell (including two maidens) from the pavilion end.
Acton’s
final total of 198 looked like it could be a testing target.
The outfield was slow and scoring five an over to win the
game would be a nice little test of Twickenham’s ability to finish
games off. Ts’ openers
Dan Hough and J-P Cronje subsequently knew that they’d have to keep
the scoreboard ticking.
They got off to an excellent start when Ahmed’s first ball was
clipped nicely to the boundary by Hough for four, and when Cronje
started crunching some pull shots through mid-wicket the Ts moved
quickly ahead of the run rate.
Although the odd ball did a little off the seam, both players
looked in decent nick.
Hough produced a couple of nice drives whilst Cronje was brutal on
anything even vaguely short.
In order to try and force a breakthrough,
Acton
skipper James Hunt mixed his bowlers up.
Spinner Rauf tried his hand from the city end, whilst the
skipper himself came on from the pavilion end.
To no avail.
Cronje and Hough continued to enjoy themselves, Cronje passing 50
with two more pulls for four as the Ts’ total eased up to the 100
mark in only the 15th over.
The openers’ fun was none the less cut short as the rain that
had been threatening all afternoon swept in.
Thoughts of sitting it out in the hope of getting a result
were quickly put on ice as play ended for the day at around 6pm.
For a first day outing, the Ts can be reasonably
happy with their performance.
Although there are always things to be worked on, the cobwebs
were blown away and the Ts can go into next week’s friendly with Old
Ruts in a positive frame of mind.
Let’s just hope that the weather warms up a bit …
