So near yet so far…

NPL TEDDINGTON 2 191-7
WINDSOR 2 182-7 (Clarke 67*, Salter 5-40)

Windsor drew their second game in a week in an absorbing game at the Home Park on Saturday. Winning the toss and bowling Windsor set off well restricting NPL in the early stages with some good tight bowling from Chris Edge and Nick Cornish. After the initial breakthrough by Edge, NPL found scoring difficult and after 20 overs Windsor had restricted them to 60-4. There was a period of consolodatation as Edge again bowled a marathon spell of 17 overs on the trot returning miserly figures of 40-4, before the spin of Amit Subarkher and the medium pace of Stuart Millman restricted NPL to less than 200 from their allotted 52 overs ending on 191-7.

Windsor started brightly, with the regular opening pairing of Rob Noble and Paul Huggins seeing off the new ball and at 46-0 after 15 overs, the run chase looked comfortable, however a flurry of wickets saw this dry up with only the elegant Andrew Clarke able to play the ball with any confidence. With 10 overs to go, NPL through excellent bowling and field placing had meant Windsor required almost 8 an over and and although a valliant effort was made by Clarke (passing his fifty on the way) together with Alex Hill and Stuart Millman, with 12 required from the final over, Edge was unable to get any bat on three of the final balls and Windsor had to settle for a draw.

Farmers boy Smith reaps rich harvest from Marlow Park bowlers.

Windsor 293 – 4 (Smith 135*, Matthews 52)
Marlow Park 228-4 (Ashton 91, Trot 76*)

Windsor piled on the runs on a superb Marlow Park wicket but any chance of a result was effectively drowned in the sea of them!

After loosing the toss Windsor were inserted and made steady progress with Rob Noble and Paul Huggins effectively rotating the strike on a quick outfield and steering Windsor to a useful 68-0 after 18 overs. However, the introduction of paceman Tracey Edwards saw Huggins off stump removed and Noble quickly fell at the other end. However, this brought Tim Smith the crease and after Nigel Wing had departed for 6, he and Rob Matthews began to splay the bowling literally all over the Marlow Park. Moving quickly to his fifty with a succession of towering sixes, making the most of short boundary at one side the Marlow bowlers were put to the sword. In the space of 11 overs the two batsman had turned the game on its head and had progressed 118 runs by the time Matthews was bowled Chappel. The elegant Andrew Clarke was happy to simply hold one end up and allow Smith to farm all of the bowling as his moved past his century with some devastating shots. When the declaration came in 39th over, Smith had made a superb 135 not out and was warmly applauded into the pavilion from all areas of the ground including the numerous spectators in Marlow Park who had been peppered by his boundaries!

The often talked about vagarities of Thames Valley points system would now come into play, in that Windsor had been almost too successful in scoring too many runs too quickly and the challenge was now going to be in keeping Marlow interested in the game.

This however, effectively ended after 8 overs when South African Dahron Pitt had removed 3 of the top batsman and at 27-3 no matter how friendly the bowling and field settings became (4 slips and 2 gullies were in place for the first 35 overs), Marlow lost any interest in the game. Windsor certainly did not help themselves dropping numerous catches and had no luck when edges and mistimed drives keep flying over or just falling short of fielders. With 20 overs remaining as the game drifted towards an inevitable draw Windsor used a variety of bowlers and in the final over gave Smith the chance to get his first bowl for Windsor and in almost comical circumstances was smashed around by the Marlow batsman before with the final ball of the day a high looping catch to long leg just fell short of the chasing fielder which more or less summed up Windsor’s fielding day! However, nothing could take the day away from Tim Smith and a deserved call up to the 1’s is in store for him next week.

Windsor
P. Huggings Bowled Edwood 32
R.W. Noble Ct Turner Chappel 17
T Smith Not Out 135
N Wing Ct Barbour Chappel 6
R Matthews Bowled Chappel 52
A Clarke Not Out 18

Extras 32
Total 293-4 Dec (49 Overs)

O M R W
Turner 10.4 1 49 0
Ayres 10 3 54 0
Chappell 13 0 69 3
Edwoods 6.2 2 16 1
Barbour 5 0 43 0
Sharif 4 0 35 0


Marlow Park
Trot Not Out 76
Slater Bowled Pitt 1
Coll Bowled Pitt 91
Ashton Bowled Edge 6
Sharif Bowled Pitt 4
Chappel Not Out 36

Extras 14
Total 228-4 (51 Overs)

O M R W
Edge 15 5 37 1
Pitt 13 2 68 3
Millman 9 3 44 0
Hill 9 2 38 0
Clarke 4 2 23 0
Smith 1 0 11 0

Windsor Start season with a win

Heavy rain during the week and overnight meant that Windsor 2nd XI opening league game against OMT was in severe doubt, however, sterling work by the groundstaff at the Home Park, meant that although, the pitch was never going to provide a record number of runs, a game could take place.

Windsor won the toss and elected to bowl, with Dahron Pitt and Chris Edge bowling steadily and coming to terms with the damp conditions. After surviving a few half chances OMT batsmen began to get into their grove and after 18 overs were looking comfortable at 75-0. The arrival of newcomer Stuart Millman however broke this partnership when he bowled Wright and when Edge removed the other opener Keane for 53, Windsor really began to turn the screw. Some excellent outfielding and tight bowling meant that in OMT were only able to score 17 off the next 11 overs and as the pressure built wickets fell as they attempted to push the score along. Another debutant Alex Hill was brought into the attack and he too got into the wickets and at the end of their full 52 overs OMT had managed to score just 141-9, with Edge, Millman and Hill all picking up 3 wickets each.

Despite the low score, batting was always going to be difficult and Windsor got off to a bad start when Paul Huggins was adjudged LBW and Tim Smith was bowled 2 balls later. Opener Rob Noble consolidated with Nigel Wing and the pair staged a recovery, with Wing in particular looking in good form. However, Wing was deceived by the pitch on 25 and the fall of Richard Charters and Andy Clarke in quick succession meant that Windsor were up against it at 53-5. However, Tom Bullock and Rob Noble both played superb innings. The former lightening quick with his running and the later steadfast in protecting his wicket and rotating the strike. Both took their time but steady chipped away at the score and the resolve of the OMT batsmen. Once set however there didn’t seem any chance of their removal when with just 4 runs required Tom Bullock was caught going for the winning runs and then after completing a superb match winning half century the gritty Rob Noble also departed caught, and it was left to Dahron Pitt and Alex Hill to score the few runs remaining to see Windsor home.

As the only side to play in their league, Windsor go top of the league, and will be looking to build upon this result next week away at Marlow Park.

OMT
A. Wright Ct Clarke Millman 24
R. Keane Ct Noble Edge 53
J Hobson Bowled Edge 6
A. Macpherson Ct Bullock Hill 13
J. Smee Bowled Millman 0
J. Parekth Bowled Millman 0
J Patterson Bowled Hill 2
R Winkle Not Out 6
P Katz Bowled Hill 4
J Blanche Ct Bullock Edge 1
R Booker Not Out 3
Extras 20
Total 141-9

O M R W
Pitt 16 2 62 0
Edge 20 6 46 3
Millman 12 4 28 3
Hill 7 1 12 3

Windsor
R.W. Noble Ct Gentleman 52
P. Huggins LBW Katz 1
T. Smith Bowled Katz 2
N. Wing Bowled Gentleman 25
R. Charters Bowled Blanche 0
A. Clarke Ct Blanche 0
T Bullock Ct Katz 39
D Pitt Not Out 1
A Hill Not Out 1
Extras 21
Total 142-7

O M R W
Katz 14.2 2 50 3
Gentleman 16 3 46 2
Blanche 16 5 37 2