Baumgartner in the Groove

Windsor CC 3rd XI Vs

Harefield 3rd Xi - 186/6

Confusion reigned on Saturday as Windsor 3rds headed to Amersham to play Harefield in their latest quest for Thames Valley league points.

Having won the toss, skipper Wigley elected to bowl on a wicket greener than a QPR supporter following the play offs. Veterans Lawrence and Wigley opened the attack with a mixture of seam and outswing that intitially bamboozled the home sides batsmen. However, freak injuries to Rob Dawson and Richie Noble let Harefield back into the game as Windsor went into defensive mode with 9 fielders. Tight bowling by Lawrence and Hodgson kept the ship afloat and despite a superb 90 by Gandon, Windsor kept the score to an achievable 186.

Aggressive batting by Bullock swung the pedulum back in Windsor's direction, playing some beautifully timed shots. A collapse at the top of the order saw two openers fall, followed swiftly by Evans, however, this only brought in form Aussie Baumgartner to the crease. Powerful hitting saw the total come into view and partnered with the clinical Akbar, Baumgartner saw the side home with wickets to spare.

T.Bullock ct Prentice 28
K. Clifford ct Hall 3
R Evans ct Hall 7
R. Baumgartner Not out 79
Z. Akbar Retired Hurt 54
D. Brown B. Chiswell 1
A. Wigley Not Out 7

Windsor Bowling

Lawrence 26 5 81 3
Wigley 11 4 34 0
Akbar 7 0 32 1
Hodgson 8 0 37 3

THAMES VALLEY LEAGUE DIVISION 5A

OMT 3RDXI
VS
WINDSOR 3RDXI

SATURDAY MAY 17TH


WINDSOR 3RDXL: 123 - 3
KEVIN CLIFFORD 57 NOT OUT

MATCH ABANDONED AS A DRAW.

'A QUINTESSENTIAL ENGLISH DAY'


On a dank, dark day in the medieval setting of Durants, OMT &
Windsor underlined the optimistic nature of cricketers in England. Despite
persistent rain all day on Friday and the forecast of a torrential downpour
on Saturday afternoon, 22 cricketers arrived at the ground, donned their
whites and prepared to compete in the full knowledge that a positive result
was as remote as Donald Rumsfeld converting to Islam. It would appear that
mad dogs & Englishmen do not only go out in the mid-day sun.
The skippers looked at the wicket..."mmmm, a bit wet.", they tossed the
coin...'Splat', we'll bowl first rejoiced the OMT skipper as Windsor were
duly inserted onto a wicket that resembled Stamford Bridge in February.
Windsor made a slippery start, slithering to 15 - 2. Kevin Clifford
& Tom Bullock set about inserting some foundations to the Windsor innings
and the score progressed to 43 before Bullock (17) was dismissed by a
stunning catch at slip. Robert Dawson joined Clifford at the wicket and
they started to build upon the foundations, run by run, flick by flick,
boundary upon boundary.

OMT rotated their bowlers cleverly, but the two batsmen were firmly set and
they continued to accumulate runs without any further subsidence. As the
storm clouds circled the ground, Clifford swept Taylor to the square led
boundary, Dawson drove Taylor to the square leg boundary as Windsor
attempted to finish their innings with a flourish.
Unfortunately the only flood came from above, as the heavens opened and the
match was declared a wash-out and abandoned as a draw, with Windsor
interestingly poised on 123 -3. Clifford (57*) hit a second consecutive
half century and Dawson was unbeaten on 30.