The 2nds picked up their second win of the season with comfortable 9 wicket victory at Old Merchant Taylors. This is the final season of cricket at OMT’s Durrants ground before the builders move in, and Derek Milsom for one, will regret its demise. Chasing a modest 211, the Narks achieved their target with more than 5.2 overs to spare.
OMT’s square was rated the best in the Thames Valley League in 2009, and the teams were again presented with a perfect batting wicket. OMT, perhaps surprisingly, decided to bat on winning the toss, and started solidly against Wooburn’s seam/spin combination of John White and James Dolan. Bentall, who made big runs against Wycombe Dragons, fell early but Shah, and Magill added 77 for the second wicket.
Shah showed some enterprise, punishing the bad ball, but Magill was largely strokeless, unable to get bat on ball on many occasions, despite the near perfect batting conditions. After an excellent spell from John, Wahleed had his first bowl for around 9 months, and was soon replaced by Mani Sharma. At the other end, Pete Harper took over from James, and we gradually started to work our way through the OMT order.
Magill somehow contrived to reach a painstaking 50 in over two hours at the crease. It was only the arrival of Vallerius and Wingfield that injected some urgency to the OMT batting, and they managed to push the score past 200, which was cause for mild celebrations in the home camp. A final total of 211-8 was well under par in the conditions.
Wooburn’s openers, Angus and Derek, were soon into their stride against OMT’s slow bowlers with the old ball. The score had passed 50 before OMT took the new ball, by which time the batsmen were well set. Schofield was the only bowler to really cause problems, swinging the ball into the right-hander, but he could only manage five overs in the heat. Angus eventually fell for a well made 43.
With Alan Cuthbert attending to a call of nature, Chris Hall took his opportunity to help Derek add 119 for the second wicket and take Wooburn home. Chris batted beautifully for his unbeaten 54, while at the other end, Derek completed another fine hundred at Durrants with 17 boundaries. In a very tight division, this win took the 2nds up to the heady heights of 3rd place.
