Saturday 11th May 2002 | TVL Division 3A

Chenies & Latimer 1st XI

227 - 3

Wooburn Narkovians 1st XI

178 - 9

Match Drawn

Points: Wooburn Narkovians 5, Chenies & Latimer 15

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Match Report

Wooburn Saved By Last Wicket Pair

Last-wicket pair Richard Barker and Josh Baylis saved Wooburn Narkovians 1sts from a heavy defeat against hosts Chenies & Latimer 1sts in their opening game of the Thames Valley League season.

Coming together with the score at 147-9, still 80 runs adrift of the Chenies total, the pair not only batted out the remaining seven overs, but also added another 31 runs to gain Wooburn two more precious bonus points. Barker, managing the strike sensibly, hit some sweetly timed drives in his 45 and Baylis, who safely negotiated the whole of the last over from returning paceman Burroughs, finished on 7.

Earlier in the day, Chenies had taken advantage of some uninspired Wooburn bowling to amass 227-3. Bowen top-scored with 76, while Hopkirk and Wlodarcyzk both struck the ball cleanly during their fifties. For the visitors, Barker, who was a little unlucky to finish wicketless, and Jeff Morris (2-65) were probably the pick of the attack. Graham Dare picked up the other wicket.

In their reply, Wooburn struggled against the pace of Burroughs. At 41-3, fears of a repeat of the previous season’s batting debacle (when they were dismissed for 88) were still alive. However, Dave Rogers and Dave Pidgeon weathered the storm and, thanks to some sensibly batting and attacking field-placing, added 66 for the 4th wicket.

Any chance of making a realistic assault on the Chenies total ended when Pidgeon was dismissed for 38, from which point Wooburn’s innings fell away. The home side’s zealous appealing finally paid dividends when Rogers, who had appeared surprisingly untroubled for most of his innings, was harshly adjudged caught bat/pad off Brown for 44.

Brown then all but ended Wooburn’s resistance with three wickets in an over, all bowled by his inswingers. That brought together Barker and Baylis to steer the visitors to 178-9 and save a game in which Wooburn were always second best.

Scorecard