Match Report

Wright Heroics Seal #NewWooburn Victory

One of the reasons we all play cricket is the sun, scenes, and San Miguel. Unfortunately, only 2 of these were prevalent when the Wooburn 1 XI faced off against Burnham 3 XI on Saturday 8th May. It provided the perfect opportunity for wet weather bingo. “It’s dry underneath”, “same for both teams” and “has anyone got any sawdust?” were just a few phrases thrown around when skipper Ben “Biceps” Barker strode out to the middle with the Burnham captain and his reluctant entourage. In a delayed toss which Wooburn lost, Biceps, partnered with newly labelled “shoulders”- club kid Ben Cooper- made their way out to the absolute pudding road in the middle of a wet and windy Nark Park.

Despite the challenging conditions, Barker and Cooper teed it up against some very questionable bowling, with Burnham’s opening seamer challenging Broughton’s first over at Hayes last year, with a heap of half-trackers, wides and proper dross. It was perhaps a kindness that he was met with a “have a blow, buddy” from his captain. Wooburn, seemingly not put off, charged to 80-0. But, with the help of a bowling change, the visitors had their first breakthrough, after shoulders was wrapped on the toe for the plumbest of LBWs. Whilst the extent of his injury was not yet clear, he hobbled off the pitch to make way for Wooburn new boy Sam Thomas. He showcased some exquisite on and off drives. But, as inevitable as the drizzle that followed, he succumbed to the Wooburn way and swung across the line to be bowled for a well-made 23. Wooburn were wobbling. But with more than 100 on the board, the pavilion was still confident they would get enough runs. And that they did. Despite some lacklustre hitting throughout the middle order from Johnson, Wright, Bukhari Lawrie and Broughton, the home team stumbled past 150, bolstered by some lower order hitting from Halstead and Dolan. Dre Russ, on his league debut, was seemingly content with his 2 runs and decided to gift his wicket to the Burnham bowler, leaving Wooburn 166 all out.

A quick tea followed, before the 2 teams returned to the middle. Broughton and Thomas shared the new ball and bowled economically without really threatening to take a wicket. The 2 Burnham openers looked to be in a rush to get the job done, but this proved to be their undoing, when Barker brought himself on to bowl and struck with his first ball, a juicy full toss crashing into the leg stump, given out LBW. Wooburn were up for it, and wickets began to fall when Halstead had the ball in hand. The young gun finished with impressive figures of 2-31 (7), capping off a fantastic performance which earned him the first MOTM award of the season.

But with new batsmen arriving at the crease, things began to get tense. Squeaky bum time was well and truly here. With the required run rate approaching 6 per over, Dolan came onto bowl, and even though his very first ball crashed into the pads of the batsman but was met with a shake of the head from umpire Dolan Senior, he bounced back and took 2 much needed wickets in 3 overs. At the other end, the ball was thrown to Tom Wright. Despite being *DISPATCHED* into the river, he came back strong, picking up vital wickets including a fantastic hat-trick, aided by some Johnson heroism in the field. The last of Wright’s 4 wickets, and the third of the hat-trick, signalled the end of the Burnham innings, and Wooburn’s first win of the season, despite the squeaking bums of the final 2 overs. An excellent performance from the tea-drinking all-rounder.

A terrific victory in the wind and rain, and surely the start of excellent things to come for New Wooburn. Onto Hayes next week, where the Narks will be aiming to make it 2/2.