Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

 The Honourable Artillery Company defeated the Washington by 6 wickets on Saturday despite an excellent hundred by Wash skipper Shawn Hill. It was particularly disappointing for Hill that his side were unable to rise to the occasion, the game being played at the prestigious Royal Artillery Ground in central London. HAC proved to be competent with both ball and bat, the damage being inflicted mainly by Kruger (4-24) and Laurie (53 not out).

The Royal Artillery Ground, surrounded on all sides by tall office and military buildings is, perhaps, the oldest ground in London. It is known that a match was played here between Kent and All England in 1746. The sense of occasion was aided on Saturday by a glorious summer's day, increasing the contrast between the bright green of the pitch and the darker colours of the buildings around.

Washington did not start well with the bat losing Steven Brown (4) and James Self (8) with only 18 on the board. There was then a strong 70 run partnership between Sandeep Kuckreja (33) and Shawn Hill (100). The vast majority of these runs were scored in boundaries as the batsmen set about the accurate but ineffective bowling, aided by a fast outfield. In fact Hill scored 84 of his 100 runs in 4s. However once Kuckreja was out and Hill completed his century, the innings fell away with Lee Fogarty (5), Dominic Butcher (10), Eric Stoughton (3*), Russell Pendry (0), Taran Persaud (0) and Gary Malcolm (2) all falling in little more than seven overs. The Wash ended on 186 all out in only 33 overs.

After tea Hill used six bowlers, with Persaud (2-50) being the most successful. Hill and Kuckreja also bagged a wicket each. However the HAC batsmen had plenty of time to get their runs and in fact batted for 39.3 overs, with 6 of the final 20 remaining. Washington rued some wayward bowling at times (21 wides bowled) and one or two fielding errors which cost them dear in the end. Eric Stoughton, making his debut behind the stumps, had a good game, with only 10 byes conceded.

Skipper Hill said after the match “if we had batted for 5 overs longer and scored 20 runs more then this might well have been a different game. Better luck next time.”

Man of the match: Shawn Hill, for his excellent hundred

Packing the kit: Tobe Mariner (again) for not turning up

Washington: Steve Brown, James Self, Sandeep Kuckreja, Shawn Hill (c), Lee Fogarty, Dominic Butcher, Eric Stoughton (+), Russell Pendry, Taran Persaud, Gary Malcolm