TCC 141 for 7 in 55 overs
Acton 144 for 4 in 33 overs
The venue for this clash with the league leaders, Acton, was North Acton Playing Fields which filled us with a certain level of trepidation because generally when a ground has the words ‘playing fields’ in the title it is usually just that, a field with people playing various different sports and not just cricket. Well I can report that North Acton Playing Fields did not disappoint on the field front, in fact all it was missing was a flock of sheep nibbling away at the grass. Actually a flock of sheep might have improved the playing conditions given that shorter grass in the outfield would have helped double our score!
So when faced with a wet cabbage patch of a wicket the thing you really need to do is win the toss and bowl first. I therefore apologise to all the Teddington players involved as I lost the toss and unsurprisingly we were inserted.
We decided that survival was the main order of the day hoping that if we batted enough overs we could get some kind of score we could defend and so we set a new world record for dot balls faced as we battled away valiantly building our total around a really excellent innings from Stefan Bullon who crafted 88 not out against a bowling attack that gave us nothing. I cannot commend Stef’s innings too highly, his determination and concentration were exemplary and set a standard that sadly no-one else could match with no other batsman reaching double figures.
Acton knew how to bat on this wicket and sadly we did not bowl well enough to cause them too much trouble. Credit where it’s due – Acton bowled better than us, they fielded better than us and they definitely batted better than us. The best team won.