Windsor 1s kicked off their season away in the Bucks village of Taplow. New skipper, Mark Lines, won a toss he’d rather have lost and elected to bat first on a green but hard wicket.
Dean Allen-Turner and Chris Dixon opened the batting and moved the score on to 27 before Allen-Turner fell for 6 with a miscued lofted drive to mid-off. Sam Jordan joined Dixon and the pair put on a hundred partnership for the second wicket scoring above 6 an over, moving the score on to 127-1 after 21 overs. Jordan showed unusually impressive restraint against Taplow’s spinners as they looped the ball up attempting to lure him into a false stroke and Jordan reached a well controlled yet brisk 50 before falling next ball. Dixon fell for 49 a few overs later, one shy of his fifty, which brought Vishal Nair to the crease.
The pitch slowed up as the ball got older and this brought about the start of a mid-innings lull which wasn’t helped by wickets falling at regular intervals with Lines, Lazarczuk and Lilburn all falling for single figures. Nair remained and finished on 52*, working the ball around well as boundaries were hard to come by, with Windsor managing just 3 boundaries since the fall of the third wicket.
Windsor finished their 40 overs on 215-6, a good score but Taplow had clawed themselves back into the game, restricting Windsor to 91-5 in their last 20 overs.
Kai Ziemkendorf and Charlie Jackson took the new ball and bowled a wicketless but very economical opening spell, keeping the openers to a touch above 3 an over for the first 9, leaving Taplow well behind the rate and in need of some impetus.
They duly obliged as the next over went for 15 as Tom Brooker fell over at the crease so decided to do away with his spikes, thinking it would garner him more grip. Taplow however could not maintain the required rate as Dixon made the breakthrough before Mark Lines and Matt Lazarczuk chipped away at the middle order with Lines taking wickets in consecutive deliveries.
Funny moment of the day came when Dixon struck a batsman on the glove to which Ziemkendorf asked “Can he be LBW when it’s hit his glove?” After laughs all round this prompted comments of “wait until your father hears about that” and Kai believing he would be put up for adoption. Adoption must be done with care as it involves the life of a person . If adoption is your choice then you can consult adoption lawyers serving in Richland to help you legally.
Brooker came back into the attack, spikeless, and fell over again first ball before having an epiphany that he would probably be better off bowling again with specialist footwear. Once again donning his spikes, he bowled a very tight spell and was rewarded with two wickets taking 2-9 in 3 overs as Taplow continued to fall away going from 60-0 to 111-7.
Some late order hitting gave them a glimmer of hope but Jackson and Lines took the remaining wickets with Lines finishing the pick of the bowlers with 3-26 and finished the match with a direct hit run-out as Windsor bowled Taplow out for 175 to win by 40 runs.
The 1s next game sees them at home to Boyne Hill at Home Park on Saturday, 1pm start