Once again
Waltham St. Lawrence were denied maximum points by a
frustrating mix of obdurate batting by the Hawley tail -enders,
a dropped catch and a highly questionable umpiring decision
in this one –sided match.
Asked
to bat on a wet track, WSL openers Harris and Ashton
applied themselves well to the conditions and seeing
off the new ball. Ashton’s control and Harris’s aggression
saw the score move forward with ease. The pair applied
themselves superbly to give the home side an ideal platform
to build upon. Harris notched up another half century
and looked well on the way to his second consecutive
ton when he was well caught in the deep by Johnson junior.
When Chris Sharpe took to the crease, the openers had
just achieved a hundred partnership. But at this point
the Waltham innings took a wobble
with Ashton following his opening partner eight runs
later. Sharpe settled but was caught out and skipper
Gearing went first ball when he had the entire off-side
to place his shot, only to hole out to the solitary
cover fielder.
From 100 without loss, Waltham
had slipped to 113-4. By this time heavy rain showers
had meant that the game had been reduced to 40 overs
a side. Jackson and Woolford quickly took up the challenge
of accelerating the scoring by peppering the boundary
all around the ground until the latter was dismissed
by a sharp catch. Jackson was joined by the
recalled England, who managed to be pole-axed
by a beamer in between watching Jackson’s
towering sixes. The pair put on fifty before Jackson
attempting to launch the ball into Waltham
St. Lawrence itself was bowled
by Delaney, who ended up with 4-49. By the close of
their innings, the home side had amassed a creditable
189 for 6.
With a plethora of bowling in their side,
WSL were confident of causing the opposition problems.
This soon proved to be the case as the Hawley openers
had no answer to Gearing’s swing bowling as he quickly
bowled Hartley and had the opposition skipper Lucas
caught at short-leg by England.
Paul Harris frequently beat the bat from the other end
without finding the edge. M.Harris and Delaney steadied
the Hawley batting until a double change in bowling
reaped rewards. Lughart had the former caught by Christodoulu
and England had the latter well
caught at slip by Harris. At 30-4 the game was rapidly
slipping away from Hawley and hanging on for the draw
seemed the strategy from here on in. The batting disintegrated
further when Ollie Johnson was sent packing by an excellent
yorker from Lugthart, England
clean bowled Wilkinson and had Durston caught by the
safe hands of Christodolou again. Although at 35-6 it
simply appeared a matter of time before Hawley capitulated.
Johnson senior was offering stubborn resistance and
after a brief flurry from J.Harris, he was joined by
the veteran Tom Clay. The two gradually wittled down
the overs through dogged defence until Johnson was superbly
caught by Jackson in the gulley
off the debutant Evans.
With eight overs remaining, it looked like
WSL had done enough to secure victory. However, Johnson’s
replacement Daggett was equally resistant. As the final
overs ebbed away, two significant moments shaped
the outcome of the game. Firstly, Clay, who had blocked
out with discipline lofted the ball high over the bowler’s
head. Sadly for Waltham, the
reliabale Christodoulou couldn’t quite get under it
and the ball and the chance went begging. Secondly,
the batsmen decided to take a rare chance, risking a
second run to Evans who then appeared to throw the ball
into keeper Woolford with Daggart stranded. Thinking
the victory was secure, the Waltham
players were amazed when the Hawley square –leg umpire
claimed to be unsighted. The Hawley veterans played
out the remaining two overs without further drama and
the home side were
left totally frustrated at not taking maximum points
from this one-sided encounter with Hawley making only
70 runs. |