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Twickenham fail to clinch
championship crown in thrilling end of season encounter at Wycombe
House
Wycombe
House 205 a/o (Neil Nute, 67no, Bryan Mayers 60, Dimi
Nicolaides 4-28)
Twickenham 193 a/o (Justin Scriven 62, Al Storey
45no, Dan Hough 22)
2007 has been a strange old
summer. Far too wet for almost everyone, yet strangely exciting as
the league has remained closely fought throughout. And yet, the
hard toil of 17 weeks of league cricket meant very little as dusk
descended over Wycombe House’s Jersey Road ground. With only
minutes of the season remaining, one side (Wycombe House) realised
that if they failed to hold out against their already promoted
opponents then they would face the ignominy of a re-election vote
and possibly the disaster of being relegated out of the MCCL. The
other side (Twickenham) were showing the fighting qualities that had
already guaranteed Second Division cricket in 2008, as Al Storey led
the charge towards 10 points and the Championship pennant that would
have come with it. A more exciting finish to a season it would be
hard to imagine.
As the day began, WH skipper James
Rodham took the Twickenham skipper Jon Varney by surprise when, on
winning the toss, he somewhat surprisingly opted to bat. The plan –
so the Twickenham boys guessed – must be to bat for 60 overs and
make it as difficult as possible for Twickenham to chase down the WH
score in 40 overs, thereby securing at least the one point that WH
needed to survive. An interesting strategy given that the Ts had
done more or less exactly that at the Green earlier in the year, a
Pete Carey century being the cornerstone of an exhilarating 267 run
chase.
The WH innings got off to an
action packed start. Aussie Brenton Barker, scorer of 144 for WH in
the first game between these sides in 2007, was perilously close to
being run out off the sixth ball of the innings, Justin Scriven
getting a finger to a drive from Bryan Mayers that deflected the
ball onto the stumps. Barker, at the non-strikers end, looked round
nervously at the umpire, the Ts players celebrated. Umpire Salkeld
– who was to have an interesting day – remained unmoved. Barker
survived ….
The Ts took their disappointment
on the chin; although given the carnage that Barker had caused
against Twickenham 9 weeks previously, there was a real worry that
this particular horse had already bolted. Thankfully for Varney’s
men the Twickenham find of the season, Paul Cassidy, tempted Barker
into a false drive off his third ball and a diving Justin Scriven in
the covers took the catch a few inches off the ground. The
Twickenham bandwagon was up and rolling. Scriven soon got his name
in the wickets column, removing the dangerous Rodham – clean bowled
– for 4, leaving WH with two of their best players out and barely 10
runs on the board.
Mayers nonetheless played with
positive intent, pulling Scriven both in front and behind square
with the minimum of fuss and, as the score trundled up into the 30s,
the WH innings began to settle down. Mayers looked a compact
performer and he soon started to take the attack to Twickenham.
Varney responded by pulling Scriven out of the attack and
introducing Dimi Nicolaides; the dangerous left-armer immediately
made an impact, bowling Sandhu (4) with a delightful outswinger to
once again put WH on the backfoot.
Mayers found a rather more
reliable partner in the shape of Tariq Awan, batting at five. Awan
was keen to bosh anything full over mid on – and this he did on a
number of occasions, prompting Twickenham to step back a little and
be rather more defensive than might have been planned. Awan took a
particular liking to Cassidy’s medium pace, but the big seamer had
the last laugh; removing Awan (20) thanks to a gentle, looping catch
by Warwick Paull in the slips. Awan’s departure signalled another
flurry of wickets; Mayers, who had passed 50 moments earlier,
snicked the returning Justin Scriven behind to Carlos Nunes for 60
whilst Taylor (6) and Giwret (0) came and went reasonably quickly.
The Ts were very much in the ascendancy and a score of around the
120/130 mark looked like it’d be the best WH could hope for.
Numbers 8 and 9, Jayson Allen and
Neil Nute, had other ideas. Opening bowler Allen came in and
immediately played a couple of nice off drives. He initially looked
like he was going to be the major attacking threat in the
partnership. The quickly turned out not to be the case; Allen
contented himself on rotating the strike and watching wicket keeper
Nute smash anything that moved. Nute has not been particularly
prolific in 2007 and so was probably due some luck; he hit the ball
hard and was not scared to play some shots that won’t be in too many
coaching manuals. And, fair play to him, it worked. Nute quickly
raced to a half century and his fun was only ended when Allen
eventually perished – to a super diving catch by Pete Carey at mid
off off Nicolaides – and Choudry and Thamby came and went quickly.
205 all out was nonetheless much better than WH could have hoped for
after 30 overs. It was definitely game on.
With Andy Barnes and JP Cronje
still out injured, Dan Hough once again opened the batting with Pete
Carey. And things got off to a reasonably good start, Hough
upper-cutting both Jason Allen and Salman Choudry for boundaries.
Carey was more circumspect, but 20-0 off 6 was a decent enough
beginning. This changed in Jason Allen’s 5th over when
two wickets fell in two balls. Carey was adjudged leg before for 8
– Warwick Paull was bowled by an absolute brute of a delivery that
moved in and then seamed away. Carlos Nunes came in an played with
his usual freedom, stroking three boundaries to restore a sense of
control to the Ts batting. But he, too, soon perished to Allen (an
impressive 3-20 off 9), edging into Mayers’s midriff at first slip
for 17.
Dan Hough and Justin Scriven tried
to calm things down, and although Hough struggled to get the ball
away with any regularity, the two put on 30 to take the Ts score
into the 70s. The introduction of Rodham’s dangerous off-tweakers
nonetheless saw off the Shropshire Lad who held out disappointingly
to deep mid off and when the luckless Mark Ryan was run out in a
horrific mix-up with Scriven things were looking bleak. 206 seemed
a long way away when the score was 67-5.
Throughout 2007 the Ts have
nonetheless shown tremendous grit and determination, and a similar
never-say-die attitude was to prevail through the rest of this
innings. Scriven reined in his aggressive instincts, and began to
work the ball round nicely. Al Storey, meanwhile, sensibly took his
time, before taking plenty of the many ones and twos that were
available on the big Wycombe House ground. The score began to edge
upwards; 100 was passed in the 29th over and then 140 in
the 37th. The departure of Scriven – for a well crafted
62 – was a set back, but Damon Combrinck and Dimitri Nicolaides came
in and showed that they were up for the fight. Jason Allen’s sharp
run out of Combrinck prompted Storey to be more expansive – one
bombastic boundary through the leg side will remain long in the
memory – whilst Nicolaides thumped Sandhu over his head for four.
News had filtered through the
North Middlesex – the Ts closest rivals – were winning at Barnet,
and that only 10 points would be good enough for the title. Skipper
Varney gave clear instructions; it was win or bust. Nicolaides (14)
perished caught behind to Thamby, leaving only two Twickenham
wickets standing. Although the target was still doable, the run
rate was up to 8 an over and both Storey and skipper Varney began to
take ever more risks with their running. Storey tried to take
control, but he was powerless as Varney – on is final appearance for
the Ts before retiring to the golf course – dived full length in an
ultimately vain attempt to make his ground. It was a close call
(although there was no doubt as to whether Varney thought he was in
or not!), but umpire Salkeld raised his figure. The final pairing
of Storey and Cassidy passed the winning draw mark almost unnoticed,
their sights fixed firmly on 206 to win. More run out scares
continued as the Ts rode their luck; WH even thought they’d won at
one point, Cassidy being miles out of his ground only for the
fielder concerned to miss the stumps from a matter of inches in yet
another run out opportunity. Yet, with 12 runs needed off 9 balls,
Cassidy – who looked remarkably solid during his few minutes out in
the middle – fell on his sword, becoming the fourth run out victim
of the innings. The Ts had fallen 12 runs short.
Both games against Wycombe House
in 2007 have been enjoyable encounters. In many ways, it’s a shame
that the fixture won’t be renewed in 2008; but, the Ts move on, and
MCCL Division Two beckons. The Ts have played positively throughout
2007 and that is the reason that they’ve gone up; always prepared to
throw the opposition an opportunity to win a game if it gave them a
chance of eeking out 10 points themselves, the Ts’ positive nature
has definitely paid dividends. Pete Carey has been outstanding at
the top of the innings, whilst Carlos Nunes has also been a rock in
the middle order. Warwick Paull and particularly Justin Scriven
have performed admirably with both bat and ball and most other team
members have chipped in with contributions at key times – Storey
(45no) and Nicolaides (4-28) at Wycombe House, Mark Ryan at Highgate
(66no) and Andy Barnes and J-P Cronje on a number of occasions.
Varney has also led the troops in his own entertaining and
inimitable style! The Twickenham side may have its stars, but
promotion has been a real team effort. Well done to everyone, enjoy
the 30 plus weeks of shopping around IKEA, Do-it-all and Tesco with
the girlfriend through the winter months, and bring on 2008!
By Dan Hough |
