The Week
at The Wick

The 5s first home game of the season was against a new opposition, Worcester Park 3s. As the teams assembled it was clear that the visitors were short of bodies — with phone in hand the visiting skipper was happy to win the toss and bat with his 8 assembled players.

From the outset the 5s were sharp in the field. Skipper JLF had asked the team to put pressure on the visitors with both the ball and ground fielding. Casper Roberts and Ted Goodwin opened the attack and the standard was set. Both bowlers delivered opening spells which challenged the stumps and prevented run scoring. The 5s were noisy in the field and the ground fielding was excellent. Ted provided the first breakthrough, with keeper Jonah Blake snaffling the chance.

First change bowlers Paige Goodwin and Tom McMahon entered the attack. Paige claimed a wicket and maintained line and length to prevent the batters scoring. At the other end Tom achieved a run out in his first over and was slightly wayward in length which allowed the Worcester Park batters to build a partnership. The score read 70-3 at drinks which reflected the pressure the 5s had placed on the batters.

The second half of the Worcester Park innings saw the visitors (now with 11 players) attempt to increase their scoring rate. This proved tricky as the Rose Cottage wicket was slow after recent rain and the new longer square boundaries were hard to reach. JLF brought himself into the attack and was immediately threatening. At the other end Tom Dunmore and Freddie Saville both struggled with the cross wind as extras contributed to the growing partnership. It was JLF who provided the 4th wicket of the innings, breaking the partnership on 99, with another catch by Jonah. The final overs of the innings were controlled by excellent second spells from Ted and Casper, with the highlight being a run out by Freddie from the longest boundary — an excellent piece of out fielding.

The final total of 188-6 felt under par but could have been a lot less as wides contributed 32. Over tea the 5s felt confident that they had the batting to reach the total set. This assessment proved correct as openers Patrick Littlemore and debutant Gavin Kenny settled into what would become an epic partnership. The opening overs saw the 5s pair playing themselves in against generally straight bowling, whilst accumulating 3 runs an over. The Worcester Park skipper changed the bowling in the 10th over and the Wick batters took the opportunity to accelerate. Littlemore cut and drove with his customary power and Kenny slowly unveiled a wide array of shots. Neither batsman gave a chance and it was a surprise when Littlemore (44) was run out with a direct hit in the over after drinks. Littlemore and Kenny had put on a stand of 122 at 6 runs per over and the match was over as a contest.

Nick Dunmore joined Kenny and the pair faced left arm spin at both ends. Kenny looked comfortable and took advantage of anything off line as he built the score, supported by rather a lot of byes. Dunmore (23*) was caught off a chest high no-ball, but neither bowler provided any great threat. The final act of the afternoon was Kenny attempting to reach a well-deserved century but sadly he was denied by 4 byes to finish the match, with nearly 10 overs to spare. Kenny (96*) took the well deserved plaudits of teammates and opposition after a knock that will live long in the memory. Clearly Gavin is a great addition to the Wick and will score lots more runs for the club.

Today's U11s away match against Stoke d'Abernon saw a last ball finish for the second weekend in a row. One of the reasons your correspondent does the coaching role is to take my mind off a very high stress day job. With another nail biter going down to the wire, I am thinking of retraining as a bomb disposal expert if I carry on with U11s.

HWRCC lost the toss and were put into bat on an absolute pudding of a wicket after overnight rain. Openers Balveer Gopal and Adyan Iqbal (U9) started well and batted nicely to build a score before Adyan was out lbw. This started a run of wickets as the Stoke d'Abernon bowlers bowled with great accuracy with the ball keeping very low on the soft surface. Tony Duncan-Bosu and Harry Nicholson were both bowled by grubbers they could do little about, and wickets continued to fall as HWRCC continued to try to hit straight ones they should have simply defended. In parallel with last week, the Wick's last pair of Jiyan Patel and Ethan Batty found themselves together with plenty of balls left. They batted very sensibly, defending on the stumps and going after anything off the wicket, whilst running well for anything on offer. The score ticked up and they got their team to over 100 with two overs left. The penultimate over was an expensive one with the bowler conceding several wides, underlining how important it is to "bat the overs". The last over was another good one with Ethan out off the last ball swinging for his team. He and Jiyan had got their Wick up to a competitive 122 all out, a defensible total.

Toby Duncan-Bosu and Ethan Batty opened the bowling with great precision, with the Stoke d'Abernon openers leading a charmed life. On another day Stoke could have been 4 down within a couple of overs with both bowlers bowling bang on the stumps several times, only to be kept out by lucky edges and frantic defence. After these two bowled out their overs without taking a wicket, it looked like it would not be HWRCC's day but everything changed in Adyan Iqbal's second over. He clean bowled two batsmen in succession to leave a very nervous looking batsman facing the hat-trick ball. The field came up and Adyan delivered the perfect length ball which the batsman could only chip up in the air but the ball fell agonisingly short of the onrushing fielder who got his hands to the ball but could not complete the catch. Adyan made up for it next ball though with another clean bowled. Adil Mahmood then hit the stumps with the first ball of his next over and the pendulum had swung back to HWRCC — good bowling and batting made it a cat and mouse game before Max Nicholson (U9) took two wickets in his three overs, one with a googly that turned a mile to bowl the batsman through the gate.

At 8 wickets down there was a sense that it was only a matter of time before HWRCC took the last wicket to seal the win. However, great credit must go to Stoke's last pair who proceeded to defend good balls and run everything they could, helped by some sloppy fielding and dropped catches. The last over was to be bowled by the Wick's most reliable bowler, Adyan, with Stoke needing 7 to win. He kept it straight but could not prevent runs coming off the bat as the last pair swung at everything. With Stoke needing 2 runs to win from 2 balls, Adyan ran in and then turned and Mankaded their non-striker off penultimate ball, with the Stoke player well out of his crease. On instruction from yours truly (standing umpire) Adyan withdrew the appeal — thereby costing the Wick the win but the Spirit of Cricket must be upheld. A single off the ensuing delivery tied the scores, with Stoke d'Abernon scrambling a bye off the last ball to win by 1 run. Last week it had been the Wick that had done that to tie; this week the sporting gods evened things up. So for successive weeks the last ball of the U11s match had seen all three results possible. Well played to all the boys and time for a lie down in a dark room for their coach.