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| TWCC v Preston Park Sunday XI |
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24th May 2026
Preston Park XI were new opponents for TWCC and on a very hot afternoon
it was agreed to shorten things slightly to a straightforward 35 over
limited overs game with no draw option. TWCC were also only able to
field 10 players, whilst Preston Park were not only eleven strong, but also looked pretty handy!Preston Park won the toss and batted first, sending in Waleed and Hashmat for the visitors, and TWCC skipper Tom chose to open the bowling with Kanishka and Matt B. Kanishka immediately found a useful mix of no balls and an unplayable yorker which took out Hashmat’s stumps, but Preston Park continued to score well throughout their innings and, in interests of brevity, Waleed ultimately reached a fine century before retiring briefly and then returning to see out the end of the 35 overs. There were other capable batsmen, of course, but an over with Waleed on strike was likely to cost ten and above whoever was bowling (no names mentioned). Figures suffered! Rob - eventually getting some reward as his pace got through to the top of middle - and Jim bowled their full seven over allocation, but it was Charlie Richards, on debut for his new favourite cricket club, and who hadn’t played cricket for years (I’m making this up), who rolled in for his first looping ball and produced a full straight delivery which Sameer, himself looking very good alongside Waleed, missed and was out LBW for 44. Charlie Richards - winner of the CM on his first outing for TWCC! Charlie R went on to finish with 5 for 49 from his 7 overs, as four catches were held off his bowling, and Charlie H also took a wicket with a catch to Jim at gully-ish - and thank goodness for some things that went TWCC's way. My it was hot. Hot hot hot. 32°C as our local weatherer later confirmed. Did I mention that Preston Park were scoring a lot of runs? In the end, scoring at over eight an over, they closed on 284 from their 35 overs, a formidable total to say the least. Savoury Charlie and Sweet Anna were at least able to complement TWCC's bowling with their equally generous tea, so, many thanks to them. TWCC’s reply began well enough as Tom and Henry shared yet another 50+ opening partnership, but then, as Preston Park shaped to bring on one of their more bowly bowlers, Jim wondered aloud if this was one of the bowlers rumoured to be a bit good? Tom was bowled by Abbas’s first ball... Oh. Henry was joined by Rob and these two somewhat took the sting out of Abbass, who was indeed sharp enough, and this partnership was gilded with some lovely shots, in particular a tremendous shot from Rob, who, using the Abbass pace, struck a beautifully-timed off-drive which raced away all along the ground to the long-off boundary. PC cricket at its best. Henry, though, in the 15th over, pulled a ball off Abbass to be caught at mid-wicket (...making this up a bit as I didn’t see it, but Jonathan did usefully put “MWKT” in the book), and was out for 34 more runs to add to his impressive season's total. Rob and Henry called well, ran well, scored well, were unintimidated by pace, and generally were pretty darn crickety. But, as it turned out, that was more or less the end of the batting, though Rob was still there until he wasn’t. “MWKT” appears again, but not before Rob had reached a very characterful, and studied, 55. Khan it was who ended Rob’s defiance, who then went on to take two more wickets in quick succession. Once Rob was dismissed in the 25th over, with the score on 149, the chase, if a target of 285 was ever a truly chase, was effectively over. TWCC’s lower order could not keep the scoring going and the innings closed on 155 for 8 in 27.1 overs. (For those who are still concentrating, TWCC only had ten players, and Jonathan has pulled up injured when keeping, which he not only manfully continued to do for the full innings, but he also undertook to score the game impeccably! Impeccably I say to all! ...but was unable to bat.) (So we were all out.) (So to speak.) Preston Park won by 129 runs in a match played in good spirits throughout despite the exhausting conditions, and it was clear that on the day Preston Park were the better side by some margin. But we all got to play cricket so that's a positive! Of note to end; three wickets fell to bowlers' first ball - and six to proper Charlies! Scorecard* Preston Park won the toss and chose to bat first in a 35 over per side limited over, no draw, match. Preston Park XI Innings: Waleed not out 107; Hashmat bld K Bhattacharya 1; Sameer LBW C Richards 44; Vikram (retired?) 25; FOiiFaiza/Aon (it's illegible) ct J Simon bld C Richards 28; Abass ct T Firth bld C Richards 11; Amir bld R Rydon 18; Khan ct J Roland (wk) bld C Richards 1; Owaise ct R Rydon bld C Richards; Wickey ct J Simon bld C Howes 5; Asad not out 19. Extras 18 (B4, LB3, W5, NB 6) Total 284 for 8 (35 overs). Fall unrecorded - as was more or less everything else. TWCC Bowling: K Bhattacharya 3-0-31-1; M Brock 3-0-23-0; H Short 4-0-27-0; R Rydon 7-0-67-1; J Simon 7-0-33-0; C Richards 7- 1-49-5; C Howes 4-1-42-1. TWCC Innings: H Short ct, bld Abbass 34; T Firth* bld Abbass 13; R Rydon ct, bld Khan 55; J Simon bld Vikram 3; K Bhattacharya LBW Khan 0; C Howes run out 0; M Brock bld Walleed 2; C Richards bld Khan 4; E Bunn not out 0. DNB J Roland†. Extras 43 (B7, W34, NB2) Total 155 for 8 (all out) in 27.1 overs. Fall: 1-51, 2-84; 3-121- 4-129, 5-137, 6-149, 7-155, 8-155. Preston Park XI Bowling: Wickey 4-0-0-19; Owaise 4-0-28-0; Abbass 4-0-24-2; Vasie 4-0-19-0; Vikram 2-0-18-0; Hashmat 3-0-19-1; Khan 4-1-11-3; Faizan 2-0-10-0; Waleed 0.1-0-0-1/ Preston Park XI win by 129 runs. *(Apologies to the visitors if I have spelled names wrong - I've done my best from the book) Top of page |
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