Teddington 1st XI vs Ealing 1st XI, 14th May, 2016

After a fantastic start to the season in week 1, week 2 saw us back at Bushy Park to host an Ealing side who had amassed a huge 377 runs the previous week.  On winning the toss JK invited Ealing to bat first in the hope that the rain that had fallen all week would offer some assistance to the new ball bowlers.  Jack Sever bowled nicely early on and was rewarded with two wickets but could not find a partner in crime from the other end.  Morton was pummelling the bowling to all parts and raced to a chanceless hundred.  Robbie White provided Morton with the necessary support and the two had put on 156 before Tim got White to nick one behind and give the Ozzie his first wicket of the summer.  Runs continued to flow and none of the 6 bowlers had any answers for Morton who was soon raising his bat for the fourth time of the afternoon and celebrating a belligerent double hundred.  Ealing finished on 363-6 with Morton finally falling on the last ball of the innings for a league record score of 232.

For the second week in a row we would need something special to chase down the 300+ total.  The skip came and went and it was Twiney and Fear who picked up where they had left off the week before, taking advantage of anything slightly off line.  We were well ahead of the rate when Tom went for a very entertaining 72.  Tim came in and wasted no time in adding to his nine sixes from week one.  Not yet being that familiar with the home ground and knowing a small lob wedge will get you over the rope when hitting to the 3rd XI pitch Tim tried to hit the ball to the moon and in doing so unfortunately failed to make connection and was stumped.  Regular wickets fell but James Fear stood strong and reignited the chase with a huge slog sweep over the scorebox.  We needed 11’s for the last 10 and despite all his efforts no one could stay with James long enough to make a telling contribution.  We finished on a very respectable 330-9, securing 2 bonus points in the process despite losing and James ended up with a brilliant 126*.  A few lessons learnt with both bat and ball and lots of positives to take forward.

View the scorecard