I know it’s a cliché but cricket was the real winner, as well as the PR’s, when their annual contest against The Journalists was fought out on the battlefield of Thames Ditton Cricket Club on June 5th.
The weather could not have been finer as Journalist’s skipper David Rogers won the toss and rather surprisingly inserted the PR’s on what appeared to a ‘belter’ of a batting track.
And so it proved to be with the openers Dixon and Howland retiring undefeated on 30 apiece setting the stage for Gill (32) and Walker (33) to keep the tins turning over. At the close of the 30 over innings the PR’s had set a record total for this fixture of 202.
Returning to the field after a splendid lunch, the Journalists were under no illusion that they had a mountain to climb if they were to surpass the PR’s total.
Undaunted, they set about their task admirably with solid knocks from openers Hart (32) and Lynch (21) followed by a master class in power hitting from Journo’ veteran Ben Roscow (37).
Concern crept into fielding skipper Andy Walker’s mind as the run-rate was maintained. However, skilful manipulation of his 8 ‘bowlers’ kept the batting side guessing and with it the run-rate increased, despite Windle’s best efforts (31).
With 3 overs left the Journalists required 36, a tall order, and so it proved to be with only 18 coming from them leaving them 18 short of the 203 required.
