Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

The Wash fell just 3 runs short of a challenging target on Sunday. Skipper Shawn Hill lost the toss and opposition Alexandra Park elected to bat on an overcast day and what looked like a good pitch. Bowlers Luke Mitchell (1-21) and Shawn Hill (0-29) made a steady start and Alexandra Park struggled to 21 for 2 from the first 10 overs. At this point there was a match-defining incident when Hill and his team mates thought they had new batsman Sameen plumb LBW on his second ball. The umpire refused the appeal and Sameen went on to make a century, contributing half of the Park’s runs. Hill was most aggrieved.

Change bowlers Dave Monger and Sam Clark took over and the scoring rate increased significantly as Sameen helped himself to anything pitched full, hitting several big 6s. He did give a couple of skied catches however which fell agonisingly short of fielders. Another couple of wickets fell to Monger before Kloss took over and finally had Sameen caught by Brian White deep on the square leg boundary with the score on 173 in the 30^th over.

Alexandra continued a good scoring rate in the final 10 overs to finish on 239 for 8. Monger returned and picked up 2 more wickets in his last over – in fact he was on a hat trick put pushed the crucial ball down the leg side. Figures of 4 for 46 were his best ever for the Wash. Debutant Andrew Simons also chipped in with a couple of overs.

After tea Shawn Hill (16) and Peter Kloss (17) opened up the Washington innings. Hill departed early and Kloss was joined by Brian White. White started cautiously but was soon stroking several boundaries through his favourite gully-point-extra cover area. At the other end Kloss was under instruction to hold up an end and not get out to support White; he did this reasonably well, surviving some LBW shouts and a caught behind chance.  Kloss eventually went in the 20^th over with the score on 86, a solid start to the innings.

White continued to score well but several wickets fell cheaply at the other end, Chad Bhaskar (8), debutant Nick Smale (3) and Brad Hitchcock (1) all leaving quickly. Wash now needed around 10 an over from the last 7 and the victory was looking unlikely. However White found a strong batting partner in Luke Mitchell (35*) and they put on 50 together in very quick time – only 6 overs. White finally fell caught behind for an excellent 113.

17 were needed from the final over with Mitchell in good form and on strike. He hit two great boundaries and scrambled some runs too, but the Wash were 4 short of victory at the end of the 40 overs.

Skipper Hill said after the match "We came so close to chasing a really big total - well done to the guys for sticking with it. Congratulations to Brian for an excellent ton."

Man of the match: Brian White for a relly good hundred

Packing the kit: unfortunately it has to be Sam Clark for turning up 40 minutes after the start time