A long and ultimately frustrating day at North Middlesex began with losing the toss and being put into bat. After 2 days of rain parts of the outfield were waterlogged causing the 3s game to cancelled and with more of the wet stuff forecast it would have been a useful toss to have won.
Another solid opening partnership from Winter and Pryde was interrupted first by a downpour and then thunder and lightning which led to an early tea. We were now playing a 39 over match. Pryde was the first to fall with the score on 77, the first of two outstanding stumpings off leg side wides. Alex Smith and Winter put on 50 for the next wicket before Smith was neatly caught at cover off some tidy leg-spin bowling. When Winter fell shortly after reaching his 50 the pressure was on the middle order to up the run rate and post a big total. Unfortunately the "Murder Squad" didn't quite fire and a flurry of wickets led to Teddington finishing on 184/8. A little disappointing after having so many wickets in hand so deep into the innings.
This was put well behind us following the opening spells of bowling from Hannah and Ladd-Gibbon. Elliot took 4/22 from his 8 overs in what should have been a match winning performance. He has helped by fine catching behind the stumps from James (after inspired captaincy), J Smith and the skipper. The ball boy Munday also took a good one at point, displaying Jordan-esque airtime. Meanwhile JLG bowled his 5 overs for a miserly 10 runs. At 47/4 North Mid were under the pump but their skipper began building a partnership with the no. 6 and slowly started digging them out of a hole. He did provide one opportunity but an outstanding effort at slip by Kennedy couldn't prevent the ball hitting the deck. The partnership continued to frustrate and began to accelerate until with only 50 needed the wickets began to come. Swanny got rid of their skipper with the help of a regulation catch by Tom Kennedy which he made look more difficult than it was. Euan bowled another great spell and had the no. 6 stumped by Baggsy. Willis took his first wicket of the season and then Swanny took another. However in the meantime their no. 8 was starting to hit big and he managed to drag them over the line to win the game by 2 wickets from the last ball of the match.
We finished (at 8pm) desolate but had fought hard in an exciting game of cricket. The first win is close and will bring a run of them.