Defeat at The Green

Charlotte writes - On a sunny Sunday afternoon, we gathered with only one thing on our minds, could Hazel win another toss and allow us to bat first...! With numbers once again an issue, we did not relish the idea of fielding in the heat whilst trying the balance a side that could only be described as 'batter heavy'. And win the toss she did, much to the disappointment of Shepperton who were also keen to bat first. Liz and Sinead went out with purpose and started well in the first over against their strike bowler only to lose Liz in the 3rd over to the same bowler. Out went Penny, looking to build her fine innings against Hampstead, again to lose her stumps to the opening bowler. With Charlotte lacking form with the bat so far this season she adopted a different mindframe of 'stay put' and slowly started to build runs, not in the usual way but tentatively with 1s and 2s. At the other end, Sinead was again providing the anchor and was also adding to her tally with regularity which helped build Twickenham's score to 130 (ish) with both Sinead and Charlotte passing 50 in quick succession. The opening bowler then came back on to put an end to Sineads excellent innings with a slower ball. In came Hazel and out went Hazel thanks to a very suspect 2nd run, called by Charlotte via a deflection off the stumps. Georgie came in, we set ourselves the target of 180 and ended with 190 thanks to some exhausting running in the final over.
>
> After a lovely tea we went out knowing that we would have to bowl tightly in the early overs and try and take early wickets. Both objectives were achieved with Bron restricting runs at one end and Sinead taking the wicket of one opener at the other. Hazel came on the see off the other opener which left our long standing nemesis ‘Queeny’ to hold the Shepperton innings together... and hold it together she did. Partners came and went but we were leaking too many runs through holes we were unable to plug. Mandy came in to partner Queeny and more or less saw them through to the end despite us finally taking Queeny’s wicket. Shepperton chased our total down with two overs to spare, despite some heroics in the field from Liz and the rest of the team.
>
> A great effort from all in tough conditions and a great fielding display from Arabella in her first game for a few years. Oh, and a heavy fines pot!