Dragons escape Slaying

Windsor were at home to Wycombe Dragons on Saturday with Wycombe situated 3rd in the table and Windsor 4th, it was a must win game for both teams to stay in the hunt for promotion. Windsor won the toss and with overcast skies, a green deck and the promise of rain, Windsor opted to field first.

We opened the bowling with Chambers and Peacock who bowled superbly and with some good catches by Lines, Care and Hill, the choice to field first proved to be the right decision with Wycombe quickly reduced to 25 for 5. With Chambers 7 over’s complete, Hill came on and took another wicket to reduce Wycombe to 40 for 6 and that’s when the heavens opened. Unfortunately the rain persisted for an hour and 50 minutes of the maximum 2 hour rain delay. With 10 minutes to go the rain ceased but the square was underwater and the game was unfortunately abandoned.

This was an extremely disappointing end to the game with Windsor in such a strong position. Unfortunately the weather was not so bad in other places and both BA and Chenies played and won, which sadly puts our hopes of promotion out of the window for this season. Windsor can only go into the last two weeks to look to secure third which would still be a very good achievement with the poor run of results we had midway through the season. We have had a really strong run since the end of June and it would be good to continue this with two more victories against Chesham and Farnham Common.

Pace Pair Devastate OMT

Windsor travelled away this week to play against OMT on their new ground. We were all really impressed with the new facilities and at first glance the track looked like a batting paradise. On losing the toss and being put into bat we were not too concerned, and were looking forward to batting on what appeared to be a hard deck. 47 over’s later and after being bowled out for 138 we thought that our first opinion of the track may not have been accurate with the only batsmen who could really hold their head up being Mark Lines with a knock of 30.

After tea we knew we needed to make inroads into the OMT batting line up quickly, and an early wicket a piece from Peacock and Chambers reduced OMT to 15 for 2, from their OMT worked hard to get themselves back into the game and managed to have a couple of small partnerships to take the score to 80 for 4. From there we knew we were facing an uphill battle but with Kurth plugging away from the one end, and the pace combination from the other end of Peacock and Chambers, we started to pick up a couple of wickets, which then turned into a landslide of wickets and in the end we managed to bowl out OMT for 104. Chambers bowled superbly and took a 5 wicket haul, and was very well supported with Peacock taking 3 wickets and Kurth taking the remaining 2.

It was a supreme effort in the field to come back and win the game, and a lot of credit must be given to the bowlers for their performance to turn the game around. We also fielded very well and held the big chances to make sure that we took an unlikely victory. We need to work hard on our batting this week and our concentration, to make sure that we continue this good run in the second half of this season and keep putting pressure on the teams above us to cling to an outside hope of a spot in the top two.

Lower Order Come to the Party

Windsor 2XI vs Chenies and Latimer

After the disappointment of last week against BA, Windsor needed to respond this weekend against Chenies & Latimer who were flying high in second place in the table. Windsor won the toss and with overcast conditions and a slightly green track Windsor chose to field.

Windsor had the rapid new ball bowlers of Chambers and Peacock who bowled superbly with the new ball picking up a couple of wickets and keeping the scoring rate very low from Chenies. Chambers bowled his allotted 7 over’s and was replaced by Hill who kept up the pressure on the Chenies batsmen and at the halfway point they were about 70 for 3. From this restricted position Chenies batted very well and reached 210 for 6 from their 52 over’s.

In reply Windsor got off to a shaky start with Noble dismissed by a good ball early on in the innings. Windsor had a solid second wicket stand of 50 to move the score along with both Davis and Bird looking very fluent. As has often been the case this season with a mixture of good balls and poor shot selection Windsor were reduced from a solid position to 100 for 6. From this position Windsor were looking in a lot of trouble but following on from their solid partnership last week Care and Hill piled on the runs with Hill scoring 36 and Care scoring a superb 54 to bring Windsor in to contention. Their unfortunate dismissals brought Peacock and Chambers to the wicket who with some more classic stroke making got Windsor over the line with 2 overs to spare.

It was a fantastic victory from the position we were in and all credit must go to the lower order for their brilliant effort with the bat to create a memorable victory for Windsor.

Windsor Stumble at BA

On the back of several impressive performances and a good run of results for Windsor, we travelled away to BA this weekend.

Windsor won the toss and chose to bat. Openers Noble and Bird got Windsor off to a fine start with a partnership of 40, with Bird looking in particularly impressive form. Noble was finally dismissed for the first time in the return leg of fixtures, but Bird continued to bat well and was ably supported by both Davis and Malik for the second and third wicket respectively. Bird was finally out for an impressive 60. Windsor were set to really kick on and build a very big total, but with a flurry of wickets Windsor were quickly reduced to 140 for 8. Hill and Care then came to the wicket and batted superbly for a 50 partnership which enabled Windsor to finish on 196 for 9.

After the usual great BA tea, Windsor took to the field to attempt to bowl BA out. A couple of quick wickets had BA 60 for 2 but from there Windsor let the game slip with some poor fielding to allow BA to get comfortably home for 5 wickets down. With some more luck with umpiring decisions and some better fielding the game could of been a lot tighter but unfortunately it was not meant to be and BA ran out comfortable winners in the end.