Washington Cricket Club - 40th Anniversary Year

The rumours were true!!! The Wash arrived in Tunbridge Wells to find they were indeed playing on the ground and pitches used by Kent County. The venue was an absolute carpet!

It was a very young and skilful Tunbridge Wells side who won the toss and elected to bat in this all day game of declaration cricket. Rob Tidey and Sam Clarke opened the bowling but found the going difficult on the very hard flat track and fast outfield. Rob bowled two spells without luck finishing with 11 overs 0-65 while Terry (who along with Guru were representing the Wash class of 1990) finished with 5 overs 0-42 although was unlucky to have one dropped).

The openers both brought up their 50's in expansive fashion but Priestman (74) showed his impatience to get his century and was caught by Davis off after some nice bowling from Hill who finished with 8 overs 1-49. His partner then followed suit trying to go down the pitch to Kloss and being stumped nicely by Pete 'Guru' Demetri. Kloss finished a tidy 7 overs 1-36 (by the days standards). Richardson and Allat continued in a similar style although with some luck hitting many balls in the air that did not carry until Pendry's good spell (6o 1-36) induced a top edge from Richardson (65) caught Cruickshank.

Tunbridge started to think about a declaration as they were in the low 200's but decided to wait until Allat got his half century...a decision that backfired in more ways than one. Clarke came back and quickly had Allat plum LBW for heartbreaking 49 with Tunbridge finishing with 4-295 in just under 40 overs.

This big total was always going to be difficult to chase and was made even more so when Davis was dismissed for a third ball duck (giving him a pair for the weekend) quickly followed Guru (1), Harris (8) and Naseem (1) leaving the Wash reeling at 4-23 with between 35-40 overs to go.

The opening bowler Bekker's (a transplanted Saffa) spell of 6 overs, 2 maidens 2-6 was particularly destructive along with Stickler (5 overs 2-25). However, these bowlers were not seen again as Tunbridge used 9 different bowlers during the innings. This enabled Rob Tidy to consolidate the innings punishing loose balls while respecting the good balls and providing no chances.

Cruickshank (17) managed to hold down the other end with a Gluckman-like performance before being bowled a few overs after drinks. The game looked still in the balance as Hill joined Tidey with 20 overs to go but the pair took the game to the youngsters with a 103 run partnership thaat ended 3 balls prior to the finish with Tidey c&b for 69. A disappointing finish for a knock that deserved to see out the match.

Kloss saw out the two remaining balls finishing 0* while Hill finished with 41*.

Skipper Hill noted after the game that 'I think they just batted too long...had the target been 250, it might have been an interesting game but with the early wickets, we had no choice but to shut up shop'.

Man of the match - Rob Tidey for a solid bowling performance and excellent batting display

Packing the Kit - Chris Davis for his pair on the weekend