RCC 1s beat Mitcham

After a short trip to Mitcham and having to wait 3 hours to cross the 3 lane road from the pavilion to the ground, the skipper continued his poor form with the coin and lost the toss again and Mitcham had no hesitation in putting RCC in on a slightly damp track. We started cautiously due to some very tight bowling by Mitcham’s opening bowler who bowled a spell of 9 overs, none for 9. After the early dismissal of Sean Farrell, Phil Dorsett joined Scott Costello and soon the rate started to pick up. Enter Mitcham’s first change bowler, who had a lot to say, but very little talent to back it up. After a good partnership by Phil and Scott and then Scott and Sacha Hatteea, RCC had a small middle-order wobble, but again it was left to RCC’s finisher, Ed “Hussey” Lynam to do what he does best, which is hit the bad balls to the boundary and make sure you run hard on the other ones and thanks to him and a great 50 by Scott Costello, we reached a very respectable 166 for 9 off our 45 overs. We knew that if we bowled well, this would be more than enough.

The now consistent opening bowling partnership of Tom Easton and Sean Farrell did a great job upfront and soon Mitcham were in a lot of trouble, also thanks to the most nonchalant one-handed catch above his head you will ever see by the supposedly injured Andy Mcleod. First change and on came Will Hunting who again had the Mitcham batsmen playing and missing at everything and soon they were 60 for 6 and looking at a heavy defeat. Mitcham’s “sledger” decided to finally come out and bat and as suspected, had no talent to back up his mouth and pretty much missed everything. In a 45 over match, he faced 79 deliveries for his paltry 11 runs and en route ran out 2 of his team mates and then eventually himself to lose the game.

Although we probably should have bowled them out for 85, a great team effort again and our fantastic start to the league season continues (and gave us another opportunity to sing the Roehampton team song in the opposition shed). Close call for man of the match this week with contributions with the bat by Scott and Ed and great bowling by Tom, Sean and Will plus 2 run outs by Ed, but for his patient and much needed 52 runs, Scott Costello was a worthy recipient.

(report by Paul Fuchs)