Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

Justin Gurney might have expected more from his batters after winning the toss and opting to bat. And initially things went well with Pete Demetri (22) and Matthew Cragoe (11) looking largely untroubled as they took the score to 31. Although a bad mix up led to Demetri being run out, Paul Irons arrived at the crease exuding confidence, and smacked a forthright 38. While he was in partnership with Shawn Hill, Wash were looking at a total of 200 +, but when the Big Missile was bowled by one that kept low, Wash suffered a terrible collapse.

From 99-3, they tumbled to 99-7 as Irons, David Gluckman and new-comer Russell Pendry followed him back to the pavilion.

John Roche led a valiant rearguard action, mingling stalwart defence with decisive aggression in notching up 18 runs, but the loss of skipper Gurney for 8 and Peter Kloss for 0 meant Washington took tea with long faces.

Washington’s reply, however, was inspired. Shawn Hill and Peter Kloss bowled an exceptional opening spell, routinely passing the outside edge without ever getting a touch. After 10 overs, the home team had amassed only 9 runs, and Hill had amazingly bowled his 5 overs at a personal cost of just 1 run.

Gillman (34) and Cantaurus (31), however survived, and added 54 for the first wicket in the face of genuinely intimidating bowling from Hill. Irons was eventually introduced to the attack and almost immediately bagged the wickets of Gillman and Bowley (0), but a blistering innings of 42 from Brunner led Highgate to within 20 runs of victory before the Washington fightback began in earnest.

Hill finally found some of the luck that eluded him earlier, picking up 2 wickets to end with 2-40; Irons had Brunner taken at the wicket and in an amazing over, Pendry took two further wickets on his Wash debut.

There were not enough runs in the bank, however, and eventually Highgate managed to reach their target.

After the game, Gurney was in sombre mood: ‘Our batters aren’t scoring enough runs’, he said, ‘the bowlers aren’t finding the edge and when they do, too many catches are going to ground: you can call it bad luck, but we’ve got to improve our all round game, starting next week against Arkley. We’ve got to change our luck.’

Washington: Gurney (c), Roche (+), Demetri, Cragoe, Irons, Persaud, Pendry, Hill, Gluckman, Kloss, Jones.

Man of the Match: Shawn Hill – brilliant bowling Packing the Kit: The whole team- until their luck changes …