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August 16th 2026
New opponents yet again, thanks Ed for sorting out yet another fixture.
Southwater CC welcomed us to their ground and to their extensive, and
extensively used, facilities, and, on winning the toss, invited us to
bowl first on what unsurprisingly, given recent weather, proved to be a dry and inconsistent wicket.54 and counting
Match report J
Simon
We took to the field having welcomed Chinu back for only his second game of the season, Rohit for only his second game ever for TWCC, and Graham who wasn’t playing at all, but who was on good form.
A good toss to lose as it turned out because Ed had turned up. And he turned it up. The scorebook is a little hard to decipher, but however it is or isn’t recorded the main point is that Ed took five wickets in his six over spell, with two maidens in there, going for just 16 runs along the way. That’s the main story here; Southwater’s top- and middle-order not really getting much of a chance to ply their trade, with two exceptions, Sean Overton and Tim Covey eventually scoring 50 and 46 respectively. Ed’s wickets; Jonathan took a nice PC catch (I think – unless I’m thinking of our skipper getting out later...?), Ed himself took a catch off his own bowling, he bowled Josh Tyerman and Jim took a couple of simple catches at mid-on. That’s five. We’ll never know what might have happened if Southwater hadn’t have lost so many early wickets, but something else would have. In amongst all this Edness, Chinu smartly threw the ball in to Jonathan from square leg to run out No 2. Tony Sanghera on 12, and (I think as the book is not easy to read) the home side were six down with less than 50 on the board.
Matt Brock, had opened the bowling with Ed, and was on this occasion not a wicket-taker, but neither was he bowling anything other than well, also going for just 16 in his five overs. Some days you get wickets and then some days you don’t, more the latter in my experience.
However, Southwater had kept Overton at 6 and Covey at 8 somewhat in reserve, and these two rallied the innings, and as Charlie and Kanishka, and then Jim and James, took the innings on some runs did begin to happen. But so did wickets; Tom taking two chances at slip, and then once again showing his prowess (no one remembers the dropped chance at point) as Gupta skied a ball off James to the long off boundary. It wasn’t mishit, not really, but it just fell inside the boundary where Tom, running round from straighter on, settled under it and took the high ball with great aplomb to secure the Champagne Moment of the day and another wicket for James, who took three for 20 in his five overs, and James it was who finished the innings off by bowling Southwater’s skipper, Gary Moore at the end of the 28th over, and the home side were all out for 135.
Some mentions; the usual; Jonathan’s keeping (Oh – yes, in a previous edition I failed to mention his super-quick stumping off Brocky in the Scaynes Hill game, which Jonathan absolutely did not remind me about) was once again a significant difference between the teams’ fielding performances. Just 2 byes on this difficult wicket is tremendous work, as was Matt B’s committed fielding on a number of occasions as he slid and dove about coming up with the ball each time. What a difference good fielding makes. And all through, Chinu patrolled the square boundary keeping the runs down to a single on many occasion, and those on the single in the ring were getting behind many a tricky ball to stop a run altogether, all of which kept the score down just as much as the regular taking of wickets. A good all round strong committed team performance, with good fielding positions constantly monitored by our skip.
So, not a big chase for TWCC to take on after tea - thank you Southwater for providing tea – and Tom and Matt E faced up first. There was some decent pace from Gupta and Tom Ong that needed watching, and the indifferent bounce was certainly a factor. Nonetheless all it took was to set the ball rolling off towards the boundary and it would inevitably get there however energetically it might be chased. For instance Tom got on top of a shortish ball outside his off stump, angled it down through gully and there was four runs. Matt E, meanwhile, had kept the ball out well enough, but then he followed a ball outside his off stump for a PC caught behind off Gupta. A clear edge, and it was unfortunate for our skipper to have denied himself a bowl only to not play a big role with the bat... but was he downhearted? He didn’t let on, which is greatly to his credit.
Then Ong bowled Tom with a good ball that did that light snick thing with the bails as it got through, and Tom was out for 14, and TWCC were 20 for 2 in the 4th over. What the visitors needed was a partnership, and after seeing off Gupta and Ong this is what Jonathan and Chinu only gone and done. In spades. A glance at the book shows that these two hit more fours than other denominations of runs, and if asked to pick two shots from the highlight reel, there would be Jonathan’s low, low, very late cut almost off a half volley outside his off stump that he steered to the third man boundary, and, mixed in with Chinu’s pulls to leg there he was, squarely thumping a ball up over the covers on the off side, a middled shot that rocketed for four. Just two shots out of many, and after they’d added 95 runs, yes 95 runs, Jonathan was run out for 44, as a throw from side on took the bails as Jonathan ran through after Chinu survived an LBW shout. It was all a little unnecessary – a theme to which we may return but in not much depth. But this should not, and doesn’t, diminish the partnership that took TWCC to 115, leaving the visitors with only a further 21 required to win with 7 wickets in hand.
And TWCC had Rohit! The legend that is Rohit, in at 5, and if anyone was wondering what that legend is, it is encapsulated in his entry in the book which goes 4, dot, 4, 4 and out LBW given by an umpire who should remain anonymous as long as the cheque clears in ten working days. The dot in there is instructive; what we saw was a perfect, solid block to a good straight ball, which goes to show that Rohit's big shots aren’t unconsidered, but are simply what he does to balls that aren’t troubling to him. And, on top of that, he is a nice guy with whom to spend time watching a long partnership as myself, Graham, Kanishka and Rohit enjoyed that time there in the shade watching Jonathan and Chinu putting the game into a safe place.
But there Rohit was - gone! Bemused, but not batting any more and it was left to Jim and James to score the final four runs required. But Jim ran to the batters end and back again only to be run out with a direct hit for 0, and Kanishka came in, all prepped, and with James’s 1 and Kanishka’s single and then a good strong straight four these two won the game for TWCC in the 22nd over.
Ed's 5-for five-fer five-for 5-fer whatefer duly celebrated. Well done Ed!
There was good beer, Ed was pleased to buy a round after taking five wickets, there was good chat, fun, and Graham stayed on which was great. Sadly Chinu and Rohit had to leave at the end of the game, but it was good to see them and Graham again, and we hope to see more of them before the end of the season. Evening drinks in the cool of a warm evening as the sun drifts away are amongst the truly good things in life.
L - R for irregular readers: Ed, Charlie, Jim, Matt B, Tom F, Graham, Jonathan†, Kanishka, Matt E*, and James
Chinu and Rohit had to leave early
Thanks to Southwater for sharing a Sunday afternoon’s cricket in good spirits, and for contriving to have both Fuller’s London Pride and Gale’s HSB on draught, and though both are now part of Asahi (who also swallowed Dark Star...), all was well as the shadows lengthened and the evening closed on a day in which the most serious event was not the cricket at all but was when a small toddler on the boundary let his or her balloon string go and the poor child had to watch his special balloons float away, first inexplicably just out of reach, then up, up and further up into the clear sky, until they had become a tiny dot that was eventually too small to see or was taken into the air intake of an Airbus 320. It was as painful a moment for the poor child as they’ll know for a while, or at least we hope so.
Scorecard
Toss won by Southwater CC who chose to bat first in a 35:35 over straight up and down game.
Southwater Innings: A Kits ct J Rowland (wk) bld E Howes 4; T Sanghera run out (C Sharma) 12; Z Stein ct & Bld E Howes 8; J Tyerman bld E HOwes 0; S Overton ct T Firth bld J Taylor 50; T Ong ct J Simon bld E Howes 0; T Covey bld J Taylor 46; S Gupta ct T Firth bld J Simon 2; P Hanna† not out 4; G Moore* ct J Rowland (wk) bld J Taylor 0. Extras 12 (B2, LB3, W3, NB4) Total 135 all out (28 overs).
Fall unrecorded - what a shame.
TWCC Bowling: E Howes 6-2-16-5; M Brock 5-0-16-0; K Bhattacharya 4-0-39-0; C Howes 3-0-24-0; J Simon 5-0-16-1; J Taylor 5-1-20-3.
TWCC Innings: T Firth bld T Ong 14; M Edwards* ct P Hanna (wk) bld S Gupta 2; J Rowland† run out (J Tyerman) 44; C Sharma bld J Tyerman 36; R Pauthi LBW(?) bld S Overton 12; J Simon run out (T Covey) 0; J Taylor not out 1; K Bhattacharya not out 5. DNB M Brock, C HOwes, E Howes. Extras 24 (B6, LB3, W13, NB2) Total 138 for 6 (21.1 overs).
Fall: 1-14, 2-20, 3-115, 4-128, 5-132, 6-132.
Southwater Bowling: S Gupta 5-1-20-1; T Ong 4-1-16-1; G Moore5-0-34-0; J Collins 3-0-24-0; J Tyerman 3-0-18-1; S Overton 1.2-0-17-1.
TWCC win by four wickets.
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