WEATHER WRECKS BOROUGH WEEKEND
By James Wheeler
The weather on Saturday unfortunately led to all four of Bessborough’s sides having their games abandoned on Saturday. Danny Hawes’ first eleven were robbed of victory after bowling out Birbeck College for only 157 on a flat pitch in Greenford before the heavens opened and the match was abandoned.
Birbeck College won the toss and decided to bat but they were immediately under pressure by Bessborough’s opening attack of Ian Barrie and Neal Patel. The pair have been in form all season but especially in the last month and it was Patel who struck first dismissing Rizwan who was smartly caught by captain Hawes. The Birbeck pair of wicket-keeper Furqan and Nawaz began rebuilding the Birbeck innings and took the score to 48 when Furqan was run out by a direct hit by Elango Thavalinkham.
Barrie who is the club’s leading wicket-taker this season was building up a head of steam and he picked up the next 2 wickets with Nawaz being caught by a brilliant catch by Hawes once again and he also dismissed Ali for 4.
Mitesh Vyas and Nirav Ghantiwala were brought on to replace Barrie and Patel and they both bowled good probing spells and picked up a pair of wickets each reducing Birbeck to 107-7. With the Birbeck tail wagging, Barrie was brought by captain Hawes and he dismissed 2 of the final 3 batsman to finish with figures of 4-59.
However during the tea interval the rain came and play was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Bessborough’s reply. Next week the first eleven travel to Turnham Green and Poly for their penultimate League game of the season.
The Second Eleven’s home game against Wembley was abandoned after only 16 overs with Bessborough handily placed at 76-1. Captain Phil Bush struck his seventh 50 of the season scoring 59 off only 45 balls before being dismissed.
The weather also forced the abandonment of Bessborough’s third and fourth eleven games. Next weekend sees the penultimate weekend of Saturday League games for all 4 sides.