The traditional Sunday opener at Englefield Green on 14 April went very much the way of the hosts. A Twickenham side of eclectic (and very rusty) talent never really got out of first gear and were subsequently roundly beaten.

Phil Smith to the rescue
Phil Smith may well be diminutive in stature, but it's a good job he stood tall at Englefield Green. His stubborn 41 was the mainstay of Twickenham's 105 as the visitors struggled to come to terms with the challenges of batting in mid-April.

"We just never got to grips with the challenging conditions" mused Hinay Dassani to ESPN after the game "and the regular clatter of wickets meant that we made life way to easy for our hosts". Smith's dogged knock to one side, the only contribution of note came from The Big Tackle (Stuart Amos); his 20 did at least ensured that Twickenham made it in to three figures.

105 was nonetheless never likely to be enough and Englefield Green chased the total down with around 15 overs to spare. Rajeep Choudhry claimed his first wicket of the season along the way, but ultimately that was it in terms of Twickenham highpoints in the field.

Man of the match subsequently goes to Phil Smith. Indeed, there's a decent case to be made that there would have basically been no match at all had he not been there.

We move on to next week.