Chobham Vs Wick. 3's lose it... but win it.

Risman, Lloyd+, Singh, Crane, Robinson, Linter, Cameron, Austin, Parkes, Unsworth, Lown
Chobham 74 all out Wick 75 for 7

With the disappointment of an abandoned game against Woodmanstern when the top 3 all played and won there was a need to pick ourselves up, win our final 3 games and leave the rest to fate. We went into this game (in Chertsey of all places) sat in 4th place with rumours abound of malpractice with a certain team in the league and with promotion still a genuine possibility. Availability again caused issues but not so much that we weren’t able to field a decent side.

On arrival at the rec in Chertsey we were greeted by a hard bowling track, short boundary and slow outfield. Capt Lloyd prayed to win the toss and bowl knowing full well that we have the best bowling attack in the league even with a couple missing. Fact!. “heads please”… tails it is….”We’ll have a bat” said the burly South African captain as he handed me a team sheet with 5 under 16’s on it. I had to bite my tongue or would have blurted out “Are you sure?” but anyway.

Harmy and Krusty opened up and the pitch revealed its true colours with inconsistent bounce, a nice big crack on a length and the windy, over cast conditions providing some lovely movement. Junaid would have cleaned em up in the 1st over Fact! But as it was we had to wait for Harmy’s second before the opener played over a Yorker and uprooted his middle stump.
The second opener stayed about for a little longer and provided a low chance to Lloyd behind the stumps who couldn’t quite squeeze enough fingers beneath the ball to hold on to it. But it wasn’t long (2 balls in fact) before a Lown inswinger found his edge, Crane protected the family jewels and snaffled the chance at 1st slip. He still waited to be given the finger by the ump though which was odd. But walk he did in the end.

Harmy and Lown bowled a lovely opening spell for very little runs and looked likely to take a wicket every ball. Their 2 large SA players were at the crease but struggled to get the ball off the square until frustration set in and the skipper was bowled by Lown. Unsworth replaced Harmy and kept it toight like a toiger, bowling with a massive about of swing and seam movement including a peach that seamed back off a length from outside off, cutting the batsman in half between bat and body and flying away for a cupla bye’s.

Leggsy got the other big SA player in his next over though, drawing an edge which looked to be flying over the keeper till Lloyd dived and got enough on it to project it skyward for Crane to catch comfortably at slip. Teamwork. Perfect!. Robinson in particular was pleased as Crane is in his fantasy team and Lloyd isn’t. Basil.

Chobham didn’t really have much left after that with a succession of youngsters coming to the crease. With Leggsy on fire and Jimmy C bowling nicely having replaced Lown at the other end it was a matter of time really. Two of the Chobham youth decided to close their eyes to length balls from Leggsy and had their stumps removed despite their umpire asking us to bowl slower. (What? so you can hit it?!) and the innings was mopped up by Jimmy C at 3:25 pm, all out for 74 and the Wick were eying an early trip to the bar.

Teas- Disappointing both on quantity and quality. Cheese and ketchup in a sandwich is something I haven’t experience since primary school and probably something one should never experience, coupled with the dried pastry selection of mini sausage rolls and vol-au vents was a bit too much- 3

Now looking at this score card the casual observer may say we thought we had won already but someone once said “You don’t score until you score!”. And we made a genuine hash of chasing this total which should have been done inside 20 overs.
My mistake was changing the batting order (school boy error!) to give a few people a game who hadn’t bowled.

Crane opened up with Riso and the former set about the total with his usual explosive style, smashing 12 off the young openers 1st over. The other opener- big SA no2, was a revelation with the ball. Pace, bounce, aggression, swing and seam made him very difficult to score off. Had fitness been one of his strong points and had he been able to maintain his pace for a few more overs and we would have REALLY struggled as opposed to just struggled. As it was he bowled Riso for a duck and Crane for 26 the next over and set about tormenting Robbo and Nathan until the latter fell LBW for another duck and all of a sudden 75 looked a massive score.

Lloyd joined Robbo and attempted to steady the ship but struggled for timing against the slow bowler before getting frustrated and bowled ATS.
Linter was sent in to slap a few ad Linter does but taking a leg guard and forgetting to move your feet is never a good option and he fell for a golden the very next ball.
If ever you needed a knurdler it was now and Jimmy C showed his experience and did his job well.
Squeaky bum time occurred though, when Robbo bottom edged a wide one which bounced off the slips ankle and looped up to the bemused keeper and then Harmy edged to the keeper with his second ball.
Parkesy and Jimbo saw us home though, both playing with composure and a fair amount of belief .

A good game all in all, with some very tight bowling from both teams. The Chobham youth policy holds some promising young players and it is a bit of a shame (for them) that they didn’t have quite enough experience in the side to balance them out or this game could have quite easily gone pear shaped for us.
20 points is 20 points and they do say that if you can play badly and still win then that’s the sign of a strong team.
Back at the Wick, Leggsy bought a jug for Michelle avoidance and Lownsy bowled superbly for his 3 wickets.

Results from the weekend went as well as they could have for us, with Battersea losing to Staines and an 8 man Old Tiffs being beaten by Woking. The Wick now needs to win our last 2 games and see what happens.
In the words of a certain team member a whole lot of belief is needed….and strong availability of course.