Saturday 15th May
TVL 6B
Theale and Tilehurst 2 v Windsor 3
Windsor 192-9 beat Theale and Tilehurst 104 by 88 runs
A superb new ball burst by Dean Bean saw Windsor go to the top of division 6B, as Windsor blew newly promoted Theale and Tilehurst away by an eventually emphatic 88 runs.
It hadn’t always been plain sailing for Windsor who managed a moderate 192-9 off their allotted 52 overs. Put in on a bouncy surface, Windsor’s openers Sam Jordan and Robert Noble produced a carbon copy of the week before, Jordan batted eye catchingly for 47, and Robert Noble had worked his way to 23, when both were dismissed with Windsor score on 71 off 14 overs. As 71-0 became 71-2, Theale tightend up their game and Paul Huggins and Kevin Condon both batted sensibly to avoid any further alarm.
Just when they seemed to have got into their grove, and on 19 and 18 respectively, both fell with Windsor on 115, and when Dawson was dismissed soon after, Windsor were sitting somewhat umcomfortably on 116-5. Windsor lower order dug in. Wayne Lloyd chisiled out 22, Charles McInnerey 19, and together with the tail, Windsor dragged themselves up to 192-9. Ryan Lewin provided an encouraging sign of things to come with 15 not out.
Windsor knew they would have to make early inroads, and Dean Bean provided the perfect start for Windsor, cartwheeling Theale’s opener’s off stump out of the ground in the first over. A fired up Bean, enjoying the bouncy wicket then cut through the hosts top order, and before Theale knew it, they were reeling at 30-5. From here there was no way back, Bean finally took a break with figures of 6-44. Rashid Awan produced a good foil, going for just 1-15 off 10 overs. A breif period of resistance was ended when Edge used his experience to bowl Theale’s no 7, and with the score on 100-8, Lewin nabbed the penultimate wicket. With Theale 9 down, and needing 17 overs to survive, a Chris Edge slower ball was hit into the statasphere by Theale’s No.10 and Robert Noble had seemingly an age to judge it. When the ball eventually came earthbound Noble made no mistake and Windsor had blown Theale away for 104, and thus claimed the 25 points to send them top.
