A gargantuan effort with both
bat and then with ball from Waltham St Lawrence's Chris
England gave WSL a Winning Draw and their first points
of the season.
After being put in on a pudding
like pitch Waltham made steady progress in the drizzle
with openers Connor and Thomas playing sensibly till
Thomas was bowled by Duffy. Tuerena came and went without
troubling the scorers and this brought England to the
crease.
Initially finding the pitch a touch
tricky, he played himself in slowly with some well judged
singles. Connor at the other end was doing the same
as the scoreboard ticked along steadily. As England
become more accustomed with conditions the trademark
pulls and drives came out of the locker as he passed
fifty just after losing partner Connor for a well made
43. Together they had put on 70 for the third wicket.
England however was not finished as he went on
to score 64 until he holed out to mid-wicket off the
bowling of A Brookman. Javed arrived at the crease for
his first outing of the season but was back in the pavilion
for zero as Waltham experienced a mini collapse before
Thompson (10) and Lugthart (8 N.O) helped Waltham to
a respectable 162 all out.
Waltham turned round
in confident mood and some excellent opening bowling
from Ghulam and Lugthart ensured that Knowl Hill couldn't
score as freely as they liked as they both beat the
edge with regularity. After 17 overs, England was brought
into the attack and with his second ball trapped Plank
LBW. In his next over good pressure was exerted and
Davies was run out after some sharp work at Point by
Mike Thompson.
Waltham felt well in the game
at this point as England picked up another wicket, this
time Crawcour falling LBW. At the other end Thomas was
bowling a tidy spell of off spin and he picked up the
crucial wicket of Duffy then had Brookman caught by
Thompson and bowled Dewsbury. Waltham pressed hard for
an outright victory but could not find a way past the
obdurate Millson who batted out with Randall.
Captain Connor was very pleased with his teams effort
after a difficult opening week. Many thanks to Knowl
Hill for an excellent game played in good spirit.
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