Teddington v. 1ST XI

Team Members:

D Holt, C Peploe, S Patel, H Jones, K Nadesan, P Fallis, H Khan, L Stoughton, M Wilkin, L Parry, S Hawk

Toss:

Teddington won the toss & elected to bat

Ealing Score

Ealing 212-6  (48.2 overs)

D Holt 58

C Peploe 50

H Jones 40*

Opposition Score

Teddington CC 210-9 (66 overs)

C Peploe 4 - 65

L Parry 4-66

Result

Ealing won by 4 wickets!

Player of the match

C Peploe

Match Report

After a great chase last week, it was off to the always sunny Bushey Park to play Teddington, always a highly spirited fixture. If last week was arctic, today was a polar bear’s worst nightmare, the sun shining and shade in sparse quantities as Holty lost the toss and was invited to field first.

With the wicket far more bouncy than Ealing, both Kish and Hass enjoyed a little bit of extra pace, but found no breakthrough with the new ball. The introduction of Peps at just after quarter past 12 immediately found a wicket, a paddle sweep well taken by Kish at short fine-leg. One became two as an arm ball beat a late defence and clattered into number three’s woodwork, but it was Leigh’s first wicket that gave us the momentum back, the dangerous James Keightley well taken at slip by Peps for 37.

61-0 had become 79-3 and when Leigh removed four and five with identically thin edges through to Mylo it had suddenly become 81-5. Another duck followed with a Peps LBW, taking us to lunch at 105-6, a tremendous turnaround on a good wicket.

After the break a steady partnership put on 30, but Hass, whose second spell had both lefties floundering, picked up his first wicket with another Pepsi slip catch. Now well into the tail, dot balls were more common than runs, but the defence was finally broken, LP picking up his fourth. Peps also grabbed wicket number four a couple of overs later with a wild shot resulting in an easy stumping to leave the hosts in real trouble at 163-9, but a final wicket unbeaten partnership of 47 changed the game in the space of 10 overs. Instead of going in favourites we had let the home side get at least thirty more than they should have, and when we lost Sammy in the first over we had to refocus.

Although going at nearly six an over, we lost Beast, Mylo and Hawky before tea, going in at 91-4 to see Chelsea lift a second piece of silverware in two weeks over a sandwich and some cakes. When we resumed we needed a partnership, but Peps (50) and Holty (58) calmly accumulated us towards our target. When both fell in the space of four overs, it was potentially set for a close finish, but Jonesy and Pat took us to within 20 runs of our second win. Up until now Huw had been relatively quiet, but a few heated words saw the big shots come out of the locker, three sixes and four seeing us over the line in some style, finishing 40 not out off 26 balls.

Another great chase and ten more points to leave us six points clear at the top of the table. Sessions swung both ways, but ultimately Peps and Leigh’s spell before lunch and Holty and the big dog’s partnership after tea saw us home, with Jonesy adding a few crowd-pleasers at the end.