TRINITY MID-WHITGIFTIAN 298-9

J Wood 89, S Miles 52 R Nowell 55

HORSLEY AND SEND 187

Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian won by 111 runs

Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian gatecrashed the Division Three promotion race as a magnificent team display earned them a surprise 111-run victory over new champions Horsley & Send on Saturday, writes Rob Keenan.

Initially Horsley captain Jamal Khan’s decision to put Mids in to bat appeared justified as Shahid Khan took three wickets in his first three overs to reduce them to 16-3.

However, Mids responded superbly as a middle order which has often under-performed this season took the Horsley attack apart on a good batting surface.

Stewart Sales and Jonathan Wood added 103 for the fourth wicket with consummate ease against a lackadaisical side which showed little commitment in the field and made numerous elementary mistakes.

Sales made 44 before he was given out lbw to Shah but Seb Miles joined Wood at the crease and produced his best innings for the team which brought him his maiden half-century.

Wood looked capable of delivering a big 100 but eventually fell 11 runs short as he was caught and bowled by Jamal Khan for 89.

Yet Mids continued to pile on the runs as Richard Nowell became the third half-centurion of the day running well between the wickets with Miles on a ground where boundaries were hard to come by.

Horsley did strike back towards the end of the innings with Riaz Kael taking three wickets in an over to dismiss Nowell, Miles and Page.

However, a flurry of boundaries from last pair Mark Roberts and Gavin Piper enabled Mids to close on an impressive 298-9.

Young opener Andrew Goodchild timed the ball beautifully in the early stages of the Horsley reply as they made a decent start but they quickly fell behind the required scoring rate and the pressure told when Goodchild was well caught by Chatwal on the boundary.

Gavin Piper and Christian Bond both bowled tightly and Bond was rewarded with the key wicket of Riaz Kael who was given out lbw.

Piper then caught and bowled Shahid Khan moments later at which stage Horsley looked to be out of the contest with their best batsmen already back in the pavilion.

A number of batsmen enjoyed time at the crease but never managed to dominate the bowling at any stage and Mids merely needed to bowl in the right places and wait for mistakes to be made.

Roberts, Piper and Miles all picked up two wickets while Bond took Horsley’s last two wickets in two balls to finish with 3-38 as they were eventually bowled out for 187.

An extraordinary set of results elsewhere, most notably Addiscombe’s abandoned match against Bank of England, means that after facing the threat of relegation only three weeks ago Mids now play off against Addiscombe at Lime Meadow on Saturday for the second promotion place in what promises to be a wonderful finale to the season.