By Will Hopson-Hill (Captain)

Saturday saw the Old Fallopians finally begin their season away against Ilford Catholics 3rd XI. The weather was good, if a little chilly, and the pitch looked understandably damp and green.

A 'gentleman's agreement' between the captains saw the Fallopians bat first against a team largely made up of promising young teenagers mixed through with a few older heads.

Conditions were tough to begin with. While the bowling was of a gentle pace, the new, hard ball on the sticky wicket caused problems to the Fallopians' top order batsmen. Hopson-Hill, Shahid and Huckle all departed swiftly to leave the score on 24 for 3 after 8 overs.

Debutant Atiq Talukder then strode to the crease at number 5 and quickly set about asserting himself. He built a solid foundation for his first ten overs or so, then shed one of his pads and started hitting the bowling to all parts.

Ably supported by an anchor innings from fellow debutant Michael Walsh, the two of them first solidified and then took the Fallopians' innings to a position of great strength. Atiq scored the majority of the runs and by the drinks break after 20 overs the OFs were at 100 for 3. The next 20 overs saw Atiq up the scoring rate massively, with shots all around the wicket, but especially six after six lofted over midwicket.

His century was brought up with yet another six and after Walsh fell, Atiq continued to dominate the bowling with able assistance from debutant Darryl Christie, Steve Hamilton and finally Tim Castle. The star of the show was undoubtedly Atiq, who finished with a record-breaking 192 before finally holing out to cow corner.

The galleries stood to applaud the hero as both team mates and opposition stopped to show their appreciation for a brilliant knock. Shortly afterwards the OFs innings concluded on 274 for 6.

After a delicious tea provided by the Catholics, the OFs took to the field confident - or relatively so! - that their score would be a winning one. The bowling was opened with accurate spells from Darryl and Sheraz Shahid, both of whom bowled a lovely line and length and never let the opposition openers get away.

Sheraz in particular has put on pace since last season and this bodes well for the season ahead. With the batsmen suitably tied down, at this point the old stagers Castle and Shaw were brought into proceedings to run riot.

Castle galloped in with great vigour and purpose, bowling with super accuracy to pick up three wickets in his spell of six overs for only nine runs, while Shaw wheeled away tirelessly to pick up three wickets of his own.

This included the crucial wicket of their opener who looked to be the only threat to the OFs position of dominance, but was bowled by one that kept low. At this point, the match was heading the Fallopians' way, but there was time for birthday boy Steve Hamilton - a little worse for wear after his Friday night celebrations - and debutant Mohammad Malik to both bowl tight spells and see the OFs to a comfortable 133 run victory.

A good, solid team performance to start the season and particular congratulations to Atiq Talukder for a quite exceptional innings on his OFs debut.

 

Magnificent XI: Standing (L-R): Steve Hamilton, Will Hopson-Hill, Andy Huckle, Atiq Talukder, Darryl Christie, John Shaw; front row (L-R): Tim Castle, Michael Walsh, Sheraz Shahid, Muhammad Malik, Sam Shahid

Many more pictures from the game here...

Big hitter: Atiq Talukder on his way to his debut score of 192                                                    Photo: Tim Castle

Many more pictures from the game here...