Dorking 3s return to the Summit

Dorking 3rd XI got back to winning ways against Teddington Town at Westhumble on Bastille Day. Tommy Chisman lost the toss and Dorking were asked to bat first. Dorking started well despite Noisey being dropped at gully third ball and losing Myers early on to lucky grab in first slip’s lap. Peter Horton and Mike Cox batted fluently before Cox eventually fell for a well-made 31. Noisey continued his good form against Teddington Town and reached his 50. But TT continued to chip away with wickets with their skipper bowling particularly well with 3 for 29 off 13 overs. Horton fell for an excellent 76, even though he felt there was a century for the taking. The rest of Dorking’s batsmen chipped in to post a competitive 224 off 48 overs. Special mention to some good hits to get the score past 200 in Ian Gregg’s 20, Will Phillips’ first runs of the season (in his first knock of the season!) and Dave Young’s 19 not out, including 2 sixes in the final 2 balls from DY before Dorking declared.

Dorking went out to field looking to bowl TT out to get back to winning ways and go back to the top of the league with Old Hamptonians not playing this week. Will Phillips (returning after a break for exams) made immediate inroads, getting 3 early wickets with catches from Chisman, Cox and Cooper. He could have had more but for a drop at gully from Myers where Tommy had just moved him. TT were playing their shots, looking for the win, but Dorking kept pegging them back with wickets. Gregg proved the old adage that sh*t gets wickets. In between plenty of good balls, he got one wicket off a long hop, caught at cow corner where he’d just moved Andy Walker, and one caught and bowled off a wide full toss. DY bowled with his usual accuracy, which told through 3 excellent wickets, all bowled. Dorking looked like they might wrap up the innings within 25 overs...

But TT rallied when 8 wickets down, with two top order batsman batting down the order. One was their skipper, the other batting low due to his injured hand from his slip drop/catch off Myers in the third over. Both batted with determination against tight bowling from DY, the returning Will Phillips and 4 maidens on the bounce from Dale Winton Young. After batting for 15 overs and with only 8 overs left to see out an unlikely draw, Chisman brought himself on for some off spin and brought back Conor Myers who had opened the bowling with Willips but had only played a supporting role. Myers didn’t take long to make the crucial breakthrough; fair play to the umpire for giving a plumb LBW. Chisman then wrapped things up by beating TT’s number 11 with his famous arm ball to knock over off stump. The Cocks won by 86 runs!