Ist XI: Denham Simply Swept Aside

Denham's bowlers were put to the sword by Winchmore Hill batsmen Shuttle 162 and Banham 128 not out as the visiting side made an impressive 328/2 in a rain reduced game.

In reply Khan made 62 but no other batsmen were able to spend any significant time at the crease. M Pearce took 4-44 and younger brother D Pearce 4-30 as Denham were dismissed for 125.

Denham received 3 points for turning up.

Poisonous mushrooms growing very close to Winchmore Hill

2nd XI v Wargrave

Cut ‘n’ Paste or Cut ‘n’ Dried…..

Now if for any reason I was feeling uninspired to write a match report of Saturday’s game (and perhaps after a sleepless night wondering how did we throw that away again there might be) then I might resort to cutting and pasting last weeks report, changing some names and numbers and be done with it…

but I guess ultimately that we got so close to winning should be seen as a huge positive in light of the array of cricketing talent, with no disrespect to anyone, that turned out for the Denham 2nd X (yes, it was only ten on the day).

Sitting outside the pavilion at 1:30pm watching the raining teeming down it was looking decidedly unlikely that we would actually play any cricket on Saturday afternoon. It stopped. Dried up a bit and we got started at 2:30pm. The toss was won and Wargrave were inserted on to what is traditionally known as a ‘sticky dog’ (where does that expression come from?).

The wicket turned out to be anything but the foresaid adhesive canine: Wargrave’s batters were intent on getting the game off to a flyer and the ball went everywhere off the middle, the edge and occasionally hitting the stumps. 75 for 3 after 15 overs.

Application was probably the name of the day and the Wargrave innings was not imbibed with it. O’Hara got a 4 for, surely a ‘michelle’ must be just round the corner. Marman picked up 3. Sethi and Ashworth did their bit. 136AO. Hurrah! ........contd next column

Sunday XI 13th May: Away at Uxbridge

to follow

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2nd XI Continued

I think we felt reasonably pleased we our efforts in the field. Some catches were caught. Excellent. However, even with ‘only’ 136 on the board it was going to be a challenge considering the batting talent available.

Cut and dried? Not a chance. The jury was ‘out’ at halftime. Dalton (36) and Tobin (21) did the same as last week….got the innings off to a good start: 50 odd without loss after 15 overs.

Having seen off the opening Wargrave attack (which really was quite tidy for a 2nd XI attack) the slowies came on…..and the wickets started to fall. Although the first 15 overs had yielded 52 runs and no wickets the next 30 overs saw a mere 66 runs and 9 wickets…..the only other contribution coming from Gates (15).

Wargrave were ably assisted by 2 self induced suicidal runs outs and a possibly contentious umpiring decision that didn’t help the Denham cause. We subsided to 118AO. Game over.

What counts most? taking part or winning……we were all hugely disappointed and rightly so. We could have and perhaps should have won. We didn’t. Wargrave did. But on the flip side we did partake in a good, competitive game of cricket on a day when many games were quite possibly lost to the weather.

At some level I guess I’m pleased to have enjoyed a game of cricket on a dull, windy, wet May day.

Low light: Schembers getting a dubious decision when all set to take us over the winning line

High light: We got 10 wickets.

Who needs cut ‘n’ paste….could any two games really be that similar?

Roll on next week. Binfield at home.