Twickenham’s third XI had to wait a day for the Week 4 encounter with Brondesbury III, trekking over to Harman Road on Sunday 30th May. A journey fraught with unexpected problems saw the start of the game delayed by over two hours, but once things got up and running Brondesbury dominated proceedings. Dan Hough (34) and Dom Thamby (23no) offered a bit of stubbornness with the bat whilst Ali Jennings and Kan Uppal helped themselves to two wickets apiece. Bron nonetheless cantered home by six wickets.

Trouble en route
The trip to Cricklewood from Twickenham Green generally takes around 45 minutes. On Sunday, well, it didn’t. For nine of the TCC line up it took something akin to three hours. Ali Jennings and Firooz Ahmad were the exceptions; they cruised through and were in NW2 on time. Everyone else got stuck on a soon-to-be-closed North Circular.

Mo Ahmad was furthest on when two a motorbike crash happened. He’d just got past Ikea in Wembley and had a decent view of two air ambulances landing a few hundred yards in front of him. Dom Thamby and guests were a couple of hundreds behind Ahmad, and they were followed by Team Tomar plus Oli George. All were within a few hundred metres of each other, all were well and truly stuck.

Eventually, the side eeked its way through the masses of traffic and one by one they pulled into Brondesbury’s impressive home ground on Harman Drive. By 14h20 (scheduled start time 12h00) stand in skipper Dan Hough was tossing the coin and deciding to have a bat. Every respect to the Bron players for not showing outward grumpiness at what must have been a frustrating period waiting for their opponents to turn up.

Under the cosh
Once the cricket got going, tight bowling kept run-scoring to a minimum. Hough and Prabhu Dhev played and missed a bit, but they also managed to rotate the strike and just occasionally pounced on a bad ball.

One of those bad balls nonetheless did for Dhev as he chased a wide one and snicked behind. Oli George came and went without troubling the scorers, leaving Mo Ahmad to join Hough at the crease. They did their best to fight back and offered what ultimately was the Ts’ most productive part of the game. 66-2 and the Ts were not in the worst of positions.

But, things quickly drifted from there. Ahmad departed for 11 (24 balls), whilst Ali Jennings, Nihal Tomar and Kan Uppal all came and went without much ado. The leg spin of Tanay Avad was now causing a number of serious problems and his 5-22 was well deserved.

Dom Thamby provided the only ray of hope, and the T-Rex batted nicely for his 23no (40 balls). Chris Wylde boshed one nice four over square leg before departing the scene, stumped by the impressive Adam Mayer. Firooz Ahmad thrashed away and Ozzie Qavi did his very best to survive, but they both eventually succumbed leaving Thamby high and dry and the Ts on 109.

Mayer Mashes it
The Ts knew that if they were going to win the game then they need to quickly get in the wickets. Firooz Ahmad charged in from the Scoreboard End whilst Thamby started things off from the Pavilion End. Lines were generally good, batters were generally circumspect.

It was only when Kan Uppal came on that anything appeared in the wickets column, Uppal taking a neat caught and bowled to remove Zain Ali for 21. 48-0 then quickly became 60-4 as Uppal bowled Patel and Ali Jennings trapped a couple of batters leg before. Now was the time for the Ts to really try and turn the screw.

Keeper-batsman Mayer was nonetheless having none of it. He became increasingly aggressive and what little hope the visitors had ebbed away as Mayer drove with quite some panache. His 66no was a decent effort. Bowling-wise, the Ts did what they could but ultimately they lost because they didn’t have enough runs on the board. That’s a problem affecting a significant number of TCC sides. Something to work on before the next round of games.

The Ts welcome Uxbridge IIIs to Broom Road in Week 5. Onwards and upwards.