Teddington CC will not be troubling the promotion chase at the top of Division One of the Middlesex County League, nor will they be dragged into a relegation fight – however, skipper Joe Austin said his charges have plenty to play for.

Not only does Austin want to finish third, and top of the middle block of teams in the table, he also has an eye on the Middlesex Cup final next month at Hornsey.

His side will need to improve on Saturday’s showing after they went down by 136 runs at home to neighbours Richmond.

Austin said: “We want to finish the league strongly and make sure we finish as high as possible.

“It looks like Ealing, in second, are out of our reach so we need to aim for third.

“Then we have the cup final at Hornsey – if we can finish third and win that, it will go down as a good season.”

With three games remaining, just four points separate third and eighth, with Teddington on 69 points, rivals Twickenham on 67 and Richmond on 66.

A Richmond partnership of 145 for the third wicket between James Wood (86) and Andrew Lowe (67) was the biggest nail in the Teddington coffin on Saturday as the visitors reached 230-8 off 66 overs.

Wimbledon Times:

Working in unison: Teddington's Charlie Hopkins looks on as Richmond's James Wood and Andrew Lowe build their 145-run partnership    SP73045

In reply, Teddington collapsed to 94 all out – Jack Porter the star with the ball, taking 4-38.

Austin said: “The league is so tight because all the teams are good all round teams. Richmond, for example, don’t have any superstars, just very strong players and an excellent bowling attack.

“But we also struggled with the bat against Richmond, and too many of our guys switched off.

“We had one of our strongest batting line-ups out there but it just never happened.

“At one point we were 50-odd for one, but in the 20 minutes before lunch, we lost four wickets.

“That is not good enough at this level.

“They bowled very well and hit the right spots, but we helped them no end.”

Divisional rivals Twickenham claimed a winning draw at Eastcote, thanks to four wickets from Fawad Mullahzadah, and an unbeaten 77 off 68 balls from Carlos Nunes.

Fixtures: Twickenham v Ealing, Winchmore Hill v Teddington, Richmond v Eastcote.

Wimbledon Times:

Slow pace: Richmond’s Alex Cama on his way to 16 off 51 balls as Teddington keeper Will Rist looks on  SP73045