The last pre-season match for the 3s was played under sunny skies and presented a last chance for regulars to iron out the kinks in their games and new players to impress before the start of the regular season. The game however had more riding on it than a normal pre-season friendly with the opponents being local rivals Putney CC and the SW15 Cup at stake.

Batting first Roehampton openers Sej and Hassan put on a solid partnership of 49 dealing well with significant variable bounce provided by the pitch. However a couple of quick wickets brought Putney back into the game and Captain Fahad to the crease. He and Hassan stabilised the innings putting on 25, Hassan eventually bowled having made an attractive 45. Another flurry of wickets including an unfortunate run out threatened to throw off our innings. However, Fahad built a strong 6th wicket partnership with Dharmesh adding 68 to the score, first stabilising the innings and then increasing the run rate. When Dharmesh fell, Umer came to the crease adding a quick-fire 16, including plundering 3 boundaries off the 36th over. Fahad finally fell in the final over for a well made 61 and with some frantic last over running we got the score to 195-9.

At the half way point the game felt in the balance and the need for tight bowling and fielding was emphasised during the tea break. With that in mind the opening bowlers made use of the difficult pitch by bowling tight lines, conceding just 2 runs from the opening 4 overs. That pressure eventually told and Umer picked up a couple of wickets from his opening spell, leaving Putney 28-2 after 10 overs. From then on wickets began to fall at regular intervals with all the change bowlers contributing with wickets including braces for Jonathan, Sharan and Tom. Scoring remained tough for Putney’s batsmen including having to repel the odd unexpected bouncer from Roehampton’s spinners emphasising the difficulty of the pitch. This was assisted by some tight fielding despite the novel but distracting presence of low flying geese throughout the match. Putney were never able to catch up with the rate and with wickets falling regularly they were dismissed for 108 in the 31st over, completing a hefty 87 run win for Roehampton.