Date: 24th April, 2021
Venue: Sunbury CC
On a Saturday where all four Teddington teams played four Sunday XIs, the 4s lost a friendly to a strong Sunbury 4th XI on a nice, cloudy April day.
Put into bat, I opened the batting with young Eddie Clark, as you can see 👇🏻
The two Sunbury opening bowlers were quick to demonstrate that they weren’t going to offer up much in terms of loose deliveries, but we’d managed to add 35 runs to the score before I slapped one between Extra Cover and Mid Off, only to see Sunbury’s Imran Rashid leap to his right and scoop the ball up as it was passing him. It was such a good catch, he really should have been wearing a cape when taking it. It turned out later, that this player was a 1st XI player at his previous club and didn’t know why Sunbury had him playing for their 4th XI. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Possibly because a lot of clubs won’t just take your word for it that you’re a “1s player” and will stick you in the 4s and have you demonstrate that you can play to a high standard?
Eddie and Sam Davis provided the only decent contributions with the bat, as Eddie finished on his fifty (51) for the season and Sam adding 24, before Sunbury brought on the septuagenarian Nobbie Clarke to clear up the tail with his 20 mile an hour wicket to wicket bowling.
In response to our modest total of 158 AO, Sunbury easily saw it off in just 25.3 overs for the loss of only 1 wicket, the same Imran Rashid coming in at 3 to hit 64 off 48, including 10 fours and 1 six. A quick game allowed us the luxury to pack up and walk over to watch the 1st XI also get beaten by Sunbury on the next door ground.
So, not a winning start to the season, but that hadn’t been the point behind arranging these fixtures.
Author: Matt O’Toole