Owls Do a Henry Bate

Wrecclesham slipped to a rare defeat away at fourth placed Wood Street Village on Saturday, only their second reverse of the campaign.

With title rivals Cody and Blackheath going head to head a win would have enabled the Owls to cement their position at the top of the table but they fell short in an entertaining game.

The Migty Wreccers rang the changes welcoming back skipper Joe 'Teapot and stare' Boniface from holiday and Henry 'Facebook stalker' Bate from a brief sojourn to Nice as Steve 'Kit's in the car' Houghton and Andy 'A Team' Collins dropped out.

Wrecclesham lost a vital toss and were unsurprisingly asked to bat on a very grassy and green looking wicket.

The visitors new look opening pair of Boniface and Chris 'The Wave' Spooner negotiated the new ball fairly reaching 40 odd from the first 10 overs without great alarm to set a seemingly good platform.

When the latter was dismissed it started somewhat of a collapse with James 'Jeans are the new cut offs' Wright and Spooner following soon after.

A number of batsmen were guilty of making starts into the teens or early twenties without knuckling down to go on a make the big score that was needed as the visitors stumbled.

However thankfully Chris 'The Rock' Windeatt was, as he has been for the large part of the season, in typically miserly mood, anchoring the Wrecclesham innings with great application, patience and no shortage of skill notching another fine undefeated half century (52*) in the process.

With wickets falling at regular intervals and the pair of Woodstreet spinners bowling well, supported by some excellent catching and generally good ground fielding, it looked as if the Owls would be restricted to a modest total and also be forced to bat the full 48 overs.

However Dan 'Mongoose' Vasey had other ideas as he and the watchful Windeatt, with completely contrasting styles, upped the ante to superb effect.

Where Windeatt sensibly rotated the strike pushing the ones and twos and hitting the odd boundary, Vasey (43*) was at his explosive best striking violent and plentiful boundaries, including a number of massive sixes - one remarkable six straight down the ground that didn't get much over head height - in a passage of play that saw the visitors dominate in fine style.

Vasey's savage bludgeoning enabled the visitors, from a situation where 175 was looking about par, to declare on a healthy looking 213-6 from 47 overs.

After a wonderful tea with the tastiest home made samosas of all time the Owls took to the field buoyed by their excellent finish, knowing that if they bowled well they would take something from the game.

Woodstreet had been very energetic in the field and taken their chances well and Wrecclesham needed much of the same if they were to defend their total.

However for some reason the Mighty Wreccers weren't able to scale the heights of previous weeks with a somewhat mediocre bowling and fielding display.

Oli 'Bondi Beach' Caston and Spooner started things off and were immediately put under pressure by Hollingsworth as he ensured the home side kept up with the rate, whilst he had a bit of luck, fortune does favour the brave and it was refreshing to see Woodstreet go for it from the off.

The home side continued to go for it throughout with runs coming steadily and only Caston (20-2-3-94) and Windeatt (2 excellent catches) showed any real resistance as Wrecclesham failed to apply any sustained pressure, bowling only 3 maidens to Woodstreets 7 and not taking their chances when they came.

Both of Woodstreet's top scoring batsmen were dropped early on in their innings and a number of other chances and half chances went down as the Owls sought that spark that might swing the match in their favour but alas it was not to be.

The home side's top and middle order all contributed well and were always up with the rate.

Despite a late flurry of wickets the faultless Strudwick dampened any enthusiasm and saw Woodstreet home to what was in the end a comfortable win.

Wrecclesham will look to get back on track as they entertain Witley at the recreation ground this Saturday.

Afterword by Joe Boniface

It's hasn't been often that we have come up short and it's best put into perspective by realising were still top and by making sure we get a positive result this week.

I think there are still some positives to take from the game as a whole as we did very well to manufacture what I would still maintain as a decent total after wobbling a little in the middle order.

Windo, a great knock to anchor things and a fine fielding display as well to cap another excellent display, I thought you were very unlucky to be on the losing side.

Dan, well done on a quite brilliant knock, some of the boundaries had to be seen to be believed and it is good to see that even if on the odd weeks when you don't bowl that you are still contributing very well, the sign of a good team player.

One thing we can definitely improve on is our fielding and in particular our catching, we must learn to focus better and be ready to take our chances when they come as we saw on Saturday that you will get punished against the better sides.

We must also make sure that we have the right intensity in the field as I felt at times on Saturday we went a little flat and just accepted the defeat - That is not the true Owls spirit!

You have to keep believing, back your team mates and play as hard as you can until the last ball, just take some motivation from the Peper Harrow game as anything can happen!

I think we need to refocus this weekend and hopefully pick up a win at the mighty rec which will still see us in great shape as we enter the run in.

Bring it on!

Up the Owls

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