Match Scorecard

Match Report

Match Report

On winning the toss Hurley were inserted by Matt Curtis on an overcast day and a damp, green wicket. Wooburn opened the bowling with two contrasting colts, the hostile Matt Paine and the naggingly accurate Rob Hall Jr. Both were unlucky not to take a wicket as M. Cole and T. Moore, the Hurley openers, dug deep to see themselves through the first eight overs.



Debutant colt, Sam McCarthy, replaced Paine from the river end and after a nervous start settled in to a tidy spell, eventually having Cole (27) beautifully stumped by Chris Hall. Russell Dale had replace Rob Hall Jr and bowled a good accurate 8 overs, clean bowling the big hitting Harper in the process. Martin Tennant also bowled well on a slow pitch and with only 10 fielders the lofted drives and pulls never seemed to go to hand.



Andy Johnson replaced Dale at the Church End and, bowling with good pace and intelligence, tricked the well set Moore (56), into driving at a slightly shorter ball to have him caught by Curtis at point (What the “£$#@” was he doing there?). A sharp pick up and throw from Mark Tennant ran out Dawson who had been scoring well.



Matt Paine then returned for his second spell of quick, accurate and fiery bowling and clean bowled a nervous looking D. Walton. Johnson had J. Taylor smartly caught behind by Chris Hall before the Hurley innings was completed on 177-6 off their 40 overs.



A magnificent Mrs Hall tea was then consumed with real commitment from both teams before Wooburn, who although short of batting depth were confident of reaching a challenging total, started their reply.



Unfortunately due to problems strapping on his box, planned opener Rob Hall Sr had to watch in despair as his eldest son Chris marched out instead. Sadly things didn’t work out as Chris was caught in the slips in the third over. With box now firmly in place Rob Hall Sr strode out to replace his Nº1 son.



The unfortunate Mark Tennant followed Chris back to the pavilion having been bowled off his pads by the lively Samma. The next few overs offered a period of consolidation with Martin “Chubbs” Tennant looking the classiest batsman on show and Rob Hall Sr out scoring Nº1 son with his first ever 4, a classic hook to fine leg. Things were not to last though and Sr became the first of three wickets for Walsh when he was caught and bowled.



Andy Johnson entered the fray and together with Chubbs took the game to the Hurley bowlers. The innings was now up with the run rate and a victory was a distinct possibility when AJ got his footwork all wrong and yorked himself for 17. Chubbs soon had to leave the battle having been caught for 27.



Now it was up to Russell Dale who is no slouch with the bat and Rob Hall Jr to take up the challenge. They both played well against some tight bowling with young Jr topping the family scoring with 12 “Including 2 fours dad!” Their partnership was curtailed as Jr running out of legs in the final straight was run out.



Sam McCarthy in his first ever senior innings got one that bounced and was caught in the gully. Soon after Russell was adjudged LBW for a good 22 and Matt Paine moving up the order had his biffing cameo brought to an end by his irresponsible skipper who for the second week running lost the ball in the background. That October eye test cannot come quickly enough.



With 12 overs remaining Wooburns innings had finished on 105-9.