Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

'Scoop' Cheviott reporting

Ten men. Tough Oppo. Hot sunshine.  Victory!

Washington took to the road this weekend, travelling out to Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire to take on old rivals Hollybush, and emerging victorious from a 35-over contest despite having to play with 10 men. Fine batting from Messrs Hill and Harris set up a decent total;  then an excellent performance in the field ensured that the Bush were unable to get near the target.

Skipper Shawn Hill, who marshaled his side with considerable skill all afternoon, was a very happy man after the game:  ‘There were some outstanding, stand-out performances’, he said: ‘to beat the Bush is always sweet, but to do it a man light is exceptional.’

Washington won the toss and elected to bat first, and the innings got off to a good start with Tom Harper (22) taking on the early bowling and playing some fine shots as he raced to 22.  The opening pair had added 33 when Harper unluckily bottom-edged an attempted pull into his stumps, and he was followed shortly by Aftab Akram (10) who similarly contrived to deflect an attempted back foot drive into his wicket.  Matthew Cragoe (11) fell soon afterwards, and when Sam Clark, returning to the scene of many boyhood triumphs, was pinned lbw for 0, Wash had lost four wickets in four overs.  With 12 overs gone, they had just 50 on the board.

All that changed as Tony the Kiwi and skipper Hill began to counter-attack.  Both adapted very quickly to the swinging ball and the slight variations in bounce that had undone earlier batsmen, and life suddenly became a whole lot tougher for the Bush.  Runs began to pour into the Washington account as a series of big hits found the ropes, Harris on one occasion smashing two huge 6s from consecutive deliveries.

The pair added 127 for the 5^th wicket in glorious style and during the 17 overs they were together, Washington had hopes of a total well in excess of 200.  In the 29^th over, however, Harris (51) was bowled, and Hill (75) was caught soon after. 

The lower order scampered with good effect in the remaining overs to drive the final total up to 196: Nick Kripps struck 8, Peter Kloss was lbw for 1 (or was he?), and Russell Pendry (5) struck one glorious boundary before dancing down the wicket once too often and getting himself stumped.  Abhi Thakur (0) was left unbeaten on 0; the best of the Bush bowlers was the impressive Threlfall who picked up 5-33 in his 7 overs.

The rest is easily told.  The teams, under a strict edict to vacate the pitch by 6pm so that a Colts game could take place, forewent their tea, and turned round after a 10-minute interval.

For the first few overs, the Wash bowlers took some tap, but once they found their length the Bush found it difficult to play their shots.  Clark took 2-38 in a very good spell that saw him pass 50 wickets for the Wash, and Pendry was to cap a brilliant fielding display at square leg with 2-18. Ultimately, however, it was not the wickets that won this for the Wash, but the slow strangulation of tight bowling. 

Peter Kloss, who bowled a magnificent spell (7 overs for just 18), Akram (7 overs for 20), and Thakur (who combined a measure of economy and wickets in claiming 2-39 with his ‘Deadly’ Derek Underwood- style left arm medium-pace spin) throttled the life out of the Bush middle order. 

Kripps (0-40) was brought on to enliven proceedings at the end, but by the time the Bush batsmen launched their counter-offensive they had fallen so far behind the run rate that nothing could save them. They closed on 174, leaving Wash victorious by 22 runs.

So the day belonged to Washington, and the teams left the field at 5.35.  The Colts never showed up, so both teams sat in convivial solitude at the boundary’s edge, watching the evening set in, and reflecting, as players are wont to do, that whatever the scorebook said, at the end of the day, cricket was the real winner.