There were times on Saturday when the umpire at the pavilion end saw things just a little earlier than the rest of us.
The first was his shout of “no ball” just before Rory Miscampbell collapsed to the ground, his box shattered by the impact. The second was his request to inspect the ball in the second innings “in case it got lost” just as our Premier spinner came into the attack.
Put into bat, on an unsurprisingly damp track and with “starts” of 51-5, 49-5 and 18-5 in our last three league fixtures, not even our esteemed adjudicator would have predicted Southgate’s 264 for 3 in the allotted 45 overs.
Rory (44) and Michael Stevens (79) worked very hard to overcome the conditions and a good quality opening attack, putting on 95 and impressing the local supporters with their aggressive running between the wickets. With the platform set, bad balls were put away and the run rate began to climb, before Rory fell to the off spinner in the 21st over.
Tom Edrich came out to join Mike - sensibly giving the well-set batman the strike, then sharing it and later taking most of it, adding 88 in the next sixteen overs and then 81 in the last eight overs in company with Phil Dunnett (22) and a very unselfish James Dangerfield (1*). Tom reached a superb and well deserved hundred with a six and a single from the final two balls of the innings (Rory on the ball with his prediction this time) to finish on 100 not out.
Darragh Edwards and Jack Upton took the new ball. While Darragh worked off the rust from his football and golf sabbatical, Jack focussed in on the inviting green patch on a length, beating the bat repeatedly and was very unlucky to go unrewarded in his nine over spell.
Dave Woffinden replaced Darragh at the far end and broke the opening stand with his tried and tested combo of bemusement and dot balls leading to the highly predictable filthy smear and dejected trudge back to the pavilion. With the run rate coming down and the pressure on the Eastcote batsmen going up Ashley Sivarajah made the next breakthrough, bowling the top scoring left hander, and skipper Edrich started to rotate his bowlers.
Darragh returned from the pavilion end, nicking off the number four, and Mike relocated his golden arm to pick up three key middle order wickets. Ravi finally joined the attack, turning it square in his only over, before Darragh burgled his way to a four-fer as Eastcote’s lower order swung for the fences in a vain attempt to match Southgate’s late inning acceleration.
A great all round performance. Eastcote all out for 215 and a Southgate victory by 49 runs.
Woffers