Match Report by George Greville Williams (2012, K)
As the warm weather continued into Sunday, the Rangers arrived full of optimism and looking to get an early season win on the board.
The morning started with James Todd (2010, G), in usual fashion, failing to win the toss on a belter with the Rangers subsequently sent out to field by the I Zingari. However, that didn’t dampen any spirits as Jonty Robinson (2012, K) decided to continuously question the batsmen in the corridor of uncertainty from ball one. His counterpart Charlie Williams (2012, B) looked sharp, with his trek across West London seeming to have loosened him up as he got the breakthrough early on. That seemed to ignite the rest of the bowling unit with IZ slipping to 72-4. In that period there was even a bowled Todd, caught Todd (3-26) – one for the Rangers record books! IZ wrestled back some control but after the lunch break the Rangers were back in the ascendency after a smart runout from Will Todd (2013, G). Jonty Robinson showed no lethargy from lunch and followed it up with three quick wickets which even included a hat trick scare, sadly to no avail (3-39). Rupert Henson (1975, A) aptly finished off the tail in fine fashion with figures of (2-1), leaving the Rangers needing 139 with plenty of time to spare.
The top order got off to a solid start but in true Rangers fashion, offered up opportunities to the opposition to make some early inroads. In between a couple of breakthroughs, Archie Boscawen (2011, H) (37) and Christian Hollingsworth (2009, K) (39) steadied the ship at 71-2, with some quality strokes on display just shy of tea. However, what looked like an easy chase turned into a gritty 20 minutes after tea as the Rangers fell to 87-4. IZ, buoyed by the change in momentum and seeing some Old Radleian contemporaries gift their wickets away, increased their decibel levels. Fortunately, after some scratchy rotation of strike and a couple of useful cameos (James Todd 20*, Declan Rugg 11*), the Rangers managed to get the over the line with four wickets to spare. The match was tightly contested and played in a great spirit. It was great to get an early season win on the board for the Rangers, especially after a tricky start against the school. Hopefully, that can feed into this weekend’s game against the MCC as the Rangers look to build some early-season momentum.
View the Rangers fixture list for 2024
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