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Watergate |
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Chiswick being the equatorial rain zone that some of us know it to be, had a
considerable amount of rain the day before, as did may other parts of London and on arrival at the pathway
to the ground with Barry, we found it under water. In the absence of a boat, Barry knew an alternative
and drier route which took us past some half submerged tennis courts. |
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However on reaching the ground the pitch appeared very playable, although
the outfield was quite damp and large. Needless to say (and it really is), Barry lost the toss and Epsom Taxes
chose to bat. Konrad and Nick open the bowling and both bowled well and got some good movement. One of the
openers found the boundary a few times and the number three hit Konrad quite a distance for 6.
Konrad then got even next ball, bowling the batsman with a very good ball which appeared quite a bit
faster than the delivery before. |
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Dan and Gary then replaced the opening bowlers after good 4 over
spells and both bowled with skill and control. Dan got a wicket with his first ball and finished
with 3-13 and Gary ended another good spell with 1-19. The Superstars then used Sam and Arun
at the end of the innings and both kept the runs down with Epsom finishing on 112 of their 20 overs.
The Superstars bowled well through out and were supported in the field and catches were taken by
Konrad and Gary. A few catches went down in the last few overs but didn't affect the overall
score much. It was thought that we had done well to keep a strong batting team down to below
120 (Gary had predicted over 200 by the way!) however with a slow and large outfield it was
not going to be an easy chase. |
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The Superstars opened up with John and Errol and Errol got
a couple of blows in before he was dismissed. Barry arrived to join John at 9-2 and in the
words of Harry Hill "what are the chances of this happening?", Barry was run out going for
a tight second run. Sam and John then moved to score to over 60 and were going well f
or a while at around 6 an over, helped with quite a few extras-mainly wides. Fate then
took a hand. John who had been struggling with a bad knee requested a runner and
Dan took up the role. |
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There was almost a comic run out first ball when Sam called
for a short single leaving Dan with a lot to do. He was not given out as the umpire had not managed
to get in the right position to make a decision! From where I was it looked very out! Next it was
Sam's turn to be run out having been called for a short single by Dan- for a well-made 13
and then John followed for 16. |
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The Superstars had not hit a boundary and stated to fall behind
the run rate with Epsom using some of their better bowlers towards the end. We finished 14
runs short in the end which was helped by the last over going for 13 with James AP hitting the
only boundary of the innings. |
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So in the end it was another defeat but it was quite a
close run thing. We were always going to struggle to hit the boundaries need as we had
feared. A good post defeat drink was had later in the bar. |
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