Wreccers take it to the wire

A fine team performance saw Wrecclesham 1st XI defeat an in form Tongham side to register their 3rd maximum in as many weeks and ensure the title race goes right down to the wire.

Skipper Boniface won the toss and opted to bat and a superb opening stand between Chris 'Stuart Broad' Spooner (41) and Matt 'MB is he on E?' Parkinson (42) seemed to have set up the hosts for a comfortable afternoon with the bat.

However, soon the opening pair and James 'Graham Napier' Wright were back in the hutch and the Owls were forced to re build, mainly due to the fine bowling of Meyers (4-28).

Ben 'Stalwart' Pound, who scored a well paced and much needed 38, lived up to his nickname and with support from a couple of other 'stalwarts' in Boniface and Chris 'The Rock' Windeatt the home side soon found themselves in sight of the 200 mark.

With Suril 'Overseas' Patel adding some gloss to the total, Wrecclesham declared on 210-9 from their 46 overs.

A competitive total had been set and with a sumptuous tea on offer the home side knew that nothing less than 10 points would do as they took the field at the home of cricket for the last time in 2009.

Spooner and Dan 'DAAAAN' Vasey started things off and with the top of the batting order looking very youthful early wickets were the order of the day.

Vasey, who bowled consistently throughout his spell (2-21) soon obliged and the Owls were on their way.

Spooner was bowling with good pace at the top end and he soon removed wicket number 3 with the aid of a Windeatt wonder catch reminiscent of Geraint Jones vs Australia back in 2005.

With the order arguably reversed the dangerous looking Wade, Meyers and Trevor Carrington looked to put Tongham back in contention and the runs started to come a little easier as some rare pressure was exerted on Wrecclesham.

However Graham Larby shored things up and removed Wade LBW with a typically flamboyant swinger as Wrecclesham wrestled back the initiative.

Skipper Boniface came on for a rare bowl and the change did the trick as he bowled Meyers second ball and Patel ran out Speers in the same over.

This proved the catalyst for Wrecclesham and Spooner soon wrapped up the tail to record yet another 5 for (5-44) as the home side wrapped things up in 32 overs.

The Owls, 35 games unbeaten, are now just one victory away from a second successive season without loss and possibly the Division III title as they travel to 3rd placed Bramley on Saturday.

In any other year both Wrecclesham and Blackheath could reasonably expect to be champions already but the current situation is a testament to how well the two teams have performed over the course of the season.

The Owls will have to be at their best to beat Bramley who themselves have had a fine season.

Afterword by Joe Boniface

A fine all round team performance with plenty of.. Application!

Spoons and Parky as ever with a great opening stand and well supported by Poundy who offers a superb bit of balance in the middle of the order, great stuff fellas.

Dan, Larbs and Spoons all performed well with the ball (even a little turn of the arm for the old skip!) and with the addition of Oli this week I am confident that if we bowl to our potential we can bowl any team out.

It has been a great season this year and if we get a win on Saturday we have every chance of ending it as unbeaten Champions - deja vu anyone?!

See you Saturday, where we'll be celebrating hard in true Wreccers fashion whatever happens!

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