On a beautiful summers day the 2nd XI headed to Eastcote in search of a much needed win to kick start the season. With a much changed bowling attack, and having lost the last three games batting first, skipper Baggs won the toss and elected to bowl.
Middleton and Thorndyke started well, giving the batsmen very few scoring opportunities. Their hard work was rewarded when Middleton (2-45) trapped the French International in front of all three and in truth Eastcote never really recovered from that moment. Bullon (1-32) continued to apply pressure, racing through his 9 over allocation and was well supported by the spin twins of Smith J (2-44) and Bennett (0-38). Despite a couple of batsmen getting themselves in in the middle overs, Teddington did very well to limit the runs on what was a very fast scoring outfield. Thorndyke (4-36) returned with a brilliant spell of death bowling, taking four wickets in the process to restrict Eastcote to a nice round 200-9 from their 45 overs.
After the ‘best tea on the circuit’ the established opening pair of Pryde and Winter went about their work in their usual manor. Both batsmen passed 50 with ease, while the Teddington middle order of Smith x2, Wade and Baggs went back for more tea as they realised this was the only way were going to get a return on their £12. At this point Pryde (55) must have comprehended what he was missing out on as an uncharacteristic loss of concentration led to his downfall. However, Winter continued on his merry way and the only question that remained was would he reach his century. Osmond made a quick fire 38* that kept the race interesting, but then much to the surprise of the crowd, he blocked the last few balls of an over to allow Winter (103*) through to a chanceless century, completing the 9 wicket victory with 8 overs to spare.
This was the complete performance that we had been threatening for a few weeks and is hopefully a sign of what is to come. If we play like this every week we will certainly be up there competing for the title come September. Bring on Richmond!
Author: Alex Smith