Waltham
St Lawrence 2nd XI travelled the short distance
the local rivals Knowl Hill buoyed by their opening
day victory against Twyford. Skipper Connor won the
toss and asked Knowl Hill to bat. Hoping for a repeat
performance from the last meeting which saw Javed skittle
them out for 50. This time however Knowlies were going
to be tougher to break down as they opened with Crawcour
and Millson, both whom played very circumspectly for
the open overs.
Javed bowling from the pavilion
end took his time to get used to the slope but eventually
extracted enough bounce to have Crawcour caught gloving
a ball down the leg side. At the other end Ghulam was
doing the tough yards up the hill and keeping things
tight.
For Knowl Hill, Duffy was just playing himself
in for what was to be a telling knock. Severe on anything
short Waltham continued to feed
his shots as he marched along without too many problems.
Milson looked like he was laying anchor for the long
haul till he fell to a smart catch from Connor behind
the stumps.
This brought D Brookman to the
crease and together he and Duffy took the score towards
100. Following spells from Javed and a lively burst
from Gujjar, Connor turned to golden arm Burge and he
didn’t disappoint picking up Brookman, Ghulam taking
a good catch in the deep.
Connor brought Javed
back and immediately he picked up Depledge for a duck.
Waltham were now on top and forced
hard for further breakthroughs. However, Duffy had other
ideas as the continued to plunder runs behind square
on both sides of the wicket as Waltham’s
bowlers struggled with line and length. Eventually after
some edges and a dropped catch off the improved Smith
Duffy fell 3 short of what would have been an excellent
century, Gujjar getting some good lift to get him to
snick behind. Eventually the innings ended with 204
on the board.
After a sumptuous tea, Connor
sent openers Javed and Kiani out in pursuit of
the 205
runs for victory. The running (in all senses) was slow
as Javed and Kiani failed to score for more than four
overs. Eventually Kiani edged to first slip to bring
youngster Will Thompson to the crease. He played a mature
innings way above his years as he took the scoring rate
up playing some pleasing wristy flicks and excellent
cuts as he made 21 until he was out adjudged LBW.
Before this Javed had succumbed to one of A Brookman's
flighted grenades and this brought Connor to join Parker
at the crease. Both were intent of running quick singles.
Parker himself looked well at ease as the captain was
all at sea as he struggled to pick up the length from
Brookman. Parker then fell to mistimed pull and Burge
was run out by his skipper to plunge Waltham
into the mire at 90 for 5 from 25 overs.
However,
Connor had ideas beyond just salvaging a draw and after
some prodding around began to find his timing, hitting
A Brookman to a series of straight driven fours. Christodoulou
was starting as Connor had done but eventually they
were both in and the fireworks started with both looking
for their shots. Connor passed 50 but he rate was still
at over seven an over until two sixes and two fours
from a D Brookman over and a similar effort from an
A Brookman over brought the rate crashing down to just
above 3 and Waltham began to canter.
Christodoulou perished for an excellent 40
but not before he and Connor had put on over 100. All
that was left was for Gujjar to hit and unbeaten seven
runs and Waltham had won a classic,
Connor unbeated on 72. Many thanks go once again to
Knowl Hill for an excellent, exciting game which could
have gone either way. |