Week 3 Roundup - 3's with the only win of the weekend

We won the toss on an ominous looking day, and decided to have a bat on a decent looking wicket. Murray (20) fell first however Holmes (39) and Fahrenheim batted sensibly, taking the ones and punishing the bad balls. They put on 72 before Holmes fell and then Flowers (5) soon after. 108-3 going pretty well. Nicoll (28) came and after a few shots went. Fahrenheim produced the knock of the season so far, hitting some lovely lazy bombs over the club house before swinging so hard he pulled his back out. Very unfortunate as he eventually fell for 96 and with 5 overs still to play was set to add another 30 odd. Some plinking from Hewton (15) and W Nicoll (19*) saw us to a respectable 241, a vast improvement from last weeks innings at Eastcote. Brand (3-36) again bowled very well with the new rock, knicking off their dangerous skipper to 1st slip in his first over. The ever reliable Hughes (1-19) gave nothing through his 10 overs. Teddington were 34-4 and we were on top. The rain came however we never went off and the ball became very hard to bowl with. Teddington batted well and put on 100 for the 5th wicket, their no 5 scoring a quality 113. T Nicoll (2-34) bowled well however some good batting against Carroll (0-47) and Bird (2-78) always kept Teddington above the rate. Wickets kept falling however and when their centurion fell for the 9th wicket, it left 10 and 11 at the crease needing 22 still to win. Game on. Unfortunately ill-discipline with the ball at the end, partly caused by a wet ball saw them win. A high standard game of cricket which could have easily gone both ways, fine margins. A disappointing start win 1 win and 2 loses however it could easily have been 3 wins. We are getting in good positions just need to be sharper in the crucial moments. Better availability and more training needed.

With one point from the opening two fixtures, NM were desperately seeking a change of fortunes at Bushy park. Mills lost his third toss in as many games, and with some weather around we were stuck in. Unbelievably within 15 minutes of the start 8 of our cricket bags were currently working their way along the north circular in Rogers van. Some careful negotiations allowed a delayed start. A steady opening partnership was broken when Banks picked out wide long on. Luke looked in fine form with a couple of glorious cover drives before receiving a good one and nicking off. Medway broke his toe sprinting back for a third run, clearly ruffled he holed out soon after. Following the dismissal of Cracknell the captain joined overseas player Barrow with the Mid staring down the barrel at 40 for 4. Clearly inspired by the form of Virat Kohli for RCB, Mills starting teeing off and was 50 not out off 20 at drinks. Some sensible strike rotation from Barrow enabled us to tick along at over 6 an over, 250 looked on the cards. Unfortunately the following 10 overs was our season in a nutshell. Some comical dismissals, including being bowled leaving an off spinner, being run out off a no ball meant we stumbled to 180 for 9. Thankfully Bennny Owen smashed 30 not out and gave us something to bowl at, 213 all out. On a decent wicket, we knew that the margin for error on this deck was small. In the next 4 overs we got it horribly wrong. Both sides of the wicket, short, wide, too full, a diabolical start enabled Teddington to reach 65 for none off the first 24 balls. The evergreen Yorkshireman Jim Old-man, dragged it back and picked up the first scalp in a tidy 3 over spell. With the rain falling and Teddington well on top Mills persuaded the umpires to go off so we could re group. On resumption, we looked a different team. A beautiful spell from promising youngster Harris dragged us back into it and he was desperately unlucky to not pick up a wicket. Debutant Townon, playing with a double fracture to his index finger bravely picked up a couple of LBWs and before you know it the game was in the balance at drinks. Unfortunately dropped catches, missed run outs and too many extras allowed their number 6 to bring up a decent 50. In a last throw of the dice, Mills brought on wild card Holman and he responded with two big wickets. Ultimately it made little difference and Teddington were worthy 5 wicket winners. Unfortunately we continue to make the same mistakes, we are yet to bat our overs and we are bowling far too many wides. We are deservedly bottom and we need to improve fast to start moving up the table.

Under the stewardship of the third different captain in as many games the 3s arrived at Teddington in record time with a full hour to warm up. However the van carrying the kit bags for the 2s and 3s only arrived at 12.45pm so both teams' batting order was dictated by those who had kit. Lakey opened up with Gaurav against some very good seam bowling at one end and some average spin bowling at the other and began steadily knowing that early wickets could cause carnage with only 4 players with pads. Gaurav fell after a few boundaries and Mikey Edwards started solidly. The kit can then arrived to everyone's relief before Lakey left a straight one and walked before the inevitable finger raise with the score on 47. Skipper Shep joined Mikey and the pair set the foundations of a good partnership. Lots of 1s and 2s later Mikey brought up his fifty before Shep fell attempting the first real slog to end a valuable stand worth almost 130. Some late order hitting and suicidal running got the Midd past 200 to finish on 208/7 off the 45 overs. Excellent opening spells from the returning Will Smith alongside Phil Victor kept runs to a premium whilst nabbing a few wickets, with Will bowling one particular magic ball which pitched on middle and hit the top of off. That left Teddington at 40/5 from 15 and the Midd looked comfortable. The home team then fought back scoring 90 without loss from the next 15 overs to get themselves right back in with a chance. With Will Smith bowling his whole allocation up front (12-4-37-3) Shep turned back to Phil Victor for his final 3 overs (thanks to Lacey's advice) and the aggressive South African was the trump card bowling 3 maidens, getting a wicket in two of them to put the visitors back on top. Some very good death bowling from Gaurav and Sam Masud kept the runs tight despite at least seven catches going down and Teddington needed 33 from the last 3 overs, 9 wickets down. Happily that was out of their reach and the Midd came home on the fun bus winners by 10 runs.

This was painful. After South Hampstead surprisingly chose to bat first on a very green track, Boots and Usman were soon into their top order. With South Hamps looking to pump at every opportunity, Usi was in his element, eventually picking up four wickets in an excellent 10 over spell. That set the scene for the arrival of our guest star – Dre. Once the XJ6 had rolled into the car park and he got himself onto the pitch, tied his laces, strapped his boots and declared himself ready, there was predictable carnage. The South Hamps batters simply couldn't handle that booming inswinger as he cleaned up the rest of the innings to take 5 for 16. All out for 98. There were 18 overs to bat before tea but that was time enough for the 4s to lose 6 wickets as Ibrahim bowled full and straight. Only Richard Verity held firm as the collapse continued after the break. There was some brief hope as Dre set about the bowling in his distinctive style but it wasn't to be. Ibrahim finished with 6-for and we were all out for just 81, an innings that included three golden ducks and a few 'interesting' decisions. Yet again, our batting let us down.