Future historians may record that the 2009 season reached its zenith on April 26th at 4pm when, under a cloudless cobalt sky, Roger danced down the wicket and planted the bowler back over his head for four to bring up the two hundred. Watching members of the committee worried that we might have peaked a little too soon.

Earlier, new skipper Chris Willcock had opted to open the batting with the slog/block combination of Murray & Scally. Craig (9) mowed a couple of boundaries before missing a straight one and David largely fulfilled his brief before cunning bowler Bywater tricked him into essaying a scoring shot and bowled him for 4 - (a galling inside edge to the fine leg boundary having despoiled an otherwise immaculate 0).
This second wicket brought in Amit to partner Ian Porton (on debut) and with Isambard's back-up bowling proving less accurate than the opening pair, the run rate began to escalate as Ian cut loose. Amit's dismissal at 53-3 was a disappointment and Chris fell first ball to an excellent catch at slip. Glen was mugged, C&B for 10 which brought in Rahul at 103-6 to play an innings of great discipline. The watching Horizontals derived huge amusement from Rocky's struggle with his natural style. Time and again his bat descended from its high backlift as if to bray the ball out of the park only for the stroke to morph, at the last second, into a forward defensive. Tremendous restraint. Ian eventually fell for a superb 87 (out of 142-6: decent debut) which included 4x6 and 12x4 - and one of the sixes was a mis-hit. But his dismissal brought only further pain for Isambard as Nikhil Bajaj played a superb innings, demonstrating wonderful touch and featuring some leg glances that would have had Steve Moore purring. After he'd holed out for 66 (1x6, 11x4) and Rocky had finally succumbed for 23, there was still time for Roger & Sam to rub it in a bit before the tea interval by which the home side were able to declare on 245-9.

Nikhil & Sam opened the bowling for the Horizontals against a couple of technically correct openers. Nikhil was unfortunate to see two chances grassed but Sam broke through in the eighth over having Mackey caught by ? Bywater at No.3 looked like posing a real threat, not least when dispatching Scally's first ball out of the ground but he fell to a shooter from Amit after a rapid and brutal 36.
The seamers having had their go, Murray, Skipper & McLeod then twirled their merry way through the fifteen remaining overs of the innings as Isambard shut up shop. Rob & Roger claimed two victims apiece in a decent fielding perfomance and at the finish skipper Willcock still had the luxury of three bowlers unused (Chris, Glenn and Rahul).
Isambard closed on 146-7, 99 runs behind, with Gardiner making a creditable and painstaking 60 n.o. and so it was all into the bar to demolish a couple of jugs and anticipate a season ahead that's suddenly full of promise.