3s crowned Champions!

Weybridge Vandals 3rd XI v Whiteley Village 3rd XI Saturday 29th August 2015 Whiteley 166-8 (44.5) Weybridge Vandals set a revised target of 127 off 29 were 130-5 off 26.5.

This game brought 3 ex Vandals players back to Brownacres on a day when it started in good sunny conditions but was reduced to continual drizzle after the tea interval. Sam Kumar won the toss and elected to bowl. Although Sandi Sunder and Dale Merryweather bowled well at the start the opening stand between Simon Fairless (41) and Daron Tribe (47) flourished and realised 84 without loss and the 22 over drinks break. Bothe Simon and Daron were selective in the shots concentrating on putting the bad balls away. Simon was especially strong on the leg side and kept piercing the gaps even when Sam placed 5 fielders in the arc between long on and square leg. Immediately after drinks a climbing short ball caught the shoulder of Simon Fairless’s bat and he was caught by Bruce Magill at Square leg off Rohit (Roy) Gupta. Courtney Cliff (12) and Umar Hameed (15) looked solid but could not find the boundaries. Andy Ayres (21) played a breezy innings of 21 and was using the full extent of the crease playing right back on his stumps and charging down the wicket to drive even off the quickest of the Vandals bowlers Sandi Sunder. It was good to see Billy Shambler back in action for Whiteley Village after a long fight with a back injury. He scored a strong boundary in his 7 and was unlucky to be bowled by Dileep Rodrego Nawaratnam just when he was looking good for runs. ANDY Ayres declared the innings one ball early which was an unusual decision but Andy was always an original one off 3rd XI captain when he played for Weybridge Vandals!

After a glorious tea laden with fruit the drizzle stated. We lost 67 minutes to this nagging and tedious drizzle. Had play already started the players would have definitely have continued. Many players were champing at the bit to play and get some sort of game going. Simon Fairless patiently with his mobile phone calculator kept recalculating what was needed off 34 and then 29 overs. Finally after some heated discussions play finally restarted with Weybridge Vandals requiring 127 to win off 29 overs. The Vandals changed tactics and opened with the youth of Sandy Sunder and the big hitting Ammy Singh instead of the veteran pairing of Sam Kumar and Adrian Waldock who had been the original plan. Elliot Minto with brisk medium pace opened the attack (4-0-8-0) with the talented slow left arm spinner Adam Razey (6-1-9-2). There was an outstanding boundary catch at deep square mid- wicket by Michael Cliff off Adam Razey to remove the dangerous Ammy “Tiger” Singh for just 3 which was a major disappointment because Tiger had launched 4 sixes in the first 7 overs against Frimley last weekend. The solid Sandy Sunder was bowled by a grubber from Razey to make the score 12-2 off 6 overs. Haseeb Rahman (16) played cautiously and solidly and helped build up an important 64 run partnership with Dileep Rodrego Nawaratnam (59) who played adventurously which included some very good shots. The other big hitter Roy Gupta fell cheaply for 5 as he struggled against the second slow left arm bowler Simon Fairless. Chulana Dias saw the Vandals home with 2.1 overs to spare in fading light.

To everybody’s great surprise Chertsey the West Division leaders had collapsed to 94 all out chasing 156 against Staines & Laleham. This meant that the Weybridge Vandals scraped over the line to win the division. It was noted that throughout the season Whiteley Village, Chertsey and the Weybridge Vandals contested the league with all 3 of those clubs doing well and playing positive cricket. It was a great shame that we saw Chobham, West End Esher and Camberley collapse their 3rd XIs in the West Surrey Divisions. This meant a strange season of league spare dates, blank Saturdays and hastily arranged friendlies replaced a solid string of 16 league matches from previous seasons.