It was with great fanfare we returned to the spiritual cricket home of many a wonderful Pecker. Well, there would have been fanfare had the majority turned up on time. As it was it was left to the Mutley Clan to start the afternoon in suitable fashion enjoying a beer on the Clubhouse Roof watching Teddington 1st 11 play Acton in the Semifinal of a cup competition, and soon we were joined by Bomber, Tiddles and Beetle. Our wonderful skipper had moved the fixture too later in the season to try to avoid such issues but once again we were relegated to the second pitch, on the hill and with an outfield like a ploughed field. The day was further compounded by a strong wind blowing straight down the ground and down the hill, this will come into play later apparently.
Once our 11 were all ensconced within the royal deer park, and had had a look at the interesting pitch and outfield that would be our home for the next few hours, our skipper lost the toss and we were into bat on a day that threatened showers and sunshine. Thanks to our wonderful support from the Muttley, Henners, Tiddles and Spinach clans x
Great turnout from the Mutley clan -Zilli, Penelope Pitstop, Pitstop snr and lovely Harry
Bison and Mutley were sent into battle on the rather green topped surface and were soon facing some pretty good bowling from the Teddington openers, A. Talman and R. Kamakar, made all the more dangerous by the greenness of the surface, with some pretty unpredictable bounce. Bison took the bull by the horns and was trying to charge the bowlers but like a good cat kept most of his lives with 2 catches dropped in 2 balls, which the fielders say they put down due to the wind. However, having seen the shine off the new ball, the 1st changes were made, and it seemed as if Teddington kept their best bowlers for this point. On came Rob Elliot up the hill, into the wind and his consistent line and length coupled with away swing resulted in Bison skying one for the bowler to make sure of. At the other end a 3rd team bowler, Kyle Winter (a Saffa who apparently couldn’t get into the 2nds or 1sts and wanted to let everyone know) came on with great pace and accuracy and soon did for Mutley. 67 for 2 off 11 wasn’t bad though.
However, this soon became 79 for 5 after a Mutley recruit (Anthony ‘Big Mac’ MacGowan – also possibly stato) came and went as did Mama and Bombers for 4 and 5 respectively. Standard Peckers fare really.
Beetle and Butternut at the crease though staged a resurgence with the former clattering 62 off 41 deliveries and Butternut being an able assistant until he let one through. POBS joined Beetle to keep the momentum going although the latter soon holed out trying to hit his 5th six over long off into the wind and up the hill.
Wolfgang Beetle was striking some real howitzers
Spinach joined POBS, albeit not for long as our skipper was stumped having walked away from his stumps and the Teddington skipper, not believing his luck as he had dropped the ball to begin with, gladly took the bails off. POBS was sure he had been bowled much to the amazement of the watching hoards.
Spinach and Tiddles saw the innings out to a respectable 232 for 8 from our 35 overs albeit as Stato MacGowan has taken control of the iPad, 12 runs, at least, attributed to Tiddles were in fact Spinach’s. It was his first Peckers outing and an easy mistake to make.
Big Strong Spionach clan tucking into tea -Bison, Butters and Mama
Tea was a wonderful affair or sandwiches, wraps, kebabs and cakes in this glorious new clubhouse, while some rain fell which gave the bowlers some hope of rattling through this Teddington team. However, things did not go to plan. The opening pair for Teddington, K. Maheswaren and O. Shenai, strode to the crease with Spinach steaming in down the hill with the wind and Tiddles trundling up the hill into the wind. Both bowlers did their best, but a combination of poor fielding and poor ground conditions meant the openers got a good start
From Back _zilli, Pobsy, Bison, Mama, Spinach, Beetle, Butters, Tid, Mutley, Harry, Big Mac,Henners and Sam
The Teddington no 2 went serenely on clocking up runs from every bowler put in front of him. Spinach bowled his 7 overs straight, Tiddles bowled 5 and then took a breather, Bison a quick 3 and other than the 1 wicket there was very little success. Then Beetle and Bomber came on and chances came and went with a number of difficult catches put down in the field, the ball seemingly following Bison around.
Our esteemed skipped did have the chance of the innings with an easy catching opportunity spurned with a high ball going straight through his hands. Once again, the wind was to blame.. Spinach then dealt with the matter himself by bowling the offending batsmen. Big Mac also had a torrid time behind the stumps with catches spilt and 26 byes and 11 wides going past him.
The Wedding Parties -newly married Butters and Swedie, and soon to be betrothed Spinach ‘n’ Avocado
Beetle then managed to get 2 pretty quick wickets with a caught behind and a caught and bowled before Spinach had the moment of the innings. The Teddington 3’s player, Mr Winter, had strode to the crease with intent to bring the game to an early conclusion. However, having hit the ball hard to point and set off for what he thought was an easy single, he was run out by a direct hit from the ever-enthusiastic Spinach.
We hoped this would trigger a collapse but we hadn’t reckoned on the 15 year old opener , Omkar Shenai, who kept accumulating runs and other than a further caught and bowled by Bomber, after a couple more spilled catches. None of the bowlers managed to haul back the rate as Teddington stayed on the target 7 an over throughout. The Teddington innings came to victory with an over to spare and the 15 year old batsmen finishing on 97 not out, their total 233 for 5 off 33.3.
Although this was a loss, this was a far more competitive match than we had had against this opposition of late and great to see the quality of the youth coming through again. Let’s just hope next year we can get back on the main square, where we belong!!!
