Twickenham V - 235 for 5 in 45 overs (Parab 65no, Shidlagatta 44)
Edmonton III - 162 AO in 43.2 overs (Abbas 67, Zafar Ali 4 for 10)

Twickenham win by 73 runs

Venue: Broom Road , Teddington
Date: Saturday August 19'th 2017
Type of match: 1987 League division 3 , 45 overs per side

Following hot on the heels of a very creditable performance last week against second place Acton the Ts knew this weeks game against Edmonton, bottom of the table but within striking distance, was the first of the 'must-win' games if relegation to division 4 of the 1987 League is to be avoided. Well I can happily report that after casting a team horoscope at midnight on friday the stars aligned, the wind was in the right direction , the cards fell correctly, the tea-leaves looked good and we came out on top by quite a hefty margin thanks to excellent batting from , in particular, Burke, Shidlagatta, Parab and Turish and quality bowling from Zafar Ali allied to a strong fielding performance from all, bar the odd mishap.

From the outset I would like to point out that Edmonton only had nine players, with only 8 on the field for the first 5 overs, as two of their number failed to turn up at their meet-point. As I said earlier, the stars were in alignment to make our task easier than it may have been, although the skipper did not think this was the case when he turned up to check out the ground earlier in the morning. Following the heavy rain on friday the , uncovered, track was , frankly, in a mess and this needed some emergency rolling, Raj Patel volunteering to take the driving duties, just before the start of the game to flatten out the wormcasts and general imperfections in order to make it playable. Fortunately, a combination of some early Ts arrivals and the opposition turning up late gave us enough time to really work on the track as the sun and wind also played their part in drying it out. There was nothing that we could do with the outfield though which was damp and the grass slightly too long.

The first car load of Edmonton players arrived at 12:25 and the toss was conducted immediately , despite their skipper not being present, with a delayed start agreed upon. Walker lost and the stand-in skipper, also a Walker (Richard , but not that one older Ts members), had no hesitation in wanting to field first, on the now flat yet soft track, despite only having 4 players at the ground. Fortunately for him the second car turned up in time to allow the travelling team to take the field , at the agreed start time, with 8 players and the promised arrival of anywhere between 1 and 3 stragglers.

So the Ts took first hit with Donelan doing a double-take upon discovering his opening partner was to be none other than Pete Burke who had just completed the second stint on the roller, taking over from Patel. Walker used his gambling instinct to select Burke for this role based on nothing more than a hunch and the fact that the last, and only, time he opened for the fives , 4 years ago, he cashed in heavily with a 125 run-feast. With a seasons average of 5 this did not look promising but Burke rose to the occasion pretty well.

It was very slow going early on with the ball keeping low and jagging around with some swing in evidence too as the dark clouds gathered overhead. The Ts bats looked skywards on more than one occasion as it looked like rain was imminent which was not what we needed, the track almost certainly not able to take much more punishment from the elements. Despite only having 8 fielders on the pitch for 5 overs, and 9 thereafter, the Ts found these remote men in white with unerring accuracy and runs were most certainly not flowing.

Unfortunately Donelan perished to a very low delivery in the tenth over, with the score on 17, that took his stumps as the home side appeared to be bogged down. The wind ,which had managed to blow away the rain clouds , was also instrumental in drying out the track which made batting easier and gradually Burke and Shidlagatta started to take charge. There was a comedy moment 2 overs into the incoming bats innings as he ran off the pitch at the end of an over and headed straight to the changing rooms. "I forgot my box" he said as he ran past the startled Ts on the boundary. Not quite up there with Sanchez forgetting to put on his pads, and not realising until it was pointed out to him whilst just about to take guard, a couple of years ago but not far off.

Anyhow Burke and Shidlagatta started to dab the ball into gaps caused by the lack of numbers in the field and singles were taken regularly with byes and wides also starting to contribute to the Ts total, and even boundaries started to appear in the scorebook. This partnership realised 60 runs before Burke (26), surely on his way to another century, was caught behind in slightly controversial circumstances which were entirely of our own making. The batsman did not stay around to argue but he did point out to the (our ) umpire the bowlers back foot was so far wide of the return crease it could not have been anything other than a no-ball. Maybe the celestial alignments were starting to unravel?

Not a bit of it as Parab joined in and continued where Burke had left off by hitting the ball into spaces and running, the favoured area being between point and the non-existent slip-cordon as nobody was positioned there apart from a fielder who had turned his ankle and was not the most mobile. It took 23 scoring shots before Parab hit his first boundary , a very atypical innings but one , along with Shidlagatta, which showed great game management as runs were there to be taken in ones and twos as finding the boundary through the long grass was definitely the harder option.

This partnership (45) ended when Shidlagatta (44) ,in jug-avoidance mode, lost concentration and he failed to deal with a ball which bounced twice before hitting his pads to be adjudged LBW. Nevertheless it was a stylish and important innings. Foster (11) looked comfortable but he fell to a stunningly nonchalant catch at deep extra-cover. The ball was hit powerfully and was odds on to reach the boundary but the Edmonton fielder, Irshad, just stuck out a hand and somehow managed to take it cleanly despite it looking to have gone past him.

Despite this magnificent catch the away side appeared to be struggling to keep up a positive outlook as runs were flowing as the Ts had reached 160 with 9 overs and 6 wickets remaining. The aggressive Turish was straight into his stride as he forced Parab to run a couple of threes and with extras mounting rapidly Twickenham were very much in the box seat. With confidence flowing Turish even attempted a Dilshan scoop over his shoulder but this ended in hillarity, one the visiting Thorne clan enjoyed, as he misjudged the trajectory and fell over as the bowler appealed for LBW. I am not sure what part of the body the ball hit, as the batsman was prone at the time, but the appeal was rejected. Probably not the best shot to select on a low bouncing track but I admire your chutzpah my good man.

Parab passed his fifty, celebrated by striking a huge six and Turish was run out for a very breezy 22 bringing Patel to the non-strikers end for the last ball of the innings. A single was taken, Parab ended on a very decent 65 not out and the Ts closed on 235 for 5 with our second highest scorer being Mr Extras (51). A very valuable contribution there thank you very much.

As you can imagine tea was a very enjoyable affair as the home side had just posted their highest score of the season, albeit against a short-sided opponent, and the rain clouds had blown away meaning a result was going to be obtained. As always the Tomar production was a top affair with , once again, the spicy pasta being the star of the show. Maybe not quite as exotic as the pholourie we had up at Edmonton , my top treat of the season for away teas, but a very decent spread and one that all the away teams have commented on favourably.

The home skipper almost lost it when an Edmonton player enquired if we had any coffee but thanks to some deep breathing and a mindfulness mini-meditation exercise involving dolphins the moment passed without incident.

With Edmonton effectively starting the innings on 0 for 2, with no further club members arriving to bolster numbers, and a strong looking Ts bowling attack the smart money was on the home side. Whilst Sanas did not produce as hostile a spell as seen in the previous game he certainly kept the batsmen quiet and was first to strike thanks to a good catch from Foster at short-cover who held on to a powerfully struck drive. With Ali probing at the other end with his tricky , and deceptively fast, swinging , dipping deliveries the away side were finding it hard to score despite the by-now dry track.

Wickets began to tumble thanks to accurate Ali bowling hitting the stumps with the key-wicket of the dangerous skipper, Mahmood, going for a golden duck to set up a hat-trick opportunity. This feat eluded Sanas last week at Acton and sadly the same happened for Ali although he did at least make the batsman play at the ball. However the number 4, Abbas, was proving to be a thorn in the side and whilst wickets were falling he remained dangerous and grew in confidence.

One subject of conversation in 'the office' was Walker telling Burke that Ali's bowling stats on play-cricket made very interesting reading due to the high-percentage of LBW victims. In this particular game he did his best to adjust those stats as his 4 wickets were all clean-bowled as all appeals for lbw were rejected out of hand. The Edmonton bats were definitely glad to see the back of him as he bowled his ten overs straight through to end with figures of 6 maidens, 4 for 10. An excellent spell which was both attacking, positive and parsimonious (will you allow me the same adjective twice in successive reports? Promise I won't go for three weeks on the trot) which really set us up nicely.

Meanwhile Turish took over from Sanas just as the Edmonton middle order of Abbas and Ahmed mounted some serious resistance. Some powerful hitting saw the score rise but with few wickets remaining and the required rate remaining high the task looked to be beyond them. Turish failed to take a wicket for the first time this season and Burke returned to his day job of bowling swinging deliveries, with Parab's legspin being deployed following a brisk second spell from Sanas, the latter ending an over earlier than expected when the scorers intimated he had bowled his allotted ten even though the skipper and bowler thought, nay , knew otherwise. Incompetence and confusion rather than sharp-practice I think.

Parab's spell was tidy and he managed to keep a lid on the dangerous bats as the outside chance of an away victory was always present, however slim it may have seemed. The fielding was determined and also stylish. The latter quality was exhibited in spades by Sanchez who trapped a fiercely struck shot dead at square leg with the deft use of his left foot and the former by poor old Shidlagatta who got his studs stuck in the grass and he took a painful looking tumble whilst attempting, at full pelt, and failing to stop the ball crossing the long-on boundary.

We also have to thank Raj Patel for a very tidy spell behind the stumps as he kept the fielding extras down due to a combination of good glove work , very quick feet and superior agility.

Burke removed the danger men, bowling Abbas (67) and catching, with a very impressive jump and hang technique, Ahmed (28) to snuff out the threat and Parab wrapped up proceedings with a C&B of his own as Edmonton fell 73 runs short and the Ts claimed a very much needed ten points.

In all the frenzied excitement of this crucial victory we managed to drop and break the china bowl that was the container for the cocktail sausages (sorry Nihal) and then make a bit of mess of reversing the roller back into the shed. The door frame just about withstoood the battering it took but I am not sure the old table did . The roller seemed to be3 times faster in reverse than it was going forward and we ended up having to hit the kill switch to stop it taking out the wall and appearing in the kitchen unnanounced. Apologies to the next person who uses this as it is going to be a real problem to get it out of the shed as I suspect there will not be enough space to pull the rip-cord. Oh well it may well be us as we are at home next week too.

We travelled back to the Green hoping that all the other sides had won and we could claim the Chairmans free beer but this was not forthcoming as sadly the Twos were this weeks party poopers after we had filled that role last week. Instead we had the usual fun and games and cheered on the Threes as they discovered at @22:00 that results had gone their way and they had achieved promotion at the first time of asking back into Division Two of the County League.

Nobody came to claim their beer following the Led Zeppelin song-title based quiz contained in last weeks match report so Dan Taylor wins by dint of the fact he messaged about 6 titles on the whatsapp social group in the week. Nobody else had the gumption to build on that public service by adding a couple of guesses so the beer goes to Dan. If anybody is interested there were 19 songs contained in the report. No anagrams, puns or wordplay.

Paul Mcloughlin bravely suggested, via email, the answer to the Pink Floyd question was 'Hibernating Giraffe' but this was not the case although I do like your thinking. Anyway I suspect this was probably an unreleased Syd Barrett solo number.

So with 2 games to go , and the way other results went, it appears the Fives need one more win to be completely safe from relegation. Next week sees us take on Stanmore IVs at Broom Road in what is likely to be a tense encounter. Tune in to see how it went.

Phil Walker