In the spirit of recent One Day Internationals, this fixture was accompanied by blaring Heavy Metal music from a concert at nearby Eel Pie Island. The hosts won the toss and batted and early play, on a hard but uneven wicket, seemed to reflect the mood of the music. Terry Tidey was slammed for four 6's in his first 3 overs, but recovered well to take 3-7 in his next six. He was ably assisted by good work in the field with great catches by Dennis Edwards and Pete Demetri. James Wood chipped in with 3 wickets and the Old Boys suffered a middle-order collapse to 60-5. Then Wayne and Jesset put on 70, assisted by the speedy outfield and a number of edged shots, and the Washington attack began to wilt. Richard Minion, getting pace and steep bounce from the wicket, broke the partnership and took three late order wickets, including a brilliant caught and bowled, and Teddington declared at tea with a seemingly competitive 167-9.
Pete Demetri and David Gluckman opened confidently and when the former was out, in the 21st over, Washington were 123-1. Demetri's was a brilliant innings, 68 in 59 balls with ten 4's and a blistering 6 and he was particular strong in the 'V's. This provided the perfect platform for an easy Washington victory with ten overs to spare. Co-opener Gluckman batted through for 61 not out (69 balls and ten 4's) his first 50 for 4 years. He was particularly pleased to have 'scored his age'. There were a few minor hitches in the middle order, but fellow Senior Citizen, Alex McNellan scored a sparkling 16 (retired hurt) which took Washington to the brink of victory.
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