A perfect day for cricket, sun shining but not too hot, Wooburn assembled at Nark Park in their droves, half the team seemingly assuming the 1pm start was some sort of joke. Meanwhile the opposition arrived pretty much on time, looking resplendent in bright pink blazers. Sunday Skipper Barker also began the afternoon in splendid fashion, winning the toss and duly electing to bat.
Opening the batting with J.H.Kelly, the Harrow bowlers certainly hadn’t read the note that Wooburn had posted in their dressing room about the game being a comfortable Sunday stroll, finding good lengths and using the virtues of the surface to bring about ill-timed shots and potential catching opportunities. Barker in-particular looked to take the fight to the bowlers before getting pinned down, but found little joy, being dropped twice before Harrow made it third time lucky with a nick to the keeper who took a smart catch standing up to the stumps.
J.H.Kelly also found it difficult to settle, and when the left armer Head delivered a full length snorter, Wooburn were looking for stability at 20/2. This bought O.E.A.Lawrie and M.Sear to the action, Sear striding to the crease with apparent confidence and swagger and immediately noted to the umpire “bet you weren’t expecting to see me here”.
Lawrie started in his typical bullish style. Slapping a large shot to the longest boundary which just landed short of the rope. But it was a similar shot that was his downfall shortly after, not quite fully catching a delivery from Cathrall, holing out at deep mid-on. Clever field placing from Harrow saw Cathrall getting just reward for a consistent start, replacing the injured Head.
Sear meanwhile was getting into his stride, seeing off the military bowling of Withanage who was relishing maiden after maiden. The Wooburn innings needed shoring up after losing the big guns cheaply, and with K.Dolan joining Sear, they proceeded to bring the grounding needed, with the pitch clearly playing slow, all-be-it with a fair bounce. A not so classy warning from the umpire for running on the pitch was heeded, but it didn’t take long for Sear to turn on the class with the bat, interrupting watchful defensive play with well managed strokes.
Wayfarers weren’t hanging around with the over rate, clocking an impressive 18+ an hour as the Wooburn innings ticked along at a necessary yet pedestrian pace. Dolan played his part, hitting out at the right time before being caught and bowled.
Sear also stepped on the accelerator and joined by K.Addada, took the total to 144 before Sear was cruelly stumped on the last ball for a PB of 63.
Tea was supplied by the Tennant duo of Mark and Jen and the teams took to the pavilion in rich expectation. The initial spread of sandwiches had familiar tones of ham and tuna, but it was the add-ons and sweet areas that really excelled. The Homemade sausage rolls being a thing of brilliance. Players were then treated to scones and whipped cream coupled with cheesecake and it must be noted that this reporter indulged to full effect.
If the Wooburn players had any illusions that tea would stifle the Harrow openers, they were quickly dashed. Both Sotha and Simmons looked comfortable and progress was rapid. In reality they were moving along at a standard 5 an over, but such was the pace of the Wooburn innings, this felt a lot quicker. They had soon ground down the opening pair of bowlers with low risk, high reward shots.
With the score rattling on, a moment of intervention was called for. Captain Barker was the man to lead from the front, bowling his familiar aggressive seamers which had more swing then the adjacent playground. Simmonds departed to smart catch from keeper Lawrie and Sotha, now nicely set, was bowled by a fine good length ripper.
Barker was pumped, desperately running back to his mark in order to send down another snorter to the now uncomfortable looking batsmen. The tone was set and that tone was wickets - Barker taking another two before running out of overs, much to his despair.
Barker was ably assisted at the river end by A.O’Regan whose figures belied the decent length he found.
S.Wilkinson and Adadda took over, finding a wicket each, but ultimately the 144 was looming, Bennett and Pollard taking their time to despatch any wayward bowling. Pollard provided a last moment of entertainment, shaping to play a reverse paddle, only to find a top edge and the comfortable gloves of Lawrie.
