Putney CC 11th May 2019

The first made the trip to Putney, where once everyone had found somewhere to park, Ripley won the toss and put Putney in to bat on what looked to a wet, two paced wicket. The first ball confirmed it was a good toss to win as it dribbled through to the wicket on the 8th bounce leaving a divot Tiger Woods would be proud of! The Putney openers battled hard in tricky conditions against testing opening spells from Josh Thomas and Rob Parsons. Josh made the well deserved breakthrough thanks to a well judged catch from Alex Pound. Shakey and Cliffy took the pace off the ball which really stopped Putney in their tracks and more wickets came as they looked to push the pace. With the sun shining and the pitch drying out, batting became easier which was demonstrated by some late, straight hitting by Putney’s lower order. They finished up on 190-8 which we thought was about a par score.

Ripley’s run chase got off to bad start with Shakey falling foul to the slow pitch and lofting a drive. Grimmy and Dylan steadied the ship and a solid partnership put us ahead of the game. Grimmy played some shots through square leg that were reminiscent of the great West Indies team and Dylan looked like he was playing on a different pitch to everyone else. The hitting was nothing short of brutal. When Grimmy fell, a mid order collapse ensued, saved only by the relentless scoring from the other end. Alex Pound and Tom Clover played supporting roles to Dylan but each contributed to 35+ run partnerships which broke the back of the run chase. A questionable LBW decision saw the back of Dylan for a superb 112 and another flurry of wickets saw Ripley 9 down with Josh and Cliffy at the crease needing 2 runs to win. A couple of scampered singles with the light quickly fading saw Ripley home to a second straight win to start the season.
Tim Russell.