Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

Irons came on to bowl after all the mainline bowlers had tried, Tony Burt (2-66) having the only success in the 11^th over. Dominic Butcher (0-63) and Dave Mutton (1-47) had opened the bowling, both delivering some good balls and passing the bat without success. The Palace openers were cautious at first but then began to play shots and 73 were scored from the first 10 overs. Burt gave the ball a lot of air and deceived the batsmen on a number of occasions. Peter Kloss (0-24) also had a few overs without success, the batsmen playing and missing periodically.

However it was the with the introduction of Grattan McCoach (1-24) and Irons that things began to happen for the Wash. McCoach took a wicket in his first over, Burt taking a blinder of a catch at slip. Irons took a wicket with his first ball (another sharp catch by George Hope at short mid-wicket) and two in his first over. He bowled with pace to some extraordinary leg side fields, counteracting the batsmen's preferred shots. Alexandra Park continued to score quickly and kept up with the required rate, Anderson and Fernando putting on 84 for the 4^th wicket.

By the time Irons completed his 8-over spell, Alexandra Park had gone from 121 for 1 to 242 for 8. Now only 34 runs were needed with 9 overs to go, but with 2 wickets remaining it was anyone's game. The tail-enders were now rather cautious in their approach with less than 4 runs per over required; however they still managed singles and the occasional boundary over the fast outfield to make good progress.

Mutton came back on and got a caught behind to take the 9^th wicket with 6 runs needed. Kloss at the other end tried to strangle the last scalp with the field around the bat, but it wasn't to be and a scrambled bye towards the end of the 39^th over gave Alexandra Palace II victory by 1 wicket.

Earlier in the day Washington, put in by the opposition, had set what seemed to be a strong target on an unusually dry and hard wicket for early season. The lack of significant rain for three weeks had produced quite a fast and bouncy surface, on which batsmen could play through the line of the ball if it was there to be hit. Combined with short boundaries and a fast outfield it was always going to be a high scoring game. The weather was overcast and the conditions rather gloomy as the game was completed close to 8pm.

Curiously no Washington batsmen reached 50, top score being Paul Irons (46). There were plenty of more modest contributions however from George Hope (39), Pete Demitri (30), Gareth Gillmer (21), Grattan McCoach (27) and Lee Fogarty (20). Hope and Irons put on 68 for the first wicket in quick time, but no other major partnerships developed. Kloss (34*) and Mutton (12) hit out strongly at the end of the innings to score 40 from the last 3 overs.

In the end of course the total turned out to not quite be enough. Skipper Peter Kloss said “I was really wondering where my next wicket was going to come from, but as he often does in this situation Irons came up trumps – thanks Paul. I'm sorry we couldn't quite finish them off and win the game, but it could have gone either way. It was great that everyone had a go with the bat.”

Man of the match: Paul Irons for bringing the Wash right back into the game with the ball, and 46 important runs with the bat

Packing the kit: Gareth Gillmer, for running Tony Burt out

Washington: George Hope, Paul Irons, Pete Demitri(+), Gareth Gillmer, Aff Naseem, Tony Burt, Grattan McCoach, Lee Fogarty, Peter Kloss(c), Dave Mutton, Dominic Butcher