2s Promoted in run a ball finale

Old Hamptonians vs HWRCC 2xi HWRCC won the toss and chose to field OH – 230-4 Speakman 95, Carson 91* Ford 25.5-4-110-3 HWRCC 216-6 Clark 60, Fudge 47, Goulborn 40

HWRCC Winning draw, 7 points and promotion

Wick seal promotion the hard way with thrilling run chase

So let’s get it over with at the beginning. After topping the table for every day of the season apart from the last HWRCC didn’t quite deliver the killer blow to Old Hamptonians that would have mad them champions. Does it matter? It certainly didn’t yesterday evening as the champagne and Britneys flowed as we celebrated a richly deserved promotion. And today, through the blur of a monster hangover, it doesn’t matter either. Okay – so we don’t get a shiny bauble to go on the club shelf for a year – but we’re up to 2ndxi Division 1 and hopefully we’ve left behind the boring, negative cricket of Division 2 for ever. See ya Mellett. NOT.

Would we have taken promotion at the expense of the championship at the beginning of the day? Hell Yes. Did we fight our arses off to stay in the game and try to win? You bet we did. Was it the best game of cricket of the season? It was certainly up there with the Guilford City and Lingfield games – perhaps though – because we only drew – it isn’t quite as satisfying as those two results were. Ultimately we got out of gaol in this game and could have taken a nightmare beating if it wasn’t for some do or die batting at the death.

Yes, with seven overs to go, we were 50 runs adrift of the Winning Draw total of 204 and 75 runs away from a win. The only things in the Wick’s favour was that OH’s strip had been under the covers for a week and was a dry as a bone. For some reason, despite cloud cover, the ball hadn’t swung much all afternoon and the boundaries were generously short. But how had we got ourselves into this position?

Old Hamptonians were inserted by skipper Fudge. Last week on the same square 20 wickets fell for approximately 110 runs so The Wick could reasonably hope to have restricted Old Hamptonians to 180. However this was obviously not the same track. This one was an absolute runway. No one managed to do much with the ball all day and there was surprisingly little bounce either. Yep, it was true, flat and it soon became clear that it was a pleasure to bat on. The outfield was lush, but the grass was short enough to ensure the bats got just reward for their shots.

OH proceeded to 57 before losing a wicket and the signs were ominous. Both openers, Blair and Speakman, played their shots. Speakman was lucky to survive a spilled chance in the gully and a couple of his earlier boundaries reached third man having passed through vacant slip areas at catchable height. However he hit the ball very hard and soon raced to a 50. Blair was pretty adjacent early on but as is the fashion the appeal was declined and it took a good catch by Del in the deep off Fordy to send him back. If the Wick thought the removal of Blair would herald a wicket-fest they were very wrong. The second wicket partnership took OH to 173!

Speakman and Carson batted very well on what was obviously a fantastic deck to bat on. With the ball not deviating at all once the shine had departed we were wondering where a wicket would come from. Of the bowlers Ford was economical until Carson got after him later on. Lofting took to bowling dead straight and at the stumps. This paid off when the unlucky Speakman swept at a ball that pitched on leg stump and hit it. Lofting’s line had inconvenienced him as he had used width on the off side to great effect throughout his innings. He fell for 95.

Carson drove fiercely all afternoon and played some particularly good shots through the offside. Everything was struck firmly. He gave only one chance when he had reached 60ish but the unlucky fielder lost the ball out of the background and didn’t even get a hand to it. Fordy took two more wickets, one bowled, one a dubious LBW and OH declared after 50.5 overs. The declaration, at 230, looked to be slightly too late and perhaps ten runs too many but in fact it was perfectly judged as The Wick would come close to overhauling it in 45 overs and might have won if set 220.

The boys did well in the field, conceding only 3 wides. We could have conceded many more runs but for spirited running and leather chasing. The missed chances cost us runs and if we had not been promoted on the back of this result there would be some red faces in the wash-up because we’ve dropped far too many in the last few weeks. Let’s face it, the Championship should have been wrapped up by now were it not for the spills. But this performance was only really deficient in one area. We only picked up one bowling point and this would cost us the bragging rights and the pennant. In fact just one more wicket would have given us the title but we were not to take it. It also meant that to be certain of promotion we HAD to make the winning draw target of 204 as a minimum requirement.

Tea was okay. A bit dull. A bit tense frankly. There were donuts I suppose, but it really was only a 6.

HWRCC’s reply got off to an entertaining and breezy start. Golby and Fudgey looked in very good nick. You can always tell with Golby. If he nails one of his square cuts – which he did early on – you know he’s seeing it like a football. Some fine leg glances off middle and leg showed timing too. Fudge was in brutal form again and was seeing it like a basketball painted luminous yellow. He charged the first change man Tupilo and hit him for a flat six into the sightscreen. So it was a surprise when Golby, having made 40, missed a straight full toss trying to hit it through midwicket with the score on 78 and then Fudgey (47) dragged one on trying to sweep the impressive Blair with the score on 96. This was not going to plan.

Mackie and Hibby replaced the openers and Mackie in particular looked to be in good form. But disaster struck with the introduction of offspinner Brown. Turning his first ball from outside off just enough to encourage Hibberd to drag it on we were 116-3 and sitting uncomfortably. There was not much time for anyone to catch their breath as Mackie middled one to second slip next over and we were in serious trouble. This was not going to plan at all.

Charlie and Clarky then strapped on the pads with the Wick needing 114 for victory at round about 6 an over. Actually we needed 91 just to get the winning draw. This was tense stuff. Clarky edged Brown just past the leg stump to cause alarm when he had scored only one run. Charlie hit a massive six and exocet four and looked well set, but perished bowled trying to slog sweep Brown into Somerset. Oh dear…

Del started slowly and the game began to swing towards OH as overs 32 to 38 produced a meagre 19 runs. And then in over 39 things began to go the Wick’s way. Clarky took 12 off the returning Blair. Offspinner Brown was then despatched all over the oval to concede 15 runs in his final over, a cover driven four from Clark, all along the ground, is making Wickman stiff just thinking about it and a lofted six over cow the icing on that over’s cake.

And after that it was just a question of getting across the line. New bowler Lizeri made the mistake of pitching one up in his first over which was used to nearly decapitate Hibberd (officiating) and rattle up another four and then Del and Nick scampered runs until we were safe. There might have been time to win the game but Blair conceded only 5 runs from his last two overs as the boys struggled to get him away and there were too many needed at the start of the last. 18 were needed off the last three balls and Clark holed out seeking the first of them, draw ensured.

Wickman can tell you with some authority that this one felt as much like a win as you can without actually scoring more runs than the oppo. It was a great game which has largely restored Wickman’s faith in the Fullers format. This was no bore draw with one side blocking it out for 15 overs while the other grows more impatient by the minute. And for once both sides tried to win the game all the way through, didn’t moan and whinge, there was no threat to murder anyone or any boring cricket played all day and friendly banter all round. This was cricket played as it should be. Frankly we all remember the sides that have come to the Wick this year and played negative, dull cricket. Wickman is glad that we finished with a thriller. We wish OH all the luck next year. They, along with Merrow, Lingfield and Guildford, know how to play the game.

It only remains, for this report, to award MOM. Wickman is genuinely split between Clarky’s debut league half and Fordy’s marathon 155 ball spell. We’ll leave it there…

There will, in the fullness of time, be a report on the whole season to savour but right now Wickman would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved in the 2s this year. We set out to go through the year unbeaten and only looked like losing once. Won 8 drawn 4 (all winning draws) and 4 abandoned is a good return. Congratulations to skipper Fudgey in his first year as skipper for doing what he said he would – get us up!

Vive le Wick!