Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

But it was hard work, as skipper Pete Demetri conceded after the game. ‘If we hadn’t got the runs, we’d have had to play more defensively throughout, and we’d have really struggled to winkle their batsmen out - they played well.’

Runs, as the skipper suggested, were the key for Washington. Demetri won the toss on a two-paced pitch with variable bounce, and shuffled the batting order to give some normally unused talent a spell in the middle.

The pitch claimed its first victim almost immediately, Chris Doyle (3) spooning a simple return catch to Scally from a ball which ‘stopped’, and Matthew Cragoe (13) soon followed, well caught down the leg side from a glancing shot. Steve Brown then made 5 before apparently edging a ball to slip, and walked – only to find later that all and sundry were convinced he had played it into the ground before it was ‘caught’!

45-3 after 10 overs, Washington might have wobbled; however, Washington the middle order is quality: led by Grant MacDonald, who has been in superb form all season, they piled on the runs. Macdonald himself made 50, a great effort on such a strange surface, and Paul Irons kept him company with a cultured 31. Gary Evans, elevated to 6, showed no signs of approaching middle age on the eve of his 40th birthday and chalked up 31.

And just when the Horries must have thought the worst was over, Pete Demetri strode out to join Justin Gurney for the eighth wicket. The scoring rate, a healthy 5 an over throughout now leaped to 10, Gurney hitting a powerful 40 and Demetri an unbeaten 25.

A total of 236 looked healthy but a good start was essential. Nick Tidey ensured that Wash got off to a flyer. In perhaps his best spell for the club this season, the young paceman conjured up two, beautiful swinging yorkers in his first two overs, to leave the Horries, 1-2! Thereafter, though Murray (40) and Winteringham (36) played intelligently and added 75 for the third wicket, Walthamstow were always on the back foot.

However, Washington have traditionally found it tough to secure victories on this pitch, and it took a major effort to do so now. Evans (3-31) and Gurney (2-22) both picked up with the ball where they had left off with the bat, and Eric Stoughton (1-36), who opened the bowling with Tidey, troubled all the batsmen in turn.

However, with the overs ticking down and wickets still needed, it was Chris Doyle to whom the captain turned. He didn’t disappoint. In three overs he picked up two for two, ending Walthamstow resistance fittingly by horizontalising No 10’s middle stump.

Wash: Demetri(*), Doyle, Cragoe, Brown, MacDonald, Irons, Evans, Roche(+), Gurney, Tidey N., Stoughton.