A comprehensive victory over Chesham sent the 2nds roaring up to second in TVL Division 6B, just two points behind the leaders. Wooburn controlled the match throughout. A disciplined bowling display restricted Chesham to just 135-8, a comfortable target for a strong Wooburn batting line up.
On winning the toss, skipper Jeff Morris had little hesitation in deciding to bowl first. The pitch offered some help early on, and Chesham\s openers struggled to get the ball away. Taylor was in awful form, managing just a single before Richie Barker despatched him in the 14th over. Shipley, provided most of the early runs, clobbering the oocasional boundary, but the Wooburn bowlers maintained their stranglehold.
Jeff Morris made the next breakthough, having Pothecary (senior) stumped, then Richie Barker finally induced a nick after much playing and missing, to leave Chesham in trouble, 65-3 in the 30th over. More woe for Chesham saw them slump further to 84-6 in the 41st, but Pothecary (junior) now showed admirable spirit. The youngster hit an unbeaten 32, pushing the Chesham total up to a slightly more respectable 135 at the close of the innings.
For Wooburn, Jeff Morris employed all his variations several times over to take 3-54, Richie Barker used the slope well to finish up with 3-41, and Ben Sturgess and Rob Rogers also played their part with economical spells.
A target of 136 should have been comfortably within range of one of the stronger 2nd XI batting line ups in recent times. Angus Porter and Paul Cooper got the innings off to a solid start, but the slow pitch continued to make batting hard work. Chesham\s Johnson made a significant contribution, delivering 9 wides in his first spell.
Gradually, the batsmen began to take control, and trademark pulls and dabs to third man, saw the scoreboard tick over nicely. Porter eventually departed, aiming a big drive at Dowle\s slow medium trundlers, caught at slip.
Dave Small, retaining his number 3 spot, began with a superb cover drive for four and smashed another straight for four. A man was immediately despatched to long on, and Smally obligingly hit the next ball straight down his throat. A Wooburn wobble then threatened when Alan Cuthbert, after hitting one good boundary, fell lbw tying to pull a short ball that nearly bounced a second time.
Any crisis was rapidly averted by Stuart Savage. The vastly experienced Wooburn campaigner, was quickly into his stride, taking 18 off Dowle\s seventh (and last) over. Cooper duly completed a workmanlike 50, and these two saw Wooburn to an emphatic win with over seven overs to spare. More of the same next week will do nicely.
