Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

Despite winning the toss, and thus having some control over their destiny, Wash hardly competed. The batsmen failed to produce a defendable total, and the bowlers paid the price.

Calthorpe’s opening bowlers, Sanjay (2-19) and Anstee (2-27), generated considerable swing and troubled all Washington’s top order. Wash collapsed to 45-5, losing Greg Skinner (6), Brad Hitchcock to a brilliant catch at slip for 8, Dennis Edwards (2), Matthew Cragoe (18) and Rob Tidey (0).

Craig Stachurski (19) then set about repairing the damage and hit some fine shots before misjudging the line and getting bowled, and Dave Hobern had reached 9 before finding himself given out lbw.

All the while, skipper David Gluckman (11 not) patiently kept one end going, but he ran out of partners: Neil Martin (8), Akhilesh Patel (9) and Eric Stoughon (0) all succumbed to the spin of Jenkins (3-9) and Donovan (2-15).

It is some index of Washington’s batting shame that Extras top scored with 30!

120 was never going to be enough, and Calthorpe’s batsmen knew they had time on their side. Life was accordingly tough for Washington’s bowlers. Stachurski (0-19) and Hobern (0-15) kept the runs under control in the early stages of the Calthorpe reply but the vital breakthrough never came. By the time Patel (1-11) trapped Gayerparsad lbw for 22, the home team already had 72 on the board, and the outcome was not in doubt.

Eric Stoughton was the pick of the Wash attack and bowled extremely well in a 10-over spell that saw all the batsmen troubled. He picked up one wicket, that of Shah for 50, but a couple of missed catching chances denied him the sort of analysis his performance merited.

The end came in the 27th over, with Calthorpe having scarcely broken a sweat. Wash will have many better days; frankly, few can have been worse.