An absolutely glorious afternoon saw The Pilgrims take the field for the second time in two days hoping to accomplish a 100 per cent winning weekend after the previous day’s triumph versus Marble Hill. Confidence was buoyant.

With the opposition fielding one or two youngsters and being a man short, this only served to heighten expectations. However, in good sporting form, various Pilgrims did their bit in the field to even up the sides as the visitors batted first.

Edgar and Bumpy were the opening pair and were asked to deal with some sprightly bowling from one end as things started fairly tightly. Unfortunately, Bumpy wasn’t to last too long and was dismissed cheaply.

In came Kommander at number three deputising for Penthouse who was still in transit and nowhere to be seen.

This partnership dragged on for some time with one of Taplow’s colts tying up the scoring with four successive maidens. However, Edgar and Kommander managed 41 and 48 respectively albeit somewhat slowly. Also, for his trouble, Edgar took a ball on the side of the head just getting in at the non-striker’s end – ouch!

With plenty of wickets in hand, The Pilgrims set about increasing the scoring rate and impressive form from Moggie (22) and Marcus (48) soon started to redress the slower rate. The late-running Penthouse chipped in 15 before being dismissed in the penultimate over. This left Marcus and Egon to see out the remainder of the innings which saw the team post a score of 200 that hadn’t looked likely earlier on.

Tea.

And what a tea it was, most definitely four stars out of five, including a range of fine sandwiches, mini sausages, quiche, carrot cake and the Dreadnought of cakes, Cherry Bakewells. (The author admits to being biased regarding the last).

Taplow batted very progressively and without over stretching themselves attained a likely winning position with under ten overs still to go. It had been a hot afternoon in the field for Chiswick’s finest with wickets few and far between and multiple catches going astray. Most notably, one unnamed (unlike the back of his shirt) player decided to sprint 20 yards screaming “mine!” to claim a catch that was going straight down the throat of one of his team-mates. Now, it’s probably a very good idea to make sure these ones are safely caught in such high profile circumstances. Sadly the ball hit the turf followed shortly by some choice four-letter critique by the culprit.

Omlette then decided to take a couple of timely wickets and suddenly the result was not so certain. With well under 20 required off the remaining three overs, Taplow looked set to coast to victory but some tight Pilgrims bowling brought the game to a dramatic climax...

Inside the last over with the match tied (200-5), Taplow required just a single from the remaining two deliveries. Down came the penultimate delivery which was blasted airborne towards the covers and Penthouse who made no mistake with the catch.

So, the final delivery and a brand new batsman... surely The Pilgrims would prevail and tie the match? In came Juggs and pushed a quick one through straight into Moggie’s gloves for a dot-ball. Hooray!! Unfortunately the Taplow batsmen didn’t see it quite that way and had set off running anyway. Before Moggie could react, the non-striking batsman was well on his way and just made the 22 yards before the bails came off. Taplow had stolen it by one run.

Man of the Match: Marcus Powl