A Titanic Battle For The Opening Fixture Of The SW15 Trophy

Saturday 1st XI versus Roehampton

The opening fixture of the SW15 trophy will certainly go down in the history books as a titanic battle between two evenly matched sides. Despite a few old stalwarts, Putney fielded a side with a number of new faces, who come the end of the day, would all have acquitted themselves admirably to the cause.

Putney lost the toss and were put into bat. Some strong length bowling from the Roehampton openers on a new track saw the early dismissal of Chipper and Carlo. Paterson and Wrighton set about building a score and kept the board ticking over at about four runs an over. Wrighton, having played some well timed shots was caught behind off a good length ball which bought Wibbers to the crease. After some initial indecision as to whether his pad or bat would be of better use to hit the ball, Wibber set about playing some superbly timed straight drives finally ending being caught for 28. When Paterson departed for 62, Putney had 132 on the board with 13 overs remaining. Some strong running and hitting from Peters, Gillies and McCann brought us to 175 all out.

After a great tea and the skipper reassured that everyone was wearing tight enough pants, Putney took the field. Patel and Macmillan took the new ball with Macmillan dismissing their openers early to set Putney off to a flyer. Some superb fielding and team spirit saw Putney take the early ascendancy and threatened to run away with the game had it not been for a spirited fight back from Roehampton’s middle order. Roehamton quickly found themselves on top and looked to be cruising. The Skipper turned to his lead bowler JP who proceeded to slow the game right down and take the wicket of their danger man. Good spells from Gilles and McCann also brought wickets and set the game up for a tantalizing final quarter. Roehampton needed 40 with 4 wickets in hand and loads of time. Pelser and Grice were handed the ball at the death, both bowling fast and straight. Grice took one wicket from his one over and Pelser took 3 for 13 off 4.Putney won the game by 20 runs and 5 overs to spare.

Special mentions must firstly go to ‘Man of the Match’ Wibbers for keeping wicket magnificently and smashing 28 which ended up being the difference between the two sides. Secondly to Carlo for skittling Roehampton’s tail and winning us the game with his own brand of “friendly/Ultimate Fighting Champion” cricket. Thirdly to JP for some classical spin bowling which not only took the wicket of their danger man when our backs were up against the wall but also brought their run rate right down and enabled us to apply pressure that brought us wickets at the other end. Lastly to Brian for being such a superb time keeper; his “special clock” will come in particularly useful as we enter a new league where logical thinking will hopefully set us apart from other sides.



Euan Patterson

July 6, 2009