Wrecclesham CC win the Bob Birchett Trophy

Wrecclesham Cricket Club secured an 8 point victory over Wood Street 2nd XI and in doing so have been crowned Div IV champions winning the Bob Birchett trophy in the process.

The I'anson Division IV leaders ensured their season long pursuit of the title ended in success as they wrapped things up with a game to spare.

With their fate well and truly in their own grasp the Wrecclesham Owls knew that 5 points or better was enough to secure the club a first trophy in over 6 years.

With the sun shining and a picture book day for cricket the scene was set for what proved to be a memorable day for the club.

Boniface knew, despite the persuasions of Vice Captain Spooner, that winning the toss would give the Owls every chance of signing things off in style against a Wood Street side with a stubborn batting reputation.

It was therefore fortunate that he did exactly that and put the home side into bat on a decent enough looking track.

The Owls in true Wreccers tradition started with 9 men due to the late arrival of Jonny Elworthy and Ryan 'Maltese Falcon' Brown so Dan Vasey and Chris Spooner opened things up.

The makeshift opening attack did pretty well against a young but talented Wood Street partnership and restricted the home side to just 26 from the opening 10 overs.

However with wickets in hand a slow scoring rate can always be improved on and so a fine spell from Chris '199 required' Spooner, who showed good control and variation throughout was crucial in ensuring that the pressure was well and truly on the home side, with the all rounder recording figures of 13-4-23-0.

Jonny 'take your top off' Elworthy took over from Dan 'Boris Johnson' Vasey, who bowled well in a particularly unlucky spell, from the top end and struck a crucial blow in his 3rd over, removing Dobson LBW leaving the hosts on 43 for 1 from 17 overs.

This was the start of a steady decline for Wood Street as wickets fell at regular intervals after a solid start.

Elworthy and Graeme 'big soapy' Larby shared a fine spell showing excellent control and really putting the pressure on with some tight and accurate bowling.

Larby showing why he is held in such high regard with some canny bowling posting figures of 4 for 35 from 11 overs. Elworthy similarly returning fine figures of 4 for 45 from a marathon spell of 18 overs.

The pair accounted for all 8 wickets that were taken, snaring 4 victims each for a combination of 81 runs which was the catalyst of a fine bowling display, which also included a trademark Dave Vasey slip catch and some superb wicket keeping from Harris who picked up from where he left off against the Bourne.

The visitors racked up 140 for 8 from their full allocation of 48 overs and left the Owls with 141 required for victory.

The Owlettes Kate, Abby and Jennifer, who were supplemented by the temporary inclusion of the injured Wright and the senior Parkinson / Watts et al were in full voice and along with Tony Boniface who came down for a spot of umpiring ensured the Wreccers had full support for their vital run chase.

Spooner and Parkinson Jnr resumed their successful opening partnership and rapidly set about the Wood Street attack reaching 50 in a mere 6 overs with Spooner scoring 7 boundaries in his 34 and Parkinson smashing a violent 6 over midwicket on his way to 20.

Matt 'MB is he on E?' Parkinson MBE however got somewhat carried away attempting his trademark slog sweep to a full ball and was given out LBW.

The Wreccers however kept true to their traditions by staging a mini collapse (nothing is ever straight forward!) with Dave 'Mind your windows' Vasey and Spooner following in quick succession leaving the Owls on 54 for 3.

Joe 'Disciplinary hearing' Boniface, Dan Vasey and Jonny Elworthy, who potentially destroyed a whole ecosystem with some savage blows into the woods, all played decent cameos supporting Chris 'The Rock' Windeatt well helping to stem the flow of wickets and edge the Owls ever nearer to victory.

It was that man Windeatt again (39 Not Out) who was the corner stone of the run chase and along with Spooner, he must be considered one of the most consistent batsmen in the division.

Relishing the situation, Windeatt slowly but surely took the game away from Wood Street, who at one stage must have thought they were in with a shout.

But the Wreccers were not to be denied and Windeatt fittingly hit the winning runs with 7+ overs to spare to seal another victory and more importantly the league.

A superb effort by Wrecclesham who were looking to bounce back from last years relegation and have done so in fine style.

The Wreccers have now set their sights on an unbeaten league campaign which would be something never previously achieved by the club and a rarity in the I'anson as a whole.

Match report and afterword by Joe Boniface

Afterword

There will be an official review after next weeks game so I won't say too much but I think we have got exactly what we have deserved.

I think we are, without doubt, the best team in the division and we have proved it by winning the title, let's make sure we go one better and do it unbeaten!

The strengthening of the team has been crucial and now we can call on quality cricketers and have a team of XI blokes who can all bat and bowl and do a job when required and that, along with winning a few game breeds confidence and that has been an essential ingredient for us this season.

To know that if one of the openers gets out or if we lose a couple of quick wickets, that we have guys who can come in and not just make a game of it but make us competitive is superb and makes my job that much easier.

Likewise with the bowling, we have so many options I am having to chose who to bowl rather than making people bowl 20 odd overs as it has been in the past.

Bring on next week, Twit twoo!