Strollers seal winning end to the season
posted: September 27, 2015

High noon came and went before we began our last game of the season and it was thus scaled back to a Double Innings T18 Match against familiar foes the Battersea Bohemians. We lost the toss and were put into bat on a slow and low end of season wicket but we got off to a good start after the disappointment of losing the early wickets of Betts and Brown.

Débutants Ben Guest and Dave Osborn both batted well and each passed fifty before being retired. Viral was then well caught in the deep by Stoop before Gav was bowled by Buxted, leaving the Strollers with an imposing total of 150 off our first 18 overs.

Another debutant, Jules, opened the bowling with considerable pace but it was Viral who picked up the early wicket of Buxted for 4. However, the real game-changer was the introduction of George Brown who induced opener Hayley to feather one behind before picking up the vital wicket of Tom Whyte who was well caught by Harvey in the deep.

Harvey himself got in on the act, having Meier caught behind for 1 before once more demonstrating his safe hands in the deep, hanging on to a swipe from Stoop off an ugly Couldrey full toss. Kilpatrick and Leece then batted well together for the remainder of the innings but the Bohemians could only muster 104 - a significant first innings deficit of 46.

After a quick tea, the Strollers went out to bat once more with yet another debutant, Kish Patel opening up with Viral who was due to depart early. Indeed he didn't hang around and lost his stumps in the first over. Kish played some nice shots but when he was bowled for 12 and was quickly followed by Couldrey, Morgan and Harvey all for single digit scores, there was concern on the boundary that we wouldn't even bat out our 18 overs.

But this proved to be unfounded. Jules played some glorious shots including a huge straight six which sounded like it hit a car and Ron 'The Rabbit' Bannerjee raced between the wickets in his usual fashion to add important bonus runs. He was not, of course, shy to get in on the action himself and by the time he was run out he was top scorer with 31. Dave Osborn played another nice cameo for 15 and Betts and Brown added a few more in the closing stages to leave the Bohos requiring a daunting 188 off their final 18 overs.

Although they got off to a decent start, the regular intervals at which they lost wickets ultimately proved costly and when debutant Patel - who had claimed that he didn't really bowl - took 4-15 including the prized wicket of Whyte, the contest was essentially over.

And so the season ended as it began, with victory over the Bohemians and all that was left was to retire to the bar.

David Couldrey
29.09.15

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