Report by James.

The T&T 1st XI got back to winning ways with a convincing 7 wicket victory over Eversley 2.  After Wiggy lost the toss and Eversley chose to bat we approached our pre-match fielding drills with real intensity, but in Osman’s absence this proved to be a particularly shambolic affair, with numerous dropped catches, refusals & overthrows.  We decided to keep the warm-up brief and instead took the field early to watch the end of the Eversley warm-up (their fielding drills were much better organised and executed than ours, but we did notice their opening batsman playing & missing at several throwdowns which gave us some hope) and for some motivational speeches by the captain which included an official “welcome back” to the 1st XI for Crofty, although Harry’s return to 1st XI duty was apparently not worthy of a mention.

When the cricket started, Cooky & Lemmy immediately found their line & length and it was not until the start of the 3rd over that the Eversley innings got off the mark, and even then it was courtesy of a fielding mishap which had been well drilled in the warm-up.  In Jamil’s defence this was an isolated occurrence in the game, and after Ford had gloved a rising delivery from Lemmy to Phil,  Jamil took two sharp catches – one a firmly struck drive to mid-off, and then a real skyer at mid-on.  Cooky & Lemmy bowled really well with the new ball and were well backed up in the field which meant that the scoring rate was low and with wickets falling T&T were on top.  The first drinks break proved to be a real turning point as 3 wickets fell in 3 overs after the break.  Firstly Lemmy bowled Dyer behind his legs, then Cooky induced a loose shot from Edwards into Wiggy’s hands at silly mid-on and Lemmy found the edge of Hammond’s bat with James taking the catch at slip. 

With Eversley 50-6 at 20 overs they were in real trouble, but we kept reminding ourselves that we had to finish the job and not let them off the hook.  Ryder & Lazenbury then started a mini-recovery until Lazenbury chopped a short ball from Lemmy onto his stumps.  Cummings followed first ball, somehow managing to sky a defensive prod to mid-on where Cooky took a good catch.  When Lemmy took his 7th wicket by bowling Thomson it left Eversley reeling at 92-9, but some late order hitting from Ryder who ended 45no took them past three figures and the innings was ended when Cooky returned and induced an edge from Glaze with James taking the catch at slip.  Prior to that Jamil had bowled a good short spell and had been unlucky when James was unable to hold a low slip chance and Bondy had fluffed a simpler one at mid-on, but on this occasion these drops were not punished.  Bondy had gone through two or three warm-ups and had finally been given the nod to bowl the next over when Cooky took the final wicket.

T&T were left requiring 127 to win in 63 overs.  Hammad & James opened up, with Hammad starting positively although there were some slightly streaky edges off Cummings who bowled a good line & length but too many no-balls.  Hammad was yorked by Cummings for 14 with the score on 23 which brought Wiggy to the crease.  James & Wiggy took the score to 58, with James starting to drive more freely.  James survived a couple of half chances as the Eversley attack made things difficult, and eventually Wiggy chopped Dyer on to his stumps then James followed three runs later bowled whilst stuck on the crease when he should have been forward.  At 61-3 another couple of wickets could have brought some nerves, but fortunately Ash was quickly into his stride, soon followed by Jamil and the target was reached with 42.1 overs to spare.