Woking & Horsell Cricket Club -
1st Team Match Report - 12 August 2018
Surrey Championship 1st XI Division 4
Home: Churt 92 all out (30.2 overs)
Away: Woking & Horsell 108 all out (31.4 overs)
Result: Woking & Horsell won by 16 runs
Woking completed a dramatic win in a low scoring encounter over top of the table Churt. An unusual wicket which on first appearance looked good for batting led Woking’s stand-in skipper Henri Peters to elect to bat first. The pitch however offered significant assistance to both spin and seam bowlers and Woking’s openers found scoring hard with Peters being dismissed for a duck in the fifth over. Stuart Warner joined Lewis Dunford at the crease and with prodigious seam movement on display both opted to go on the attack. Dunford was bowled for 19 to leave Woking at 37-2 after 12 overs. With the knowledge that Churt’s strength was in their spin bowling options and given the conditions new batsman James Woods and Warner continued to attack the seamers, elevating the score to beyond 80.
Inevitably Churt’s spinners Ben Mitchell and Rowley Marshall were introduced in the 20th over and runs immediately dried up as the excessive turn on offer made batting increasingly difficult. After several runless overs the pressure eventually told as Warner was dismissed LBW for 35 leaving Woking 84-3 from 24 overs. Woods (26) followed in the next over and with fielders all around the bat wickets started falling with regularity as Woking slipped to first 102-6 and then 108 all out with five Woking batsmen making ducks. Mitchell finished with figures of 6.4-2-13-3 and Marshall 7-2-24-5.
Woking knew their only chance of defending such a low score was early wickets and opened with spin at both ends. The decision was rewarded with both Tom Sharpless and Phil West picking up wickets, Churt finding themselves three down inside five overs. They could have been four down as Sharpless trapped Mitchell back in front of his stumps only for Churt’s umpire to unbelievably give him not out. It looked to all that Mitchell and Marshall were going to carry Churt with the bat as well as they started to attack the spinners and the score was lifted to 67.
The game took another turn as Roger White was introduced to the attack as he removed Mitchell (30) while Sharpless accounted for Marshall (24) in quick succession, both caught by Qais Nawaz. Two more wickets fell without the score being added to as skipper Peters shuffled the bowlers. The score limped into the 90’s before West and White combined to take the final three wickets to complete the most unlikely of victories as Churt were bowled out for 92 in the 31st over. White was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 7.2-4-12-4 with Sharpless and West taking three and two wickets respectively.
While once again their middle and low order batting proved fragile, they can take great heart from another stellar bowling and fielding display. This was another superb result having beaten third placed Cobham and bowling out second place Stoke D’Abernon in a rain abandoned match in the previous weeks.
The McPherson Family Awarded 2017 Dave Lane Spirit of Cricket
Congratulations to the McPherson family on being honoured with the 2017 Dave Lane Spirit of Cricket award at the colts training evening on Friday.
All the family play an important part to the club within both senior and junior cricket. Not only does Neil support colts cricket he is a very important conduit to senior cricket, without so the club would be struggling to maintain five Saturday and two Sunday teams. Elliot and Alex both play colts and senior cricket, with Elliott regularly playing the latter. Elliott also undertakes coaching and training at his senior age group. Neil and Clare both ensure that these sessions are run undertaking the background work that often gets overlooked and unnoticed. This award embodies the hard work behind the scenes which Dave Lane was so tireless at.
Neil unselfishly feels the award should read Elliott McPherson.
Well done all, well deserved.
Surrey Championship Blue Bails Day and W&H Drink the Fridge - Sat 29 July
On Saturday 29 July, W&H will once again be supporting the Surrey Championship's Blue Bails Day which itself supports Cricket United, a charity which raises funds for three other charities, The Lords Taverners, Chance to Shine and the PCA Benevolent Fund.
Cricket United are aiming to turn the Oval blue on the third day of the Test Match against South Africa and we are aiming to do the same at Brewery Road, Westfield and Waterers Park.
Please wear blue to your game on that day, or in the bar in the evening. We will also be using Blue Bails at each of our three home games as we have done in previous years.
In the evening we will one again be undertaking the "Drink the Fridge" challenge with the very simple aim of drinking everything in the Fridge. It goes without saying that we need as much help as we can get especially with the additional fridge space this season. To help us with our cause, our generous Bar Chairman has agreed to run some drink promotions (details on the night). This will undoubtably include some blue drinks!! We'd like to see as many people there as possible and preferably wearing blue. We hope you can make it.
The Lane McKendry Memorial Match
This Sunday, Woking and Horsell and Old Woking have the honour of taking part in the inaugural Lane McKendry Memorial Match to celebrate the two legends of the respective clubs.
The game is being played at Old Woking's Ground, Queen Elizabeth Way, Woking.
Why not get along or play cricket yourself?
Dave Lane emodied everything about the spirit of cricket and we would be hard pushed to think of anyone who made anymore effort to get a game of cricket on than him. We honestly believe he would be chuffed to know we are celebrating him but equally he would be disappointed to know we have been unable to raise teams this season and may so again with other Sunday fixture. There are no rights or wrongs and we will all remember Dave in our own way.
Lets honour Dave the best we can,watch, enjoy and play cricket. Cricket Family stick together.
W&HCC take on the Surrey Masters on Sunday 25 June at 1.30
On Sunday 25 June, Woking and Horsell will once again take on the Surrey Masters at our Brewery Road ground in Horsell. The Masters will be looking for revenge following our victory against them two years ago and they have picked another strong team for Sunday's match:
Surrey Masters
David Ward
Joey Benjamin
Gary Butcher
Tony Murphy
Scott Newman
Adam Hollioake
Paul Atkins
Zahid Sadiq
Dudley Owen-Thomas
Chris Thompson
