RCC 1s beat Guildford City 1s by 24 runs

Guildford City won the toss and in true Fullers League fashion, inserted RCC. The new opening pairing of debutante Stuart Clark and Nick Freeborn looked very comfortable against the new ball and Stuart in particular, was living up the reputation that he already has earned at RCC. Even when Guildford City’s under 19 Sri Lankan leg-spinning star (who took 36 wickets in the 7 games he played last year) came on, Nick and Stuart didn’t look in too much trouble. At 68 for none, we were looking solid, but anyone who has played for Roehampton will know, this doesn’t last and before long, we are not so comfortable at 75 for 5. Then came Phil Dorsett who by his own admission is much more comfortable against quick bowling than he is against spin, but you would never have guessed it by the way he took the Guildford city spinners apart. The Sri Lankan star, who took 7 wickets against us, had no answer to Phil, who dispatched him for 25 in 1 over, including 3 consecutive straight sixes into the Putney Heath shrubbery. When Phil fell for an excellent 50 off just 47 balls, the rest of the innings fell apart quite quickly, with only Will Hunting showing some resistance. However, we had posted 151 which was competitive, but would it be enough against a very good batting side (some of whom had played first class cricket in Sri Lanka)?

The Guildford City openers were obviously in a rush to get home to watch the champions league and were soon 40 for none off not many overs. Tom Easton and Sam Stevens stuck to it though and made the breakthrough and very soon they were 42 for 2. Then came the turn of De Wet Kruger, who followed on from last week and again bowled a magnificent spell, removing 4 of the impressive looking Guildford middle order (one of the wickets was courtesy of a one handed catch by yours truly. What made it sweeter, was that it was the same guy that I dropped twice in last years game). As it turns out, the under 19 Sri Lankan star was not just an excellent leg spinner, but was pretty handy with the bat too so tactics changed and RCC tried to play him out of the game by giving him singles and having a go at the other batsmen. This was all working out as Guildford were certainly not shutting up shop and wickets were falling at regular intervals. 7 down and in walks the Guildford skipper who at this stage thought that French cricket was the way to go and was blocking everything, relying on their star player to finish off. A suicidal run and a direct hit by Phil Dorsett saw the skipper run out and so now all the pressure was on their Sri Lankan star. Fuchsy had 1 over at 10 and 11, knowing that he would have to make some inroads whilst they were on strike, as the batsman at the other end had the potential to hit the 28 needed very quickly. Two straight deliveries had numbers 10 and 11 trapped lbw and 20 points were in the bag.

A great game, where team spirit and the will to win pushed us over the line.

Man of the match: Phil Dorsett
(report by Paul Fuchs)