Twoo's fall short against Grayswood

On a sunny Saturday in September the Twoo's came to the Rec full of confidence. They were to face Grasywood IV, a team that have not won all season! The Twoo's were missing the talents of Mitch 'Golden' Brown and Barry 'Currently Opening a Can of Treasurer Whoop Ass' Croucher and welcomed back Andy 'Podge' Partridge and Steve 'Well what can I say? Simply Incredible' Houghton to the team.

The toss was taken and Tony Boniface won it again, inserting Grayswood into bat. Grayswood opened with the tried and tested Tom White and Jasper Taylor. In response, Wrecclesham opened the bowling with Scott Newman. A few matches ago, he bowled the last 3 overs of the innings, a week after that he was the first change bowler. This week he opened. With Leo-Jak ‘In a Box’ Carter, Scott ‘John McEnroe’ Newman (12 – 0 – 39 – 0) kept the run rate to around the 3 an over and never conceded a single bowling extra!

With the pressure building at Pottery End, it was from the Railway End that Leo (7 – 1 – 24 – 2) made the breakthrough. He trapped Tom White in front of the stumps for the first of the day’s many LBW’s. It wasn’t long before he had his next wicket when Iain Jackson edged behind into Alex ‘Dining’ Hall gloves.

Once Leo’s spell came to an end, Matty ‘Won’t stop going on about his 100% catches this season’ James (5 – 0 – 33 – 1) was brought on and took the valuable wicket of Jasper Taylor for 33 runs. He maintained his 100% catch record by taking a great diving catch to his left off his own bowling. This brought to the crease the fast scoring Simon ‘Sy’ Peet and Jonathan Taylor. They set about taking the run rate from the depths of 1.5 an over to around 3 or 4. For Wrecclesham to maintain their grip on the match, something needed to change.

Step forward the Daredevil Druid of Dibbly Dobbly (soon to be a Major Motion Picture). Steve Houghton (8 – 3 – 15 – 4) had been recharging his batteries abroad recently, but had come back and was raring to go. Originally, he was only to bowl for a few minutes, just so that the required 12 overs could be bowled before Leo was brought back on. In typical Steve style, he very quickly bowled the talented duo. Of course, he wasn’t to stop there! He then picked up the wickets of Phil Roach and Robert Milnes in short succession, both LBW. The first LBW was so plum that the umpire had his finger raised before Wrecclesham even appealed!

All the action wasn’t to remain confined only to the Railway End. James ‘The Hangover’ Merryweather (8.3 – 0 – 21 – 1) had been waiting in the wings all match. He was spitting flames and dying to get the ball and prove his mettle. Needless to say, when the opportunity arose, he seized it with both hands. He came roaring down the hill and had Dominic Westcott-White out LBW for 2 runs and caused an amazing run out by getting a hand on a straight shot causing it to hit the stumps and take the last wicket. Grayswood II finished on 139 all out off 40.3 overs.

After yet another standard-raising tea by Jane Boniface, Wrecclesham went out to chase down the total. Without the imperious pair of Mitch Brown and Barry Croucher, Dave ‘Boom Boom’ Vasey and Bernie ‘The Bolt’ Bridger would lead the charge. The difficulty of the task ahead of them suddenly hit home when the first delivery from Iain Jackson sped past Bernie. The bowling speeds of the Grayswood opening pair, coupled with the pitch and moisture in the air, made batting incredibly difficult. This was very apparent when Dave Vasey was bowled second ball. From then on, Wrecclesham never got to grips with the Grayswood II bowling. Of the 10 wickets to fall, 9 of them were bowled and all of them were from the same two bowlers Iain Jackson (13.3 – 6 – 14 – 5) and Simon Peet (17 – 2 – 32 – 5).

James Merryweather came in to rebuild the innings, but soon found a new partner after Bernie was bowled for 4 runs. Scott ‘First Wrecclesham batsman to score a four in the innings’ Newman joined James, and for a while things looked like they might turn in Wrecclesham’s favour. However, Simon Peet joined Iain Jackson in the wicket taking and bowled both of them.

Matthew James and Alex Hall were the next batsmen in. Both set out to play in an attacking manner. Alex in particular wanted to continue where he left off against Grayswood III where he hit over 30 runs in an unbeaten match-winning innings. Alas, both Matthew and Alex got out playing attacking shots. Matty, though, did have the distinction of being the only batsman to be out without being bowled.

When Alex was out bowled, Peter O’Sullivan joined Leo-Jak Carter at the crease. In contrast to the rest of the Twoo’s, both played defensively, sensing that it was the ‘long game’ that needed to be won. Leo was out not long after Peter arrived, meaning that Steve and Peter would be batting partners for only the second time this season!

They started batting in the 19th over and finished when Peter departed in the 43rd over. Although they both individually scored very few runs (Steve finished on 11 and Peter on 8), the amount of extras conceded by Grayswood II mean they had almost scored a fifty partnership, bringing the score to within 38 runs of the total. Andy Partridge came in needing to see out 6 overs for Wrecclesham to take any points from the match. Unfortunately, he fell to the same brilliantly accurate bowling that had already claimed so many Wrecclesham wickets.

The presence of Tony ’Tinky Tonky’ Boniface must have been threatening to Grayswood II, because Iain Jackson reverted back to his long up in an attempt to bowl fast deliveries at the Number 11. Amusingly, the first delivery went for four. However, the next hit the stumps, ending the Twoo’s innings for 110 off 46.3 overs, leaving the stoic Steve Houghton not out for 11, and the team 20 runs short of the target.

By the Ginger Owl