Owls Have A Hoot

Owls have a hoot…Surely?


With a 100% record and 2 wins under their belts the camp felt good and ahead of the big match against Thursley.

The new youthful looking Wreccers team felt that they could secure another valuable early win as long as the weather remained on side.

The inform captain won yet another toss and despite some members of the camp wanting to spend some time in the middle, wisely chose to bowl.

With some nice cloud cover overhead new ball was given to the in form Dan Vasey and the evergreen Graeme Larby who was approaching 1000 wickets in the I’anson & Miller. (More on this later).

Larbs took a few overs to get his line but once he found his usual rhythm he was as unplayable as ever finishing with 3 for 34 off of 16 overs.

Unfortunately for us, the “Hero of the Week” from Frensham fell completely off the banter train and despite some good bowling was unable to find a consistent line, slipping in the wet conditions and couldn’t find any rhythm which was not helped by a dropped catch from Mr Matthew Parkinson MBE himself.

It is at this moment that Boniface threw the ball to Chris Spooner (pictured), who despite having a troubled time with the bat in recent weeks, was bowling well.

Spooner then embarked on an excellent spell of swing bowling bamboozling the Thursley batsmen and generally keeping things very tight alongside the increasingly impressive and ever accurate Larby.

The pressure soon told and Thursley’s only hope of a decent total soon dwindled as their captain and arguably best batsmen top edged Spooner for an easy caught and bowled.

From there batsman despite a reasonable stand between batsmen 3 & 4, they fell within a few overs of each other leaving Thursley in a world of trouble at 57 for 4.

The Wrecclesham ‘Owls’ then went in for the kill and Thursley proved easy prey. Rash batting coupled with high quality bowling, tight fielding and efficient catching from the Wreccers ended Thursley’s innings on a seemingly meagre 65 all out.

Spooner recording a PB of 6 for 12 off of 10.5 overs, to put himself right back in the frame for the bowling cup (the only one he appears capable of winning this year).

A quick note to Spooner and Larbs who both had very achievable hat trick attempts during this collapse, but were outfoxed by a 12 year old and a 112 year old respectively.

The fielding performances have been something which the mighty Wreccers have prided themselves on this season and again looked keen in the field and clung on to match winning catches

Windeat once again showed why many have linked him with Andy Collins for his fielding, letting few past him in the gully.

Phil Caine was immaculate behind the stumps considering the tricky playing conditions.

Boniface Snr had a good spell behind the stumps as umpire today and was ever vigilant. Giving little help to the bowlers but did give one LBW of the bowling of Spooner after a vicious appeal from the whole team.

Steve and Jennifer were as ever on hand to support the team, although his and Tony’s presence were missed in the field.

So with 58 overs to bat and only 66 required the Owls rightly felt in control.

Up stepped the captain and Parky to open the batting. Having looked solid for all of 3 balls Parky gave his wicket away gloving behind to the keeper trying to join the 6 challenge.

With Spooner in 3 and needing to score some runs the boys still felt confident that today was definitely the day. Unfortunately for Spooner, he lasted all of one ball gloving behind a ‘ripsnorter’ of a ball from the athletic young opening bowler for an early departure, proving too many that his new £220 “Excalibur” is not up to the challenge.

Next to step up was Phil Caine, who blasted a quick 4 over mid-on. However, after Phil was bowled for 5, the Owls looked in real trouble at 7-4 but the ever illustrious Chris Windeat, who remarkably is still to be dismissed this season, stepped up to the crease and with the dogged Captain embarked on a steady partnership to bring the odds back in our favour.

Boniface then carved a low line six and got to 15 before getting unluckily bowled due to playing on. This however, brought into bat, the inform Dave Vasey, another yet to take the long walk, who alone with Windeat, well and truly killed of the spirited opposition.

After word – By Chris Spooner (edited by Joe ‘Matt Hoggard’ Boniface)

This will be my fifth season at the club and for the first time in years, I truly believe that we are going places.

As Churchill said “Success is not final, defeat not fatal, it’s the courage to continue that counts.” This club has endured difficult times over the last few years by losing key players and with important figures unable to commit the time to the club resulting in us losing one of our teams.

However the Owls are proving, the club will fight on. Not only has this been the best start for Wrecclesham in many a year, this has also been the best team I have played with, the team dynamic is spot on and with the young captain going from strength to strength there is a strong belief in the camp that we can go all season undefeated with the Farnham herald rumoured to have this week headline as “Owls pushing for promotion”. With the experience of the true legends like Larbs, Tony and Steve and the ever impressive Dave “safe-hands” Vasey, coupled with the introduction of much needed young blood like Dan Vasey and Chris Windeat this Wrecclesham team has all it needs to dominate the league if not, as is rumoured the IPL next year.

A special mention must go to Steve, Boni and Larby who are valuable members of the squad and genuinely great clubmen.

If the club is to succeed these guys, along with all of you, are absolutely vital and their contribution and attitude is a shining example for all.