TTP, friendly at Barrington, won by 9 wickets
TTP 87-9 off 20 overs
Phoenix 90-1 off 13.3 overs
A day that had quickly tumbled into chaos turned out to be a record-breaking experience as the Phoenix put in one of their finest ever performances in the field. The build-up to the fixture was unusual to say the least: TTP had 6 players, we had 7; then we were up to 12 and they nine before, just an hour before play, they were a full team and we were back to nine. In at the last minute, then, came young Theo Wilson and Nawaz, Stapleford’s cricket-mad newcomer from Afghanistan – and both made significant contributions on their debuts.
Wilson senior lost the toss, which meant we would bowl in the late summer heat – and it could hardly have gone better. Faz led the charge with a devastating opening spell that saw him bag the top three bats, with Jeff taking two catches – one regulation, the other via a leap. TTP had beaten us at out place but already they were tottering – and Nawaz bowled another bat with his first legitimate ball as a Phoenixer. TTP’s number four made sure he stuck around but wickets continued to tumble at the other end, with the Fixtures Secretary twice hitting the stumps via some pink ball swing. Faz almost pulled off the catch of the season before Venki got into the act with a wicket of his own and, following two run outs, the not out bat came back to take TTP to just under 90 from their 20 overs.
With Dave and fit-again returnee Badders swinging hard that was always going to be impossible to defend and both returned not out. Aidan managed to add Bruce to his lengthy list of run out victims but that allowed Theo to join him and take us over the line. Aidan contemplated letting the youngster hit the winning runs – for about 0.001 of a nanosecond – but ended up doing so himself with a magnificent six. And in so doing he became the first Phoenix batsman to score 300 runs in a season. Impressive.
TTP
Fred b Lee 3
Niall c J Wilson b Lee 0
Jan c J Wilson b Lee 8
James not out 34
Nav b Nawaz 0
Pete b J West 2
Sam C No 1 b J West 10
Imran not out 13
Steve b Venki 0
Sam C No 2 run out 0
Unknown run out 0
Extras 15
Total: 87-9
F Lee 4-0-8-3
N Hamid 4-0-16-0
Nawaz 4-0-28-1
J West 4-1-11-2
Venki 4-1-21-1
Phoenix
D Garman retired not out 25
J Badcock retired not out 28
A Swain not out 22
B Cairnduff run out 2
T Wilson not out 2
Extras 9
Total: 90-1