Windsor CC - 6th of May (GP1 W0 D0 L1)
A mixed weather forecast foreshadowed a mixed day on God’s green for Kew’s first XI. Winning the toss and batting first, opposition Windsor proved to be much improved on from their two defeats at Kew’s hands last year. Windsor’s opening pair got off to a flyer with the help of the day’s most successful run getter: E.X.Tras, with 60 being added in the first 7 overs with both batsmen on less than 20! Kew wrestled back some control of the Windsor innings with Kiddy finding his radar and slipping through the gears to get the break through and a second in quick succession. Capt. Shaw shored things up by taking the pace off the ball in the form of Mahmood Malik and later Charlie Weeks (replacing Kiddy from the road end). Malik proved especially consistent once into his spell and proved difficult to get away causing the run rate to slow considerably. Charlie continued to defy all accepted theories of logic, biology and sports performance management by bowling a near immaculate spell of highly accurate leg spin despite having not picked up a ball for five months and only had the best part of half-an-hours sleep before the game…ohh to be in your early 20s again!
Guy Darwin took up the mantle from Mahmood and produced a fast accurate spell to take Kew’s third wicket with one that (he insists) nibbled away and was well snaffled by debutant keeper Sam Booth.
Perfectly diluted orange and black-current cordial marked a game in the balance at drinks with Windsor 123-3 off of their 25overs. Ricky Boardman’s inspired off-the-strip-half-tracker-
Malik removed the dangerous Windsor hitter before Boardman again got the rub of the greenest shades of green by getting an LBW, which, let’s just say on another day might not have been given. More rapid runs followed before Windsor were bowled out for 203 having only completed 40 overs.
Over tea, clouds began to gather over what had been a relatively bright start to the match. More clouds came as Shaw was removed first ball by a hooping in-swinging yorker from Windsor’s left-arm opening bowler. SVE was caught at cover before LBW struck again, this time Darwin the unfortunate victim. Opener Sam Rhys and number 5, Sam Booth made like their fireman name sake and doused the flames of the Kew innings with some assured batting. Having established a base they pushed Kew toward 50-3 accelerating nicely as the sun began to shine. A huge straight 6 from Booth signalled the game maybe turning for Kew. The church may want to take out some extra insurance with him in the side!
A smart piece of keeping broke the momentum for Kew with Rhys being stumped of a leg-side wide and when Sam Booth held out off a leading edge to long off the game was all but done at 80-7. Kew limped to 128 to pick up two batting points before being finally bowled out. The day ended with E.X.Tras finishing on 66, having been the top run scorer in both innings, we’ll put that down to first game rustiness on both parts then.
All in all some flashes of quality cricket from Kew were not enough to match Windsor’s consistency…but like the Primal Scream elicited by the Windsor batsman (having been caught off the cunning off-the-strip-half-tracker-