Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

Russell Pendry reporting.

On a warm sunny afternoon for this time of the year and with a few white clouds overhead the Washington's penultimate game of the season against the Graces took place with Washington skipper Shawn Hill winning the toss and electing to bat. Washington opened with Pete Demetri and Don Campbell who was making he’s first appearance of the season. Campbell (9 not out) and  Demetri (26) batted cautiously for the first 11 overs with some tight and accurate bowling from Shofiq and Bielby restricting the run rate to 2 runs an over before Campbell had to retire hurt after twisting his ankle.

.

This brought Aff Naseem (22) to the crease, who batted well, with four 4’s coming in he’s total of 22. The loss of Demetri saw Paul Knight (26) come to the crease and with Naseem put on 30 runs for the next wicket, hitting three 4’s and a 6 and was looking in good form keeping out the good balls and punishing the bad ones. The partnership of Knight and Naseem was looking steady until Naseem was stumped coming well down the wicket to a ball from Manish.

With 27 overs gone The Washington found themselves 92 for 3, which would normally be a steady start, except 27 overs had been bowled with some tight accurate bowling from the visitors. The skipper Shawn Hill (50) replaced Naseem and Knight was soon out with only 5 more runs added to the scorecard.  Brynn Hill (0) making his debute for the Washington  came to the crease with his cousin Shawn and big things were expected of the Hill cousins to force the score along with 12 overs remaining Unfortunately B. Hill was out soon afterwards, bringing Brad Hitchcock (36) to the crease in a pair of borrowed cricket shoes.

With 97 on the board with 4 wickets down and only 12 overs remaining the fireworks began and the partnership of Hill and Hitchcock put on 86 runs in only 10 overs, with two consecutive overs from Reshan and Ainsworth going for 18 and 16 runs with Hill hitting four 4’s in one over and a huge 6 back over the bowler in the next. Not to be out done Hitchcock was seeing the ball well and hit six 4’s and a 6 in he’s total of 36. Hitchcock was out in the 36^th over with the score now on a more respectable 183 for 5. With the departure of Hitchcock, Campbell came back to the crease. Eleven runs were added before Hill was well caught for a quick fire 50 off 34 balls and with 4 overs remaining the Wash managed to get past the 200 mark with Pete Kloss (3 not out).

Going into tea the Washington must have been well pleased setting a total of 202 to win after finding themselves on 120 with only 10 overs left.

After tea the Washington opened the bowling attack with Kloss (0-23) off his 8 overs and the Skipper S.Hill (5-23). The Graces lost two quick wickets both bowled by Hill in the first 3 overs with only a handful of runs on the scoreboard and with the usually dangerous Manish LBW for 0 the Washington with some tight fielding must have thought a victory was on the cards to make up for the loss in July to the same team.

With Hill resting himself for later on, Reshan and Shofiq then came together and thoughts of an easy win soon changed with the pair putting on a 100 run partnership with 37 runs coming off just 2 overs from Cruickshank (0-37), bowling only his 2^nd and 3^rd overs of the season. With Kloss bowling out hes 8 overs for a tidy 23 runs, he was unlucky not to have any wickets to show after beating the bat on numerous occasions. He was replaced by the Washingtons leading wicket taker this season, Pendry (3-30) who after a few loose opening overs soon took the wickets of the dangerous Reshan and Shofiq either side of drinks with catches from Demetri and Hill, the later a superb diving low catch, which dislocated the Skipper's little finger for hes effort. With Pendry bowling he’s last 4 overs for 6 runs and Knight (0-33) of he’s 8 overs the batsmen found the runs harder to come by than before, but were still on top of the run rate required and a win for the Graces was still on the card. The re-introduction of S.Hill and Gary Malcolm (2-24) who took two quick wickets for a handful of runs, saw the visitors hopes of a second win of the season against the Washington disappear as they lost there last 5 wickets for less than 40 runs with 3 overs left and 26 runs still required for victory.

Shawn Hill ending up with 5 wickets for 23 runs only the second 5 wicket haul by any Washington bowler this season and Shawn’s first for the club. In addition there were 3 catches for Demetri, 2 for Hill and one for Hitchcock, in what was a fine all round team performance with everyone having a part to play in the win.

Man of the Match:

Shawn Hill for a superb 50 which helped achieve a respectable total of 201 and for an aggressive bowling spell taking 5 wickets for 23 runs and for a superb low catch to dismiss Reshan for 33 when looking dangerous.

Skippers comments:

"As always the fixture against the two sides is always a close thought game played in the true spirit of cricket. It was a good all round team effort from the Washington with everyone contributing, that lead to a good victory against a good side. The weather was great and everyone went home happy."

Packing the Kit:

Brad Hitchcock for forgetting his cricket shoes to then go on and score a superb 36, maybe he should forget them more often.