Owls still flying high despite Witley resistance

Wrecclesham were held to a winning draw by a stubborn Witley side who just managed to hold out for 2 points, as for first time this season the Wreccers failed to gain maximum points batting first.

On a fantastic day for cricket the toss was won by the home side and the Owls were duly put into bat by a confident Witley side, boasting a number of first team players, and the game was certainly set up to be an interesting encounter.

The confidence from the home side soon increased as they created notable openings with the new ball and the pace of Franklin from the top and the swing of Phillips from the bottom end causing problems for Wrecclesham's opening pair.

Chris 'we're into the lower order now' Spooner was first to go, caught by a quality catch at slip off the bowling of Franklin for 8.

He was soon followed back into the pavilion by Joe 'I hit it' Boniface and Jonny 'whamolata' Elworthy as the Wrecclesham Owls appeared to be in a world of trouble at 24 for 3 after an indifferent opening 7 overs.

However in stepped the ever reliable Chris 'the rock' Windeatt and he along with Oli 'bondi beach' Caston rebuilt the faltering Wrecclesham innings.

The former in particular was in fine form, deadly on anything slightly over pitched or veering onto the pads and after 16 overs parity had been restored as the Owls found themselves on 70 for 3.

Caston was then caught off the bowling of Munday attempting to drive a short pitch delivery, only succeeding in picking out cover who took a decent catch at the second time of asking.

This set the scene for Henry 'granny basher' Bate, who was playing in the Wrecclesham colours for the first time since his infamous 99 against Alfold, well.. Sort of!

The young batsmen proved to be a perfect ally for the solid Windeatt as the pair ticked the scoring along at a fair old rate and thanks to some fine stoke play and intelligent cricket, well and truly swung the game back in the favour of Wrecclesham

Windeatt reached his 50 first taking advantage of some sloppy fielding to record his first half century of the season to underline what a consistent and valuable member of this fledgling Owls side he is.

The tide had well and truly turned with the Wreccers reaching 161 for 4 at the second drinks break.

Bate was soon rewarded for some fine straight hitting with a 50 of his own to show that despite a rather long lay off, class remains permanent.

Saying that, he then spooned part time spinner Lowndes high into the air and the simplest of catches was taken by long on.

This bought in Dan 'record's on' Vasey, who had been in ominous form over the last few weeks and with the skippers blessing he was given a free role to up the ante and force an early declaration, and that's exactly what he did.

Windeatt was seeing the ball pretty big as well and in combination with Vasey a remarkable 90 runs were added in the final 10 overs to add salt into the Witley wounds.

Vasey smashing 7 fours and 2 sixes to bring up his maiden Wreccers 50, a fine example of how to up the run rate at a rate of knots when required most and an excellent achievement from the hard hitting all rounder.

The onslaught from Vasey and Windeatt, who ended on 82 not out playing a near faultless innings at a crucial stage, led to an attacking declaration of 255 for 5 from 42 overs.

This left the Owls 48 overs to bowl out a mid table Witley side, which certainly seemed achievable and the the Wreccers approached the task with their usual enthusiasm.

Caston and Elworthy opened things up and it wasn't long before the former struck, getting a nick behind which was taken in style by Phil 'the cat' Caine.

A quick mention for Phil who was simply excellent throughout the Witley innings, taking 5 catches in all and generally keeping impeccably in tough conditions against some quickish bowling.

Elworthy was bowling with good pace and accuracy and can consider himself pretty unfortunate not to have claimed any wickets.

Caston found a great rhythm at the bottom end and was bowling with real purpose, creating a number of chances and generally looking threatening.

It was therefore no surprise to see Caston dismissing 5 of the top 6 Witley batsmen as the home sides innings collapsed and all of a sudden only 2 results became possible.

Skipper Poulton decided that defence was going to be his sides only chance of coming away from the game with anything and put up a stubborn resistance against the Wrecclesham attack.

Poulton farmed a lot of the strike and thanks to Graeme '1000 wickets' Larby, who picked up 3 for 7 from 11 overs including 9 maidens, he wasn't getting any notable support from his team mates but hung around well to give Witley a chance of 2 points.

The Owls managed to reduce the home team to 88 for 9 and another 10 points seemed within grasp for the league leaders.

However Poulton and Jack Possy used all their experience to reduce chances to a minimum.

Skipper Boniface was mixing things up in a bid to get the vital breakthrough and even turned his own arm over. Boniface attempted to vary his pace and successfully induced a nick to slip but the chance was put down to leave the Wreccers frustrated.

Half century scorer Vasey also managed to get a glove on a body line delivery but the ball eluded Caston as Witley survived again.

Larby was still plugging away until the final over, getting a couple of nicks from Possy, one dropping just short of Caine behind the stumps and the day ended in frustration for the Owls.

After a shaky start it was clearly satisfying for the Owls to dominate the home team to such an extent that they were delighted with 2 hard earned points and the Wreccers came away devastated with a winning draw.

With their rivals dropping points as well Wrecclesham still find themselves in a commanding position and are now just 3 wins from securing a place in Div III for the forthcoming season.

Afterword

Whilst it was definitely frustrating not to gain the 10 points this week I think we can take some real positives from this weekends game.

I think credit is also due to Witley as we have tapped out for 2 points many many times over the years and we have no divine right to win the game. You have got to be good enough to bowl the opposition out and on this occasion, with Witley having the rub of the green, we weren't.

However I haven't played in that many sides where at 24-3, with 3 consistent batsmen out, we have gone on to bat the opposition out of the game and that just highlights our strength in depth this season and should give us confidence that we can post a competitive total despite a poor start as we bat along way down.

Bring on next week so we have the opportunity to get back to wining ways!!

Up the Owls!!

Match report and Afterword By Joe Boniface