Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

Washington’s season got off to the ideal start with a convincing win against Great Gaddesden on Saturday. On a beautiful, summery afternoon, in as pretty a rural setting as could well be imagined, they got the reign of new Saturday skipper, Paul Irons off to a flyer with a 86-run victory. There were heroes. Irons himself had an awesome match, smashing 63 (including several trade-mark howitzer 6s), taking a wonderful catch and taking 4 wickets. Tony ‘the Kiwi’ Harris held the innings together with an unbeaten 69, and, most dramatic of all, Peter Kloss wrapped up the match with a hat-trick!

But to begin at the beginning. Irons opted to bat on winning the toss, but Gaddesden had very much the better of the early exchanges, reducing the Wash to 25-4. Matthew Cragoe (0), David Gluckman (5), Agar Burton (1) and Nick Tidey (1) all succumbed to accurate swing and seam bowling, and Gaddesden should have consolidated their position by snapping up Harris’s wicket: twice before he had reached double figures he was put down at long-on.

It was a mistake Great Gaddesden would rue. In company with skipper Irons, Harris proceeded to put on 82 for the fifth wicket - Irons, as already mentioned, smashing anything within reach into oblivion, Harris content with running well and chipping singles through the mid-wicket region. When ‘Mighty’ finally succumbed, bowled by a ball that simply didn’t bounce, Wash had found their feet. New Aussie find Marty Bock kept the tempo up with a brisk 13, and though Kloss was caught for just 1, Gary Evans (21 not out) then joined Harris in a scintillating eighth-wicket partnership that yielded 56 in quick time, leaving Irons with the happy task of declaring at tea with 187-8 on the board.

Great Gaddesden’s reply got off to the worst possible start when Eric Stoughton (1-18) claimed a wicket in his second over, but then the home team recovered to such an extent that by the drinks interval, with 87-1 on the board, they looked well in the hunt. Wash needed a moment of magic to change their luck, and it was provided by Irons. Almost as soon as play resumed, he threw himself to his left in the covers to take an amazing catch off Bock (1-22). It sparked a collapse of heroic proportions.

The skipper himself steamed in and took four wickets, and Kloss (4-2), exploiting the huge amount of swing that was available all afternoon, finished off the game with a magnificent three-ball combination (off-cutter, outswinger, outswinger). It was Kloss’s second hat-trick in consecutive games, the previous effort being against Pacific at the end of last season. Wash ran out winners by a handsome margin, reversing the outcome of last year’s fixture.

But, corny as it sounds, cricket was the winner today – lovely day, lovely setting, great oppo, great hospitality: as more than one Washingtonian said as the cars turned their noses back towards London in the gathering twilight: ‘It’s what cricket’s all about’.