Match Scorecard

Match Report

A Walk in the Park for Wooburn Narks

In the first of Wooburn’s two games, inspirational captain David Jordan won the toss and put Marlow Park in to bat on a pitch which offered a lot for the bowlers. Opener Dave Small saw his first ball go for 4 and suddenly started complaining about an apparent ‘shoulder’ injury, despite the numerous cortisone injections and more ibuprofen in his bloodstream than the amount of alcohol which was present the previous Saturday evening. However, after being told to man up, Small picked up the wicket of opener Buxton third ball as Buxton skied one to Jordan at mid-on for the first of his four catches. After this, the Wooburn fielders heard that the shoulder pain had miraculously disappeared.



Small proceeded to rattle through the top 4 batsmen for the total of 12 runs in 3 overs, but was helped enormously by the Marlow batsmen’s decision to play the game as if it were a twenty20. Unfortunately, Smally’s spell came to a premature end as he was hit for another four and the shoulder pain returned. Hussain bowled well at the other end, whilst still throwing in a few/lot of his trademark wides. The day Toni (& Guy) bowls as straight as his hair is the day that England have found their own Glenn McGrath. Hussain obviously wanted to give the other bowlers a chance to get in on the action as he selflessly dropped 3 catches. It is marvellous to see such magnanimity and grace on the cricket pitch in a climate where sledging and gamesmanship are rife.



A change in the bowling attack saw the young, energetic Peter Harper show veteran and experienced spinner, James “The Dolanator” Dolan, how to bowl. Harper made good use of his special wicket taking delivery – the full toss – as he took the wicket of Francis who had made a streaky 50 by virtue of some good shots but yet had always kept the fielding team interested.  Dolan persevered at the other end and Manoj “I’d like to think that I’m a bowler and not just a fielder” Sharma bamboozled the remaining Park batsmen by bowling tight lines and maintaining a full length. Marlow Park finished on 109 all out off 26.4 overs.



Wooburn had little trouble chasing down the modest total and did so at a healthy run rate. The Hall brothers opened for the Narks and although Rob Hall didn’t make the most of the Marlow Park road, elder brother Chris filled his boots and made 49 as a result. Chris was especially pleased not to have made 50 and insisted that 1 extra run meant nothing to him. He was well supported by Andrew Johnson who made 48 not out. However, with the dismissal of Hall, Johnson’s fifty was put beyond the realms of possibility as Tom Lees strode to the crease. With Wooburn requiring 3 runs to win and 18 overs still to play, Tom bravely decided that to let Johnson reach the milestone would put a Wooburn win in danger. As a result, Lees took a leaf out of Kevin Pietersen’s book and batted solely for the team, not once thinking of himself, as he hit the winning runs with a streaky leading edge which cannoned into his pads and somehow reached the boundary.