Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

Stuart 'Swampy’ Marsh reports.

Prior to this game, the Wash had played this team twice already in the season and with the ledger balanced, they arrived at Northfields to slightly overcast but warm clearing conditions, a locked gate and several of the oppo awaiting the arrival of the keys. Ultimately they were denied the win but were valiant in defeat, with Captain Mariner pacing nervously through the early batting stages and girding his troops with pleas to “just keep going”, knowing that to just remain at the crease for the full 40 overs would be sufficient for victory.

Having lost the toss, Mariner’s men took to the field with Clinton Dugmore and Stuart Marsh opening the bowling. Dugmore (6 – 0 – 39 – 1) bowled a good consistent spell of direct fast bowling and was unlucky not snare one or two more wickets, but did get that breakthrough with a good catch by Will McDonagh at extra cover. At the other end Marsh (4 – 0 – 20 – 1) enticed an unsteady opener into a loose shot with his second delivery, Mir taking a simple catch at cover. After these two wickets and with Marsh then going wayward, Mariner took over from the southern end and bowled with good line and length to stem the flow of runs, but by drinks the home team were just 3 down.

Beyond drinks, the heat was turned up and Mariner continued to cause their batsmen many problems, eventually returning great figures of 8 – 0 – 45 – 4, including a sharp return catch to remove a real danger man.  Unfortunately he was closely denied a deserved fifth and a hat-trick. Malcolm (4 – 0 – 27 – 0) bowled a short set and created several chances with varied flight.

Generally throughout this period, the Wash could feel their grip on the game tightening, with home team runs increasingly hard to come by and wickets falling in quick succession through Mariner and the next bowling changes of Naveed Mir and Luke Mitchell. The Wash were hungry, and their appetite was soon sated. Both of these latter bowlers were accurate from the start and each picked up two wickets with mouth-wateringly delicious figures: 5.2 – 4 – 6 -2 for the marvellous Mir, and 3 – 2 – 2 – 2 for the short-wearing and equally marvellous Mitchell.

At one stage in the early overs, Northfields were looking at 200 runs; but through tight bowling and good fielding, and with plenty of well held catches all around the field, they were restricted to 142 all-out in the 31^st over. This fielding effort included a great bit of keeping by Andrew ‘Specky’ Speck, who surprisingly, hadn’t kept wickets for 9 years prior to this day (you wouldn’t have known) and saw the Wash heading to tea with a very modest chase required for Captain Mariner’s first victory this season. Not a very nice stat that one, but there it is; and sadly, there it was to remain.

Given the absence of Peter Kloss from the bowling attack, he stepped up for a role as opener with Andrew Speck. Speck looked and felt confident but fell for a duck in the first over, pulling a shortish delivery to mid-wicket. Kloss (12) was solid and deserved more but he too was caught at deep extra cover playing indecisively. Naveed Mir was caught behind of his first ball, when he edged an attempted heave through his usual area. Meanwhile Dugmore (7) was bowled by a straight one that he misread, after he had played some solid defensive pushes and clean scoring strokes. Mir’s departure brought Nasser Ahmad (28) to the crease and with his parents watching he started slowly and deliberately and having got his eye in, pushed and guided the ball, sometimes luckily but much more often than not with skill to all parts of the ground.

The departure of Russell Pendry (6) and the Skipper Mariner (0), both clean bowled in quick succession, brought this reports author – Stu Marsh (25 not out) – to the crease in a supporting role to the now well set Ahmad. Together they formed a 30 run partnership, the highest (sadly) of many that began with promise but ended too soon. Eventually, the varied pace and line from Shaq (Attack) did for Ahmad, when he failed to connect and let a straight fast one through. This brought Malcolm (2) to the crease and he too was bowled by the puzzling action of their left-armer. Will McDonagh (5) managed some edgy runs and survived several balls getting through before playing just inside the line of an angled delivery which took middle and off. The be-shorted Mitchell (0) strode to the crease, but he too was soon bowled and the Wash innings was terminated in the 32^nd over.

Dressing room analysis after the game proposed the excuse that the team was stacked with bowling options, but very light on batting credentials. Whilst this is probably accurate, once again this season, when batting we needed to be more obstinate and rigorous in defence. It is telling that 7 wickets were ‘bowled’.

In the field, the job of winning was started; but at the crease, we crumbled.

Man of the Match: Toby Mariner for his great spell of bowling and two catches