SOUTHGATE 1 186-6

EASTCOTE 1 119 all out

An impressive win by Southgate at The Walker Ground in front of a fair sprinkling of spectators.

Although Rory Miscampbell was out early, Jamie Jouning and Michael Stevens batted confidently until the former found a new way of getting out, as he smote the ball straight back at the bowler, Sanik, who took the ball cleanly and threw the ball back and a direct hit found Jouning just out of his crease, run out, for 17.

This brought Tom Edrich to the crease and he and Stevens proved why they are regarded as Southgate’s best current batsmen. The pair added over 100 for the third wicket before Edrich (49) was brilliantly stumped down the leg side off the aforementioned left-arm bowler, Savage. Although Stevens continued with a mixture of drives and square cuts from a variety of good standard bowlers, this opened up the other end and a final total of 186 was probably twenty short of what was expected at one stage. Stevens finished with 83, and was out seventeen runs of a deserved century, which he did actually achieve on the following day in the successful cup match against Tower Hamlets.

In this game, however, Mikey was still not finished as he took two early wickets, and with Jack Upton doing the same, Eastcote never looked likely of obtaining victory. At 69-8 it looked even less likely, as Ben Elders and Darragh Edwards successfully completed the high-quality medium-paced Southgate attack. Finally, it was good to see Ravi Desai pick up a wicket at the end, and of course, the final act of the game was a brilliant catch on the deep mid- wicket boundary by a diving Stevens, catching and shielding his eyes at the same time.

Peter Jouning