Bowlers produce the goods!
Yet another lovely Sunday afternoon saw Grace’s travel to Bushey Park near Kingston to play new opposition – Hampton Wick Royal Cricket club. This was a conference fixture and it proved to be a venue we would like to return to next season.
Hampton Wick are celebrating their 150th anniversary this season and have a lovely set up on the edge of Bushey park – apparently the deer from the park make an appearance on the ground in the evenings.
The toss was won and Dom chose to bat on what looked like a flat true surface. Due to late injuries Grace’s had only 10. The very youthful home team took to the pitch and immediately had us in trouble with both openers back in the pavilion – this brought Mendis and Ragan together. They both took advantage of any lose deliveries with a partnership of 72 in quick time before Ragan was bowled for a fine 50. Mendis was caught in the deep for a classy 38. After 2 quick wickets Abhi and Mahender steadied the ship batting well with 31 and 25 respectively. A late flurry saw us to a total of 190 – it’s a large ground and the home team fielded very well taking some good catches.
After a lovely tea we took to the field unsure whether our total would be enough. Ragan then proceeded to blast their top order out with some great fast bowling – at one point they were 4 wickets down for 8 runs. Dom then had the luxury of rotating the bowling (with Anosh holding down one end) to make a game of it.
Hampton Wick’s number 4 , Charlton , took the challenge up and had a very enjoyable afternoon proving he possesses a good eye in keeping their batting going almost single handed. With a combination of nice drives and improvisation he compiled an entertaining 93 before being bowled. The next highest score was 9!
So a good win against nice opposition in a lovely venue. Hopefully we can have a return fixture in 2014.
A notable first was Stuart getting his first wicket in his first over!