Stanmore v. 1st XI

Match report

Team: D Holt, C Peploe, O Wilkin, N Eckersley, M Singh, H Jones, H Khan, L Stoughton, M Wilkin, L Parry, T Afridi

Ealing won the toss & elected to field (4 in a row...beyond ridiculous!)

Stanmore 154-10 (65.5 overs)

C Peploe 3-24

Ealing 155-7 (45 overs)

J Singh 53*

Result: Ealing win by 3 wickets

Man of the Match: Joey Singh

Invigorated by the mini-classic warm-up football match (4-3 to the spin team if anyone’s interested) and a seam friendly wicket, we were in the field first for the fourth week in a row. Early movement and bounce looked promising and, as expected, early wickets fell. Both openers nicked off, one to T and one to LP, before 3 and 4 started to apply themselves and saw off the new ball. Oli Wilkin came on for his first League spell in the 1s, picking up his maiden wicket in his 3rd over...Ali Fraser edging a wide one (caught Wilkin bowled Wilkin...the first of many).

Run rate became another issue for the hosts, going to lunch at 63-3 off 36 overs. After the break some more shots came out, but with the wicket still doing a lot, boundaries just didn’t come. With 10 overs left the score was barely in treble figures and wickets started to tumble in a push for a defendable total. Hass picked up his first and Oli his second, before Joey and Peps came on to claim the rest, eventually bowling Stanmore out for 154 in the 66th over.

Even though we only needed 3 an over to win, we all knew chasing on that wicket was never going to be easy. With no Sammy or Hawky, Peps was promoted to open, but the early losses of Beast and Ned meant Holty and Head Coach had to rebuild, reaching 40-2 at tea.

Needing 115 off 34 overs after tea we started well, but with the ball still seaming around and spin proving restricting, we were very wary of a rego Ealing collapse. Peps fell for 30, and when Holty and Mylo fell in quick succession to leave us 100-5, our lower middle order again had to rescue us.

Joey and Hass put on 25 and looked to be taking us home, but when Hass top edged one to point, our hosts were just four wickets away from inflicting our first defeat. Jonesy, fresh from his match-winning knock against High Wycombe, forgot his bat on walking out to the middle; but fortunately when he had it in his hand, he used it well, smashing a huge six to take us with 20 of 10 more points.

Joey continued calmly, moving onto 49 and the total to 149 before Huw was LBW for 21. Holty was pacing around nervously as Oli went out to bat, but a couple of pushes into the off side and a beautiful cover drive to take Joey to 50, saw us home by 3 wickets with 7 overs to spare. Not an easy day and a completely contrasting wicket to the ECG, but another impressive all-round performance and a sustained 12-point lead at the half way stage.

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