Considering it was the day after the Friday of the Lord's test match, the 2s gathered at a hot dry Bushy Park in fine spirits, perhaps due to the uncharacteristic Harris Garden absences of the usual firestarters Kemp and Frewen.
Skipper Baggs lost the toss and TCC were inserted. Buoyed by a rare full night of sleep, Baggs placed himself at No 3 and set about watching Pryde and Gardiner open the batting.
Gardiner, on half an hour's sleep post cleaning loos at Wimbledon, missed a straight one in the first over and Baggs entered the fray.
After an uncharacteristic swipe straight to gully from Pryde and an unlucky drag on from Smith, Wade joined Baggs to set about a small rebuilding job. Baggs timed the ball well and Wadey made it look very easy as they rotated the strike and the partnership moved past 50.
Wadey fell caught behind trying to force the pace off one of the slower spinners we will face this season and Hicks joined Baggs, who went to his 50 shortly after. Hicks plonked the spinner down the ground three times before having to depart after being given LBW.
Stef came and went for 7 and then Baggs uncharacteristically missed out on a cut shot and plinked one to point. With us at 146-7, Highgate would have had hopes of finishing the innings quickly. Hannah and Bennett had other ideas and played both sensibly and aggressively to milk the spinners and put away the bad balls. Bennett went for 22 and Thorndyke provided some late innings fireworks to finish 18 off 11 and Hannah a well made 40 off 43. 230-8 declared off 54 - very much chaseable with a decent deck, fast outfield and short Pav side boundary.
The Highgate chase did not get off to the best start with the all rounder Hannah picking up two wickets in his first over, the first caught by Smith at first slip and the second bowled the next ball. With Harris steaming down the hill at the other end the scoring rate slowed to a crawl. The introduction of Thorndyke brought another couple of wickets in the same over, one well caught by Baggs standing up and a swirling high catch well caught by Wade. At 29-4, the scoring rate slowed to a standstill. Hannah finished a marathon spell with 12-24-2 and Thorndyke got the fifth wicket caught and bowled. Big Sam Harris took the sixth clean bowled, far too quick for the Highgate no 7.
What followed was very dull, with Highgate blocking on what turned into a slow and docile wicket. Even with aggressive field settings and innovative encouragement, Highgate stood firm as Baggs shuffled his bowlers, Stef taking the only further wicket to fall to a good stumping.
Highgate finished a pedestrian 166-7 off 47 overs. A dull 5 point winning draw for TCC.