The Gentlemen of West London won by 79 Runs

Match Report

"The season starts here" was stand in skipper Hemin Patel's rallying call after the West XI victory, and maybe he had a point if this impressive win against the powerful Crown Taverners is anything to go by.

Batting first, The Gents once again got off to a flyer aided by a wayward opening over from Spreadborough and Dubey's typically aggressive approach. The Gents have been dubbed a Twenty20 team in recent weeks and this was once again in evidence as 50 was reached as early as the 6th over but with the regular loss of wickets. The returning Dhruv Patel, thrown in at the deep end opening, was beaten by Spreadborough's extra bounce and Newcombe became the first victim of two fine one-handed diving catches by Worstencroft, particularly impressive given that he is not the most aerodynamic looking of players.

Cloete's 15 minutes of mayhem further enlivened proceedings, umpire Toft offering prayers of thanks on being replaced as it becomes a dangerous occupation when the pugnacious South African is at the crease: 37 runs came off 15 balls before his uncharacteristically tame stumping. Sachin Desai played the anchor role to perfection and on his dismissal it was still hoped that The Gents could see out their overs, but again that proved beyond them. A total of 207 was impressive though given the quality of the opposition and The Gents enjoyed the excellent tea with knowledge of a job well done.

The story of the day however belonged to Dhruv Patel. Down to play, but not involved in the previous week's washout, he was keen to play a whole game. Given his lack of cricket in recent seasons there were some eyebrows raised when he was brought into the attack early with the Taverners powerful middle order settling in ominously. Wonderfully Dhruv rolled back the years and produced an excellent spell. The wickets of Comfort and Rees speak for themselves and his 3-31 was a matchwinning performance. As long as the hard-hitting Spreadborough was at the crease the total was well within reach, but Sanjay Patel bowled him in a fine second spell and the game was up. All the bowlers can take pride in their work and fielding was up to recent standards.

So another excellent win. A word for the oppo though as they are excellent hosts. By their own admission they don't play Sunday cricket and clearly treat it as something to be enjoyed. Their approach of playing hard with a smile is greatly to their credit.

One notable aspect of the day was that Naveed Khan scored The Gents' innings on an iPhone application which produced not only a scorecard that added up, but copious diagrams and graphs. Representatives of those advocates of paper and pencil, including Messrs. Toft and Burman, will be picketing the next Gents game until this Murdochesque threat to our livelihoods is removed.

Ken Toft

©The Gentlemen of West London Cricket Club 2011