A relatively youthful 2nd XI continued their improved form with a second successive 25-point win, this time over Wycombe Dragons 2, in a match overshadowed by the unsporting run out of seventeen-year-old Rob Hall. Chasing a target of 224, the visitors slid to a 78 run defeat, largely thanks to a fine spell of medium pace bowling from James ‘Frank’ White.
Stand-in skipper John White opted to bat first on winning the toss, but the Narks were soon in trouble at 8-2. Rob Hall then set about the Wycombe bowling and looked in good touch on his way to 46, before the unsavoury run out incident took place. Doug Porter, who actually spent a season playing for Wooburn, ran in to bowl, but pulled out of his bowling action at the last minute and removed the bails with Rob out of his crease, telling young Rob to ‘get off’ and pointing the way to the pavilion. The bowler claimed he had warned the batsman previously. To the letter of the law, of course, Rob was out and the umpire had no option but to give him out, but it was hardly in the spirit of the game and did Wycombe very little credit.
This brought to an end a promising innings and Wooburn then lost their way, slipping to 121-7 before Joe Gleeson joined forces with his captain to add a crucial 73 for the eighth wicket. The pair batted sensibly, despatching the bad ball when it came along. Ollie Atkins helped add a further 29 for the ninth wicket, and Wooburn finished on 223 all out at the end of the 51st over.
The Wycombe reply got off to a flier, and they reached 77-2 after 13 overs. Ollie and Rob bowled with good pace, but were a little wayward in their search for early wickets. Ollie made the initial breakthrough, having Croxon brilliantly caught at slip by Pete Harper, after Sav had palmed the ball up, and then bowled Neil Martin, but the pantomime villain, Porter, looked in control. Charlie Ashford came on from the Church End, and kept it tight, while James White started to make inroads from the other end. Higgins sliced a drive to cover point, then Childs fell first ball playing no shot and Maskell was bowled in the following over. At the halfway stage, Wycombe had been pulled back to 107-5.
Soon after drinks, ‘Frank’ took the wicket Wooburn really wanted, when Porter was bowled playing all round a full toss. AB played a couple of nice drives before he was bowled, captain Andy King hit a defiant boundary but Charlie then bowled him. There was another sharp slip catch for Pete Harper, before Frank rounded off a good day’s work by hitting the stumps for the fifth time and finishing with superb figures of 6-20.
A Wooburn team containing six U17s can reflect on an ultimately comfortable victory, but the disappointing run out incident did leave a sour taste.
