Scorecard

Old Cholmeleians II v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 17 Jul 2010 at 1:00pm
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Lost by 3 wickets

Match report A fine display in the field was not enough for TMCC III, who recorded their 4th defeat on the trot and are left looking nervously over their shoulder at the relegation spots immediately below.

It's normally a positive thing to lose the toss in this league, but a win for the home team meant we had to have first go on a wicket which, at one end in particular, resembled some sort of minefield made of sponge. Anything not right up under the bat dug in and looped up off the wicket, making shot selection very tricky indeed. On the positive side it was slow enough that you could change your mind three times before playing, but the wicket alone accounted for 2 or 3 of the TMCC top 6 and left us in dire straits at 30-5.

Thankfully a rearguard action took advantage of slightly fuller bowling and an increasingly benign wicket, with Arjun, Shahrukh and Charlie all finding the boundaries regularly (in Arjun's case, finding the trees well over the boundaries...).

The innings closed in the 37th over - a fact we would have cause to rue later.

An excellent homemade tea later, and we set to the task very positively. Tony picked up his first at short leg, Gregg cleaning up in the position he has made his own, and although wickets then proved hard to come by for a time, the runs dried up as well. The wicket occasionally misbehaved, but all praise in this case must go to Tony and Charlie for giving absolutely nothing away and making it hard for the batsmen.

Eventually a feather snick and a sharp catch standing up by Robbie (the highlight of an excellent day behind the sticks) doubled Tony's haul and got rid of the other opener, and we were definitely in the game. Mark Dearing had a rare outing but showed, after a few balls to acclimatise, that he's still got it, trapping the OCs skipper in front, and Tony took one more before drinks, again to Gregg at short leg.

64-4 and palpable nerves for the home team. Unfortunately the OC's number 6, who had already taken 4 wickets, set about his task very well, pushing the ball through the gaps to the fence and began to inch his side nearer victory. Arjun got rid of the solid number 3 and with the end in sight Shahrukh took 2 in an over to give us our final glimpse of hope.

The second of these was a smashed full toss, hit cleanly right out of the middle, and the luckless batsman could only gape in disbelief as he realised that, rather than the boundary he expected, he had perfectly picked out Jim Hutcheson's right nipple. In at short extra, Hutch clutched his stinging nipple, and only then realised that he had also managed to cling onto the ball as well. Rumours that he spent his evening trying to find people to kiss it better proved unfounded.

In the end it was not to be, but on another day, on another wicket, the smart money would have been on lowly TMCC III to beat the promotion candidates. 20-30 more runs or 10 fewer overs and it would have been far tougher.

As it is we stay uncomfortably close to the relegation spots - all hands to the pump for the remainder of this season please. With anything approaching full strength, this team is far, far too good to go down. Let's make sure it doesn't come to that.

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
140 for 10
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Peter Leslie Lbw  7
Alex Book Caught  14
Gregg Cruder Caught  0 2
Prakash Kannan Caught  4
Rob McDougall Caught  0 1
James Hutcheson Bowled  0 1
Arjun Chopra Lbw  44
Shahrokh Navaee Caught  44
Mark Dearing Bowled  0
Charles Low Caught  20
Tony Alderton Not Out  0

Old Cholmeleians II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Old Cholmeleians II Batting
142 for 7
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Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charles Low11.553800.003.21
Tony Alderton16.0537312.332.31
Mark Dearing7.0124124.003.43
Shahrokh Navaee6.011728.502.83
Arjun Chopra4.0114114.003.50