A fine enough bank holiday weekend rolled on with Wooburn’s Sunday Team looking to delight vice-captain A.Gerrish with his first victory of the season vs Stoke Green.
News of the toss was disrupted enroute to the press room, but it’s assumed Stoke Green won and duly elected to bat.
Wooburn began strongly, confident in their fielding, with bowlers W.Cuthbert and L.Johnson finding decent areas and proving a worthy challenge for their quarry. However this precise start was only rewarded with the one wicket, and whilst the score of 22 from the first 10 showed the tight lines, it was scant consolation.
C.Lamming joined the attack but found it difficult to pinpoint the good areas (or in some cases the pitch). To say Lamming toiled in his first over would be an understatement, but with great credit he cleared his head and was duly rewarded with some neat wickets including a handy stumping from O.E.A Lawrie.
Gerrish and Wright, now regular Saturday bowlers were efficient without necessarily being dangerous. Skipper Gerrish rang more changes to try and prise an opening and it was G.Taylor who provided it, striking first ball thanks to a smart catch from W.Cuthbert at Mid-Off. Taylor also found a good length hard to come by, but kept things straight and when Pratik smashed one back that was expertly taken one-handed, his tail was up. A canny catch at first skip by K.Dolan bought number 3 up and he smelt more, but alas a knee injury prevented the batsmen further unease.
Whilst wickets were falling around him, opener Hussain kept his head, producing a commanding innings which simply revolved around punishing the bad ball. It took a laboured stumping to remove him for 78, with a northern inspired piece of bowling from S.Wilkinson.
By this point, M.Ward was finding stride and he duly took up the mantle from Hussain, guiding anything wayward to the Nark Park boundary. He finished one shy of a deserved 50, a very handy innings considering the rest of the team bar Ward and Hussain managed 37 between them. Stoke Green finished on 182 for their 40 overs and whilst that seemed a tad harsh on the otherwise excellent Wooburn performance, skipper Gerrish would have been pleased with the general exploits of his team, especially being able to liberally use all the bowling options at his disposal.
Tea was prepared by Carol Lamming, making her seasonable debut. Such was the quantity it was deemed the usual bar area insufficient, and whilst some opt for the bar and extend onto the high tables, Carol took no chances and arranged the culinary carnival across nearly every available table in the pavilion. Players were greeted with a veritable feast of deep fill sandwiches, a fine selection of savoury treats and home made cookies. But it was the scones that rubber-stamped the quality, Carol choosing to use Rhoddas clotted cream, the absolute hallmark of an elementary cricket tea - others be warned.
It seems almost trivial to continue this report on the subject of the cricket, but Wooburn batsmen, bloated and ballooned rolled onto the field of play. Dolan looked comfortable enough when he was adjudged LBW, bringing T.Wright to the crease. It was noted Wright was hitting the ball very hard in nets during the week and this form continued into the game, looking peerless in dispatching the ball across the park.
Wright and Cuthbert put on 53, but when latter was stumped, it didn’t stifle momentum, as Lawrie continued his recent good form, joining Wright in plundering the ball to various boundaries across the park. Another fine partnership of 63 was developed as the Wooburn boys showed a clear appetite for getting on with it. A standout innings from Wright was brought to an end, caught for 64, and whilst Wooburn Skipper Gerrish departed soon after, J-H.Kelly showed a very mature and confident approach when Stoke Green were on the hunt and crafted another 50+ partnership with Lawrie to steer the Wooburn ship home with 6 overs to spare.
