First Eleven

Captain:  Mike Dixon  mikedixon1987@hotmail.co.uk 07402467067

Match Reports

11th May vs Battersea Ironsides (away) – Won by 4 wickets
Battersea Ironsides 178/8 (45 overs)
Thames Ditton 168/6 (32.1 overs – revised target following rain interruption)
Having won in the first round of the cup the previous week, the first team travelled to Battersea in good spirits for the first of the limited overs games in the new league format. Mike Dixon lost the toss and was asked to bowl what was a damp track under cloud cover.

Jarvis and Barnes opened the bowling with good pace and seam movement. Barnes got the early breakthrough getting Mckenzie LBW for 5 (18/1). Barnes then came off due to a back complaint and was replaced by Chris Dixon. He and Jarvis continued not giving much away, before Jarvis was replaced by Cornwall having only gone for 3 boundaries in 7 overs. Cornwall immediately was getting turn and bounce from his off breaks, before bowling the frustrated Newman for 30 (64/2) and had Lombard caught by Farley at mid-wicket (79/3). Chris eventually got a wicket with the No. 4 caught and bowled (80/4). Cornwall and Chris were replaced by Mike and Barnes, now bowling off-spin and were both getting turn out of the wicket and making it hard for the batsmen to score. Barnes had No.3 Kahn caught at cover by Cornwall for 28 (86/5) and Mike bowled the left handed Devine for 1 (93/6). Kapoor continuing his good form in the 1s replaced Barnes and went for 9 runs in his 4 overs plus getting the wicket of talkative No.7 caught at mid-off by Terrington (100/7). Cornwall replaced Mike and immediately had the hapless left handed No.9 caught by Pemberton running towards point (128/8). However a turning point in the game came when the opposing captain McLaglen went to slog sweep Cornwall and only top edge it into his face. After calling for his helmet, he then took the attack to all the bowlers. Cornwall, Jarvis and Dixon all bowled but to no effect, and along with some poor fielding he took the final innings score on 178/8 off 45. Whilst it was a good first half, the final third had let the team down.

After tea Terrington and Barnes opened up TD’s response chasing a reduced target of 168 in 43 overs. Both batsmen worked the singles and put away the bad balls, particularity Barnes who always seemed to find the boundary at the right time and hit two sizes over mid-wicket. Terrington was caught at slip off the bowling of McLaglen for 25 (56/1). This brought “Jimbo” and he stroked the ball around, pushing the singles and very powerfully hitting the bad balls for 4. He brought up his maiden 50 for TD off 32 balls, but he got to excited and tried to hit the ball into Spencer’s adjacent ground and was caught well at mid-on after the ball went miles up in the air (129/2). Barnes brought his own 50 up but he too was out soon after LBW for 53 (135/3). This then started a procession of wickets with Pemberton “caught” at slip, Pechey “LBW” and Farley getting a length ball pop and was caught at slip, leaving TD 142/6. Step up to the plate 17 year old Louis Dykes on his first team debut. He along with Mike Dixon calmly scored the remaining runs, Dixon finishing 21* and Dykes hitting the winning runs with a 4 through square leg to finish on 11*.

A good positive start for TD again this year, but still with room improvement, the team will face Roehampton at home next week.