Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian end season on high (From Croydon Guardian)

Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian end season on high

9:12am Monday 6th September 2010 in

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OLD WIMBLEDONIANS 266-9 N Lo 81, A Dawson 55

TRINITY MID-WHITGIFTIAN 270-6 R Piggin 101

Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian won by four wickets.

Richard Piggin became Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian’s first centurion of the season in their final game as Mids beat Old Wimbledonians by four wickets on Saturday to end an otherwise disappointing season.

Piggin shared stands of 82 with Robert Warne and 95 with Mike Brugnoli as Mids belied their recent poor form to chase down a daunting total.

Wimbledonians’ score was largely founded on a fourth wicket stand of 134 between captain Nick Lo and Andy Dawson.

Gavin Piper, by far the pick of the TMW bowlers this season, removed openers Louw and Redeker cheaply while Tony Brugnoli dismissed Jason King to reduce the visitors to 55-3.

Once again, Mids lost their way in the middle overs as Lo and Dawson combined to score 81 and 55 respectively to leave Wimbledonians well placed for a late acceleration as tempers frayed in the field.

However, Mids fought back well to restrict the scoring in the closing stages with the help of some tight bowling from Piper and four wickets from young spinner Gunjal Patel who obtained plenty of turn from the wicket.

Piper finished with 3-33 and Patel with 4-58 while young medium-pacer Ben Ives showed plenty of promise on his first XI debut as Wimbledonians closed on 266-9.

Mids began brightly in reply with Jesse James and Graham Cobbett looking in good touch.

James reached 30 before he was bowled by Rob Whelan and Cobbett made 17 before he was caught behind in the next over.

After a largely inconsistent season, Piggin’s quality has shone through in recent weeks and he carried the attack to the Wimbledonians spinners with great success, ensuring that the required run rate never spiralled out of control.

Warne (22) provided vital support for over an hour but Mids suffered a setback when former Warlingham spinner Jaco Louw took three quick wickets to reduce them to 161-5.

The game appeared to be swinging in the visitors’ favour but some positive batting from Mike Brugnoli, reverting to a more suitable number seven role, kept Mids’ hopes alive and set up an exciting finish.

Brugnoli scored at a run a ball while Piggin continued to bat beautifully at the other end and two expensive overs from Dawson left Mids with the straight-forward task of scoring 20 from the last four overs.

Piggin completed a deserved century before being caught on the boundary for 101, paving the way for Tony Brugnoli, in his final match for the club after a decade of loyal service, to hit the winning runs with more than two overs to spare.

An eighth-place finish is ultimately a fair reflection of an undistinguished campaign blighted by inconsistency in performance and a lack of regular commitment which has been a constant source of frustration to captain Stewart Sales who now steps down after a difficult two-year tenure.

The emergence of some good young players has been a pleasing feature of the season but Sales’s successor will need to inject greater enthusiasm and quality into the side if Mids are to improve in 2011.