Peter Kloss reporting
The Wash celebrated an important event on Sunday – the first victory for Toby Mariner as club Vice Captain (last season), or Club Captain (this season)! This will be the first of many I am sure.
Spencer CC in Earlsfield batted very slowly against tight Wash bowling and declared to set a target of only 147. All the 7 bowlers used deserved credit, although Naveed Mir conceding only 15 runs from 9 overs really helped keep the Spencer scoring down, which proved to be the biggest factor in the Wash victory.
There was a comical, but also serious moment in the field when debutant Dave Heddle, Peter Kloss and Ruan Coetzer all went for the same lobbed catch at forward point. The good news was that Dave caught the ball and dismissed the batsman; the bad news was the injury list – a nice cheek bone bruise for Kloss and a twisted ankle for Heddle. Unfortunately on his first game he had to retire, make liberal use of an ice pack, and take no further part in the match.
Wash got the runs relatively comfortably with 5 wickets down. Shawn Hill again starred with 58 not out, and debutant Kiran Gunjal hit 42. Naveed finished it off with 29 quick runs undefeated.
During the 101 run excellent opening stand there was much barracking from the sidelines at the slow running of the top order batsmen, particularly from the Chairman. The hapless Kloss got his just deserve later though when he called for a quick single on his second ball and managed to run himself out for a duck!
Man of the match: Naveed Mir, for tight bowling and 29 quick runs
Packing the kit: Ruan, for being the one of the catching trio who didn’t get an injury (slacker!)
