Southgate registered their fourth win in their last five completed Middlesex League matches with a comfortable victory over Uxbridge. The victory margin of 119 runs has only been exceeded by the Club in the last 20 years on two other occasions at first eleven level ; against Eastcote in 2016 and against, coincidentally, Uxbridge, in 2007.
Southgate started their innings at pace with Rory Miscampbell (16) and Mikey Stevens(14) scoring at five runs an over, aided by the occasional wide (later escalating to an overall total of 33 !), before both fell to the opening quicker bowlers. At 35-2 experienced hands, captain Tom Edrich (32) and Phil Dunnett (11) united and added a further 44. Tom was in excellent form and seemed to be on his way to a second consecutive hundred but, surprisingly, he offered a catch which was gratefully accepted, and Phil was joined by Jamie Jouning. Phil was unfortunately adjudged to have offered a snick to the wicketkeeper which continued his run of bad luck with the bat, coinciding with the score reaching 111!
Jamie (47) and Ashley Sivarajah (41) added 79 for the fifth wicket, with the former displaying his off side strengths, with one straight six, and Ashley, conversely, showing his abilities mainly on the legside. The partnership was broken with an unfortunate run out as Jamie failed to reach his ground after a direct hit following a misunderstanding with Ashley. The returning Luke Hutton (15*) and the irrepressible David Woffinden (13*) then added quick runs as an impressive total of 229 was reached.
Woffers then bowled seven overs at the start of the Uxbridge innings for just eight runs, and snared one opening batsman into giving a catch to cover whilst Jack Upton had the other well caught by Edrich at slip. A third wicket fell at 19 as Aman Quadri, the outstanding Uxbridge opening bat, smashed the ball back to Upton who touched the ball on to the stumps for a very fortunate run out. Quadri, who went on to make a superb 64, and was arguably the best player Southgate have played against in this truncated season, was joined by Harper and they took the score to 87, before both fell to the old, proven policy of having the best fielders in the right positions, each fielding at mid-off. Firstly, Luke Hutton (an Australian catcher of the highest order) and then, our English equivalent, Mikey Stevens, held superb catches and suddenly the picture had changed completely. It was, finally, great to see off spinner Ravi Desai finish the innings off in style by taking the last four wickets for just five runs including two clean bowled, and a comfortable victory was achieved.
Peter Jouning