An early arrival at the ground allowed a decent warm up. Mahendra had indicated his intention to bat if he won the toss which he did !
Roger and Barret were firmly told by the skipper NOT to get out and they took that to heart with a sure partnership of 30. Barret playing the ball very late finding holes square of the wicket on both sides
Tim and Richard struck out with confidence adding 38. we had reached 68 from the first 8 overs
Jeremy and Mahendra who have not played for a while had the best partneship of the day adding 52 from their 4 overs
Patrick and John batted well and were on course for reaching a total in excess of 170 until Tim bowled a very accurate speedy final over. As Mehendra said we would have taken 166 before we started.
Batting practice before the game had paid off with no wickets lost, a first for the season

Wallington batting began with a flourish. Epsom's opening bowlers got punished for bowling too short with the shorter leg side targetted. After 4 overs they had scored 54. Things did not change much with the next pair as 48 runs were added.
Epsom made a much better effort in overs 9-12 with Tim taking the catch of the year travelling around the boundary jumping and stretching to take a one handed catch. Patrick struck in his 3rd over clean bowling Colin .The 3rd pair were restricted to 38 leaving 27 to win from the last pair
Jeremy, Tim, John and Mahendra kept the pressure on in those final overs with Wallington needing 2 off the final ball, the draw would have been enough for Epsom
However with all fielders in close the opposition squeezed a single.
Again Epsom were a close second and congratulated by all on a strong performance but" kind words butter no parsnips"as my Nan would say.
Thanks to Geoff for square leg umpiring, Sheila for preparing lunch, John for drinks, Dave L for scoring and Anne, Paul and David P for their support
Our last league of the season gives us reasons to be optimistic, the wounded Thoroughbreds will rise again of that I am sure.

By John Sands with added ingredients from Mahendra