Sunday 25th September 2005 vs Grimsdyke C.C.
 
Wash pipped at the last
 
Washington C.C. 239-7 (35 overs)
Grimsdyke C.C. 240-9 (34.3)
 
Washington ended their season with a shock one-wicket defeat. A brilliant century from Grimsdyke keeper Suleman (110 not out) allowed the home side to overhaul the imposing target set them by Washington with 4 balls of the game remaining.

It all left Washington’s young skipper Rob Tidey at a loss for words. ‘I just can’t believe we lost that game!’ he said afterwards.

With 14 regular players on the official club tour of Croatia, Washington had a few new faces; however, the new look side held the whip hand for most of the afternoon.

Washington batted first with Tidey (63) and Matthew Cragoe (7) adding 50 for the first wicket before the latter was bowled by a huge inswinger from Pask (2-43). Tidey would also fall to the same bowler – eventually. However, in the interim, he continued to bat with authority and added 118 with stylish Aussie, Adrian Wroe (68).

His removal brought Grimsdyke no respite. His replacement was big-hitting George Hope, who strode into the arena and began to thrash the bowling to all quarters of the ground in a display of savagery. He was eventually caught for 61 off the persevering Zaid (4-29).

After some useful blows from debutant Lomas Toovey (3), the innings ended with some drama as Zaid dismissed Lee Foggarty (0) and Andy Burns (0) with the fourth and fifth balls of the 34th over: David Gluckman came out to face the last ball of the innings and survived the hat-trick!

Wash took tea having set their hosts a big total: 240 to win off 35 overs. Ben Jooste and Burns opened up as if they meant to get the job done quickly. Jooste (3-25) got Pask early on, and when he was rested Kit Cooper (3-27) came on to bowl a mesmerizing spell. The end of season wicket was ideally suited to his slow-medium swing bowling, and all the batsmen struggled.

Supported by some excellent catching, with Burns the complete star of the show, Wash seemed to have the situation under reasonable control.

However while Wash managed to nibble away at the wickets as the Grimsdyke batsmen chased the game, they couldn’t get rid of Suliman who was, well, magnificent. In addition, far too many extras were being conceded with a large number of wides giving the home team not only runs, but extra time in which to reach their target. Extras totalled 52 –of which only 7 were byes.

The penultimate over began with the last-wicket pair together, darkness descending rapidly and 14 still needed. The skipper took the responsibility and brought himself on: 10 runs came from Tidey’s over but as Suliman sought to retain the strike off the last ball of the over he skied a chance into the gully. Victory hung in the air – but wasn’t grasped. Suliman duly knocked off the winning runs in the last over, and Wash were left to wonder, with their young captain, how they had managed to let the game slip away.

top   back
Batting
Player Runs How out
Robert Tidey 63 Caught
Matthew Cragoe 7 Bowled
Adrian Wroe 68 Other
Aff Naseem 6 Caught
George Hope 61 Caught
Lowel Toovey 3* 
Lee Fogarty 2 Bowled
Ben Jooste 0 Caught
Andrew Burns 0 Bowled
David Gluckman 0* 
Did Not Bat
Kit Cooper
Partnerships
Wkt Runs Batsmen
1 50 Robert Tidey  &  Matthew Cragoe
2 118 Robert Tidey  &  Adrian Wroe
3 15 Adrian Wroe  &  Aff Naseem
4 51 Adrian Wroe  &  George Hope
5 5 Adrian Wroe  &  Lowel Toovey
6 0 Lowel Toovey  &  Lee Fogarty
7 0 Lee Fogarty  &  Ben Jooste
8 0 * Ben Jooste  &  Andrew Burns



Fielding
Player Cts Wkt Cts Stmps
Andrew Burns 2 - -
Bowling
Player Overs Mdns Runs Wkts
David Gluckman 5.0 0 35 1
Lee Fogarty 2.0 0 16 0
Kit Cooper 7.0 0 27 3
Robert Tidey 1.0 0 10 0
George Hope 5.0 2 56 2
Ben Jooste 7.0 1 27 3
Andrew Burns 7.0 0 47 0
Lowel Toovey 1.0 0 18 0
Top