Washed out

Marlow Park 207
Windsor 9-1 – Match abandoned due to rain.

The curtain fell in a somewhat anti-climatic way on Windsor’s season when their final game was abandoned after tea, after a heavy downpour made the conditions unplayable.

Marlow batted first and were in some trouble when O’Shannesy struck in his first over and Edge made life difficult for the batsmen with the ball swinging and seaming in the overcast conditions. Soon Marlow were reduced to 20-3 but as so often happens this season for Windsor, a seemingly simple chance was put down behind the stumps with Marlow batsman Bruce on 1, and he then promptly capitalised bludgeoning 69, including taking 22 off Edge’s 11th over, to put Marlow back on course. Regular wickets fell after the first delay for rain, and it was not until Marlow skipper Unsworth, playing a captains innings of 66, got Marlow past the 200 mark and the 10 points they needed for safety, before being bowled out for 207 in the final over.

Windsor’s innings had barely begun when a prolonged downpour brought proceedings to a halt. Realising that it would be an hour for the pitch to become suitable and the ever drawing in sun, both captains, agreed to abandon the game, and the season was over, Windsor finishing in 3rd place and looking forward to remounting a promotion challenge next year.

Promotion light blown out by Teddington bowlers

Windsor 135

Teddington Town 136-4

It was enthralling battling cricket for 80% of this game, but in the end Teddington Town proved too strong for Windsor and deservedly claimed the second promotion spot in Division 4b. Losing the toss, Teddington inserted Windsor – the only situation which could profit Windsor should they win, but testament to Teddingtons attitude that they could chase down any score posted, an attitude that many other sides in the Thames Valley League should learn from.

The accurate Moxon and May opened the bowling and after 10 overs with Windsor limping to 20-1 it was always going to be difficult against their accurate bowling. Asharaf and Noble picked the scoring up but when Ashraf departed for 20, and the gritty Rob Noble for 31, Wing and Smith looked to accelerate the scoring. However, Smith edged one behind for 0 prompting a reshuffle of the batting order to try to get some runs on the board. Initially, Birch hit a few boundaries but was soon bowled and the dismissal of O’Shannesy and Wing meant Windsor were never really in the game. When the final wicket fell in the 50th over 135 was never likely to be enough runs against a side that earlier in the season had chased down 301 Windsor runs.

However, a tremendous start from Mohindru and Edge saw Teddington captain Tamblingson caught at short leg off Edge, and the other opener clean bowled by Mohindru and after 6 overs Teddington were 0-2. In the next over Van As Wegan got off the mark by Chinese cutting Edge for 2 narrowly missing his stumps by inches and the game was on. The pressure became almost unbearable for the Teddington batsmen often going for suicidal runs which the Windsor fielders narrowly failed to capitalise on. After As Wegan had been dismissed by a superb caught and bowled by Mohindru, the turning point of the match came in Edge’s 6th over. With the score at 22-3 he had Patel playing and missing at a succession of balls, before finally getting the edge which carried to first slip. Unfortunately Smith failed to cling on and Patel capitalised in the best possible way, by hitting an unbeaten 87. Windsor continued to battle but good clean hitting got Teddington out of trouble and Windsor were never able to get back into the match finally going down by 6 wickets.