Wooburn Narkovians 1sts moved to the top of Thames Valley League Division 4A on Saturday despite an uninspired performance that saw them draw against struggling Chalfont St Peter 2nds at Chalfont Park.
Not for the first time this season, a strong Wooburn batting line-up produced a defendable total without firing on all cylinders. A damp wicket with a bit of variable bounce didn’t make life easy for the batsmen, but James White was quick to punish any loose deliveries on his way to a solid 72. He was well supported by Andy Tennant (27), Dave Pidgeon (30) and Ian Cuthbert (27 not out), as the visitors built a strong platform with wickets in hand for a late-innings assault.
However, talk of declarations was soon replaced by fretting over extra bonus points as the planned acceleration failed to materialise. Spinner Wheatley kept Wooburn in check with a spell of 4-39 in 15 overs, and the batting side finally stumbled to 200, with seven wickets down, off the last ball of their 52 overs.
Ian Cuthbert became the latest Wooburn player to show his prowess in the slips when he threw himself to his left to snap up an early chance off Dave Small’s bowling. However, the visitors put down another catch and failed to take advantage of some suicidal running, leaving Chalfont well placed at 82-1 off their first 20 overs.
With the success of the spinners in Wooburn’s previous game in mind, captain Small turned to Phil Clarke, and he soon induced Kyani to hole out to Chris Hall at deep midwicket. The fielding side’s spirits rose further when Richie Barker bowled Patel for 40 in the next over.
The game was finely balanced at the 30-over mark, as Mughal (39) and Hewston (15) took Chalfont to 114-3, but Barker struck again to remove Hewston and continued to bowl tightly, forcing the required run rate ever higher. Mo Aslam replaced Clarke and also caused problems, picking up two wickets, including Mughal, in his first six overs without conceding many runs.
With time running out and Chalfont seemingly no longer looking for the win, Clarke was reintroduced, and Wooburn’s hopes of victory were reignited as he took two wickets in the first over of his new spell, leaving the home side on 151-8 with five overs to go.
However, Wheatley and Crossley survived relatively untroubled until the very last ball, when the latter, in search of an extra batting point, hit Aslam to long on, where Tennant took his third catch of the day. Chalfont St Peter finished on 171-9, and Wooburn picked up 15 points, enough to lead the table by one point.
