Rohempton CC and Croydon in top of the table thriller

The week when the rains had dominated the headlines in the cricket World Cup, the Roehampton 1st XI assembled at the Heath to take on Croydon CC who were on our tails in the league.

Fingers were crossed by the team for the toss to be won - deads was the call by oppo skipper and heads it came down as. The lucky coin has not been lucky all season, however, as the last 6 weeks went well even though not winning the toss so I didn’t take much notice of it. Croydon put us into bat and got rewarded early on as Saqib fell facing his first ball of the day. JP joined Sticky in the middle and built a foundation for us in difficult pitch conditions. Sticky got out on a well fought 22, Kish carried on from last week playing watchfully for his 24.

Phil and JP then started putting the pressure on the oppo fielding by taking singles and doubles only for Phil to be stumped on 11. No one else got going at the end of the innings as JP kept on playing classy shots, falling in the end on 99 as he tried to push on to get us to that psychological 200 mark. This didn't happen in the end, as Croydon came back strongly taking regular wickets at the end of the innings. We batted for 50 overs ending on 180/9. This meant Croydon needed 181 in 45 overs.

Whilst the players had their tea break and the club day juniors poured on to the outfield to enjoy some quick cricket and catching competitions. Out first club day, organised by Mods and Elaine with the help of Rich, Josh, Helen and Harry Purnell, saw lots of new and old faces around to barrack for the 1s in this top of the table clash with Croydon.

After tea, we took the field with the intent of taking the 10 wickets but we knew it was not going to be easy as Croydon were a team that would not go down without a fight. We started with the old ball to see if we can catch them off guard but plans didn’t go as we wanted them to. Mo and Umer got their numbers 2 and 3 out as the oppo made it to 50. Ron took over from the forest end and kept a tight line and finished with 2 very important wickets. JP and Jono made the most of the spinning conditions and with JP taking the wickets that got us at their tailenders and Jono taking over from Ron to keep the runs down bowling tightly from one end we got them down to 9 wickets (JP - 3 wickets, Jono - 1 wicket)

Croydon who were now batting for time saw the winning draw through, finishing on 166/9. 7 wins from 7 games would have been fantastic, but it was not to be, however we go again next week undefeated in the season.

Player of the Match
JP with a solid 99 and finishing with 3 wickets