Windsor 3rd XI 321-2dec (V Nair 121no, K Condon 117)
Chiswick & Latymer 4th XI 64 (R Hodgson 6-34)
The Windsor 3rd XI promotion bandwagon rolls on after a record-breaking victory over Chiswick & Latymer at Chiswick House.
After winning the toss and deciding to bat first on a good track with short boundaries and a lightning outfield, Windsor’s start could not have been better as Kev Condon and Vishal Nair both got their eye in and scored runs at a fair rate as the sun shone brightly.
In fact so regularly were they hitting the boundary that it seemed like most of the innings was spent searching for lost balls. The first 5 overs took 35 minutes to bowl and it seemed that we were in for a very long afternoon.
However the two openers didn’t let the regular breaks in play stop their concentration and Condon was the first to bring up his 50, and then immediately pulled the bowler into the trees for six. Nair’s 50 soon followed and a good Windsor score was on the cards. Condon hit three successive fours as he raced towards his first century of the season, which duly followed. After a few more quick boundaries, the opening partnership was eventually broken when Condon edged to slip for an excellent 117 with the score on 223. Captain Richard Noble came in to accompany Nair who reached his first senior century for Windsor and carried on to punish the Chiswick bowling. Noble hit a few boundaries with flicks off his legs before being bowled for 20 and Richard Charters hit a few lusty blows off only a few balls for his 17no before captain Noble declared the innings after the completion of the 42nd over leaving Chiswick a victory target of 322 in 58 overs at a rate of just over 5.5 an over.
Windsor knew that a couple of early wickets would set them on the way to victory and after a testing first over from Bryn Davies who beat the edge of the bat numerous times, the first wicket came in the second over as the opening batsman edged one to George Gould at gully off the bowling of Rob Hodgson. Windsor kept up the pressure as the bowling was accurate and probing on a nice line & length and with the ball swinging both bowlers regularly beat the edge of the bat. The second wicket came after Davies frustrated the batman into trying to hit one over the top and only succeeding in picking out Charters at extra cover who took a fine catch above his head.
After a regulation slip catch went down, a rare blemish on an otherwise first class fielding performance, the third and fourth wickets came in the same over as first Sam Jordan took an excellent catch at point and then Charters, now fielding at 3rd slip hung onto a catch at the second attempt, both off the bowling of Hodgson.
Davies then knocked over the stumps with a full delivery to take the 5th wicket and the 6th soon followed. The 7th wicket partnership frustrated Windsor for a while and Noble turned to the spin of Jordan in place of Davies who finished an impressive spell of 2-31, but still the batsmen refused to play any shots. However, sharp fielding by Sam Jordan and wicketkeeper Martin Care got the batsmen confused and with both batsmen at the same end, Care threw to Hodgson at the bowlers end who whipped off the bails. That was the wicket Windsor needed. The lower order offered little resistance as Charters took another catch, this one was hit straight up in the air and Charters ran round from gully to take the catch and then Vishal Nair took a good catch at deep mid-off before another bit of good fielding and return from Nair in the outfield contributed to the run out of the last man as the batsmen attempted a suicidal second run and Windsor had wrapped up another convincing victory in their pursuit of promotion, this time by a club record margin of 257 runs.
