Ealing 4th XI vs Wembley 3rd XI

Ealing 4th XI where in great spirits on our journey to the Imperial Sports Ground for a home match vs Wembley CC, hoping to bump into top notch QPR talent such as Joey Barton, Bobby Zamora and Niko Krancjar. Then we realised non of these players still play for QPR and had to settle for Karl Henry and Jamie Mackie.

Anyway back to the cricket, Ealing CC lost the toss and were put into bat. With the weather cloudy and the wicket green once again. (I am sure we are registered as a lawn bowls team), we got cracking.

Bosworth opened the batting with Siddique and we subsequently lost 4 wickets for 11 runs, with Dilleigh and Chowdry also succumbing to some accurate bowling from the Wembley opening pair. Leaving a lot of work to do to set a competitive total on this wicket.

But then the fightback began, Sajee fresh from scoring 40 last week took the game to Wembley hitting a fine 47 with support from Roebuck Williams and Holbe. Roebuck Williams was caught and Sajee holed out at cow corner to leave the score at 81/6. Holbe & Paynter steadied the ship, attacking the spinners taking the score from 81/6 to 115/7 before loosing Holbe for 28.

An 8th wicket stand of 112 then ensued in the final 14 overs with Paynter & Patel taking apart the bowling scoring 73 & 38 respectively. A couple of run outs in the last over left Ealing at 220 all out. Who would have though that after falling 11/4 in the first 8 overs!

Ealing CC all out for 220 in 44.5 overs – Wembley to chase in 221 in 45 overs 


Wembley CC had an uphill battle to chase down the 221 needed for victory with 4.9 runs per over required. (4.9111111r to be precise)

There are 30+ words/phrases available to describe rain in the English language but I will go with "a plethora of liquid sunshine" began to fall as play restarted.

Bosworth and Moule opened the bowling but with the ball quickly becoming wet and with the swing waining as the precipitation took hold, Wembley's opening batsmen got to 70 without wicket.

Then Patel and Dillegh took over and Dilleigh took 4 wickets in quick succession bowling accurately taking advantage of the dampening wicket. With Patel taking 3 wickets at the other end, we had pegged them back! A great effort by Dilleigh and Patel!

When Wembley CC's opener finally fell for 70 lbw to Dilleigh and Patel took the 9th wicket. The final pair needed to fend off 9 overs to draw the match. The tail enders were playing positively with Paynter bowling fast and aggressively and Bosworth well….bowling.

The overs were ticking by quickly, 40 overs in and the tension increasing. Bosworth bowling a full ball which was chipped straight back.....Jamie Mackie’s heart was in his mouth………Dropped! Leaving the skipper visibly confused and hoping someone would say "that would have been a stunner if you took that" unfortunately no one did as he just dropped a sitter!

But not to worry....2 more overs ticked by with no chances until a off stump ball was skied to point off Bosworth with Chowdry taking a great catch. There was a mixture of relief (mainly the skipper) and celebration for the team.

A great performance by Ealing 4 XI to follow up last weeks win vs Kenton. Fourth in the league going into an away game vs Middlesex Tamil Sports & Social Club on Saturday.