‘Hollywood’ glamour comes back to the 2nd XI

Amersham 104 all out (Piper 34, Birch 4 for 34)

lost to

Windsor 105 for 2 (Patel 61*)

Having resigned themselves to drawing last week, windsor turned up to the team photoshoot full of confidense as a more balanced batting and bowling side. Oliver ‘Hollywood’ Birch and Andrew Chorley dropped to the 2nds with returning players to the 1st XI bolstered the side in readiness for thier first league win. The gloomy day did not look like it was going to lift, but the wicket looked slightly green and windsor knew the ball would zip around early doors, and decided that they would have a bowl if they won the toss. Amersham had chased down the runs set against them for thier first two league wins so Hill was keen to see if Amersham could defend a total. Amersham won the toss and decided to bat! Windsor were happy with this.

Hill again opened the bowling looking to imporove on last weeks performance. His first delivery hit Jupp in the mid riff which may explain why he left the second ball completely. However the second delivery swung in a long way and broke the bail on the top of off stump! this was the break through Windsor wanted. Birch opened from the castle end and quickly found his pace and rhythum. Piper looked solid and both batsmen looked to get on the front foot early, but this gave a few close outside edges and runs through the gully area. Windsor had set a very attacking field and didnt want to loosen thier grip on these early stages of the game. Birch struck and bowled Haddock, and Amersham were looking dicey on 11 for 2. Hill made another breakthrough by removing his opposite number, the Amersham captain LBW. After 14 overs, Windsor turned to Veteran Edge to work his magic from the river end. Birch continued strongly from the castle end and made a futher 3 breakthroughs to end on 4 for 34 off 13 overs. Edge also struck to leave Amersham little over 60 runs for 7 wickets down. Piper stood firm and offered the only resistance. Condon replaced Birch from the castle end. Gill supported Piperby knocking some singles but not many boundaries were struck. Bringing Kellard on to tempt the batsmen with his spin proved the undoing of the Amersham tail. Windsor used up 45 overs bowling amersham out for 104 giving themselves an extra 7 overs.

The rain fell imediatly after kellard took the last wicket and windsor rushed the covers on for the tea interval. Luckily the rain stopped at the end of the tea break and windor could get on with trying to chase the total before the weather could play another part. Amersham opened the bowling with spin from Rajabali to try and take the initiative. Noble, opening again with patel looked to produce soem more runs after his half centuary last week, but fell in the 4 th without scoring. Patel however looked firm and solid and determined not to give Amersham his wicket eaisly, and hit a six off the spin bowler in the 3rd over! Chorley supported Patel and scored a couple of boundaries in his innings. Amersham bowled tightly and restricted windsor slightly. Chorley fell on 12 bringing into bat the returning overseas player Weston. He was keen to prove a point and was excellent in the field, and wanted to show what he was capable of with the bat. Weston played very sensibly to take a look at the bowlers before unleashing some fine shots. None of the amersham bowlers made another breakthrough and Patel got to 61 and Weston raced to 21 with fine straight drives, to reach the required 105 in the 25th over.

Much, much better this week from windsor, and it shows that when you have a balanced team with the quality players this club has this year, it makes all the difference. The attitude in the field was superb, and the clinical nature of the performance is encouraging. Windsor need to now build on thier first victory and use this as a platform for the rest of the season.