Donelan the Destroyer can’t save Twickenham from defeat against near-neighbours Richmond

Richmond        204 all out       (Jordan McClennan 57, Pat Bour 51, Andy Donelan 3-23)

Twickenham    107 all out       (Tom Meredith 23, Phil Walker 22, Steve Stacey 4-47)

Poor batting led to Twickenham slipping to their first Sunday league defeat of the season.  Inspired bowling from the Wounded Giraffe (Andy Donelan – 3-23) kept Richmond down to an eminently gettable 204, but the Ts’ batting imploded to a leave the hosts well off the pace.

Richmond took first knock on a flat and placid track on Twickenham Green.  Well over 500 runs had been scored on it the day before and with temperatures up in to the high 20s there seemed every chance that it’d be another day for batting.  The Ts nonetheless made a promising start with the ever-reliable Sultan of Swing, Richie Saunders, picking up a couple of early wickets – Garth Borain providing an early candidate for Champagne Moment (or the ‘Jonty Moment’ as Saturday 5^ths skipper Hinai Dassani might phrase it) with a super catch to remove opener Alex Hall at mid-wicket.  Extra drama was added to the occasion as, from afar, it almost looked like Borain’s efforts were causing him to – in Andy Donelan’s words – lactate blood; on closer inspection, however, it became clear that a nasty cut on the elbow had seen a bit of claret end up on the big South African’s chest.  Whilst Borain quickly went off to clean himself up, Richmond’s OP, skipper Jordan McLennan (57), began steadying the ship.  In conjunction with Patrick Bour (51), McLennan saw Richmond pass the 100 mark without too much further ado. 

This decent partnership prompted Ts’ skipper Tom Meredith to around his troops in  search of a Golden Arm.  Indeed, when captains are in need of wickets, they tend to look for someone with that midas touch to get things back on the straight and narrow; that special bowler who somehow seems to pick up wickets against the odds.  Never in living memory has a Twickenham skipper in this situation even got close to turning to Giraffe (the Wounded) to fulfil such a task – but perhaps Meredith knows something that everyone else doesn’t, as Andy Donelan began weaving his webs of deceit from the Hampton Road End.  Bour was the first to go, stumped.  He was (very) quickly followed by both Jamie Carter (0) and Luke Martin (0) as the WG wrought carnage on the unsuspecting Richmond middle order.  Donelan’s 3-23 complimented the excellent efforts of Matt Bendelow (2-24) and the almost permanently unlucky Garth Borain (1-26 off 7) in reining the visitors in, and ultimately 204 was by no means a decent score to be trying to knock off.  Special mentions also needed to Nihal ‘buckets’ Tomar for his two neatly taken catches, and also to the evergreen Steve Ovett look-a-like Phil Walker, for bowling a very tidy three overs from the Hampton Road End.

The tea was another of John Freeman’s finest; nice pieces of chicken, some tasty potato salad plus all of the usual staples.  Excellent stuff.

The Ts started their chase with Meredith and Donelan, returning to the day job of opening the batting.  Donelan, however, will no doubt remember this game for his bowling exploits rather than his batting ones; Kshitij Desai bowled him for 0.  Matt Bendelow, batting at three, looked solid enough, but batting can be a cruel pastime, with one false shot and you’re on your way; he edged Steve Stacey to second slip and departed for 1.  Meredith and number four Dan Hough briefly looked like they might be able to rebuild things for the Ts, but once Meredith (23) had edged behind and Hough (16) had perhaps unluckily been adjudged LBW the wheels began to fall off.  The in form Nihal Tomar did his best to hang around, but wickets tumbled around him and the Ts went from 52-3 to 59-7. 

Phil Walker looked to at least try and bring a touch of respectability to proceedings, blocking the straight ones and carving the wide ones to various parts of the ground, and his 22 did much to carry the home side up to the 100 mark and provided plenty of enjoyment for those watching on the veranda.  ‘Knuckles’ Vishvanath also hung around for as long as he could, but it was ultimately left to the every-enthusiastic Rishi Mahimkar to take the idea of carving the ball in to the outfield to a whole new level and the Ts past 100.  Who knows, if Rishi had not had to run with his box somewhere around his left knee cap then Twickenham may even have made 120. 

But, it was not to be, and when Mahimkar slapped the ball straight to mid on stumps were drawn and the Ts had come second by 97 runs.  Although the Ts kept at it well in the field, Richmond ultimately came out worthy winners, with Desai (2-21), Martin (3-15) and Stacey (4-47) the star performers with the ball.  Next week sees the Ts return to cup action when they take on either South Hampstead or Ickenham in the Middlesex Cup.