The first XI passed up a great opportunity to pick up a much needed 10 points away at Enfield in a true game of two halves.
Enfield won the toss and chose to bat in front of a crowd of 200 or so gathered for their president's day. Southgate's opening pair of captain James Dangerfield and Pasoon Rahman bowled good 8 over spells, removing an opener each. Pasoon took an over or two to find his rhythm, but grew into his spell brilliantly finishing with figures of 8-3-24-1.
The seamers were replaced by spin just before the first drinks break. Akshay Pillalamarri’s return to the club is extremely welcome and he got to work instantly, finding turn and strangling accuracy from the very beginning of his spell. Akshay bowling in tandem with the always threatening Laurence Perry was a tantalizing prospect, but the next wicket to fall was actually a brilliant direct hit run out from Josh Holmes who swept around from backward point before picking up cleanly and throwing down the bowlers end stumps. 3 further quick wickets from the spin duo meant the Enfield score had gone from 64-2 to 75-6. The highlight from this period was Laurence comprehensively beating Enfield’s advancing overseas player with a googly, leaving Scott Ellis ample time to remove the bails.
Enfield's tail set about accruing as many runs as possible and some patient batting combined with heaves from their number 11 eventually saw them bowled out for 130. It was a near perfect bowling and fielding performance from Southgate on a usually high scoring ground, unfortunately that is where the positives end.
Praise should be given to Enfield's overseas bowler who ran in hard and bowled with pace and skill for 13 overs straight, picking up 3 wickets in the process. Their off spinner also bowled well to earn 4 wickets, but ultimately if you can’t chase 130 you're not going to win many games. Scott Ellis top scored with 24 and perished looking to push on as he ran out of partners. The scorecard made for sorry reading as we were eventually bowled out for 94 in front of an increasingly buoyant Enfield crowd. Nobody other than Scott made 20 and there were four ducks. Good performances in the field let down by poor batting has been all too frequent for the 1st XI this season.
Max Joseph