Ashford Blown Away by Rampant Wick 4xi

One Bit of Fruit and a Couple of Crudites Are Missed by Ravenous Colts...

HWRCC 278-3 (32) Clark 118
Ashford 75 all out Linter 4 for 13
HWRCC 4xi wins by 203 runs

Scorecard

HWRCC 4xi put Ashford's bowlers to the sword, gobbled up tea and then ran through their batting to record an emphatic win at Short Lane on Saturday. A strong line up which included The Lord, injured bats Nathan and Mackie, and a selection of colts and regulars was too good for an Ashford line-up who have struggled this season when full strength. That they started with 9 for the first 10 overs didn't help - and the Wick had got away to a flyer by the time the tenth player arrived.

Splints called correctly and chose to bat again this week with half an eye on the weather forecast and a desire to set the pace again. Some loose bowling greeted the openers and Clark was quick to profit, reaching the boundary regularly as the new ball rocketed across a mown outfield.

Whilst The Lord had pronounced the track a green top before the toss it didn't play like one. And neither Nate or Clarky looked in too much trouble - able to keep out the respectable seamers of Boota from the A30 end and pick gaps in the 9 man field. At the Heathrow end... Carnage. A series of bowlers were tried but variable lengths and lines were seized on by Clark in particular and caned all over the place. The Wick were happily blazing away at 9 an over.

The sense of slight unreality was built by the elderly Ashford keeper's almost complete immobility. He let through 27 byes and was unable to stop wides. Coupled with positive batting from the Wick openers, it was impossible for Ashford to gain any control. One change bowler went for 16 off his first over - Clark taking umbrage at being pinged on the back leg smashed four consecutive boundaries.

The opening pair raced to 100 with Clark ably backed up by E X Tras, Nate playing the anchor role. Almost every time Nate did pick up the strike a bowler would fire one wide or for a bye leaving him almost becalmed and watching Clark from the other end. Despite a reasonable spinner turning up to relieve Boota, the partnership reached 150. It was finally broken by Molla bowling Nathan for 38 with Clark by now in the 80s. Mackie joined him and there was no let up in the scoring rate, Mackie busily manoevering the ball around, Clark hitting regular boundaries before turning the spinner round the corner to move to his first league ton from 79 balls and first of any kind for the Wick.

Under instruction to allow others a go Clark then long handled a brace of sixes and a boundary before top edging a pull to mid wicket. Johnny Allen got in the mood and made a brisk 10 including a massive maximum before The Lord strode out and imperiously dismissed the bowling for a two-run-a-ball 32* making Mackie's busy run-a-ball 28* look positively pedestrian. The Lord smote the biggest six of the day too... Enormous wallop over Long Off... Still going up as it crossed the boundary etc etc.

With rain coming Splints pulled the plug with the Wick on an awesome 278-3 from 32. There was enough time to get the covers (covers please note) on before the rain came. While we were at tea it's no exaggeration to say that it absolutely pissed down - the rain bouncing up of the ground. Without them the match would surely have been over and done.

Tea was excellent - a very solid 8 - almost nothing to fault - but there was no dip for the crudités which was felt to be an error and we weren't sure about the cucumber and cheese sandwiches. Just about every last scrap was consumed as we realised there was no chance of play starting again soon with the colts in particular relishing the opportunity to clean up. Nice.

It took 45 minutes to mop up when the rain relented. We'd batted through a shower during our innings so the square had already taken a lot of water and it took time to mop up the water with one of those sponge things that soaks up puddles. Talk about facilities! Because Splints had declared before tea and we'd scored so quickly we still had 43 overs to bowl out Ashford.

The skipper impressed everyone by opening with the old ball and holding back the new cherry until the outfield had dried more. The approach yielded dividends as tight bowling from Jamie Brewin produced a skied drive and a fantastic over the shoulder catch from Bendall in the covers. Inspired captaincy from Linter then saw him take a sharp catch at silly mid on from the flighted spin of Will Taylor who at times spun the ball sharply.

The new ball was taken in the 13th over by Jamie Craddock and The Skipper. Linter was unplayable - frankly - and removed the organised looking #4 with a nick to 1st slip which was classily taken low down by Mackie. Craddock won a marginal LBW decision which we decided would have stayed with the onfield umpire had it been reviewed, but perhaps failed to make the bats play enough.

In contrast Splints was making bat after bat play and miss and completely nonplussed the #6 who was left marvelling as he was cleaned up. The #1, who had seen 5 colleagues depart in short order was finally castled and also appreciated being stitched up like a kipper by the skipper.

Tommy D and Benders both the bowled tidy spells and picked up a wicket a piece. Johnny Allen had a trundle too and The Lord rolled back the years with a typically miserly spell making the bats play every ball. By this time Ashford were 8 down with their last pair at the wicket. The close fielders were very impressed with James Magli (batting 10) who played some of the most attractive shots of the day in putting together the highest score of the Ashford innings.

Eventually Ashford were getting too close to the draw for comfort and the Captain was urged to bring himself back on to mop up and get the boys into the showers. This he did by digging one in a bit and getting the obdurate #9 to spoon one back to him. It capped a 203 run victory and a game that had something for every Wick player.

The game was played in good spirit and we must thank Ashford for getting the game back on. Facing a target of 278 off 43 some oppos would have been less keen to soak it up and especially having been bullied with the bat. The 4s are now 26 points clear at the top of the table going into a game with Staines next week who beat us in the ill-fated affair at their ground last season. It will be an interesting test.