Saturday 1s vs Woodmansterne

Author: The Pursepective

Match Report

Another trip down south greeted the 1st XI - our third consecutive away game - this time to Woodmansterne. It was an eventful match to say the least, and one of the more bizarre I've been involved in. In fact the walk to the ground was remarkable in its own right. A steep ascent up a hill followed by a short hike through bracken and thicket. All part of the warm up, as PJ claimed. We took to the field with only 10 men since GP's sat nav had led him astray. And speaking of sat navs - or malfunction thereof - Ralf clearly hadn't programmed his bowling arm to navigate to a length on off stump, resulting in a risible attempt to open the bowling. It was the first of many sillinesses that punctuated the innings. GP took the first wicket in a rather unconventional way. After GP and Joe had strangled the scoring rate, the opening batsmen were stuck in a rut. In search of a wicket, GP opted to chuck up a slower ball / grenade full toss which the batsman obligingly lobbed to Joe at square leg. He reflected "If I'd dropped that, it would have been the single worst piece of cricket ever." Vish (on 1st team debut) was brought on and bowled tidily, as did Kane Williamson, so much so that in spite of the flurry of runs at the opening, at the half way mark, Woodmansterne's run rate was barely above 3. Eventually, Woodmansterne's batsmen tried to force the issue, which led to a series of self-immolations - Joe the chief beneficiary, taking three wickets in his final over. Jamie Williams (also on 1st team debut) bowled nicely too, picking up a couple of quick wickets to quash any potential onslaught. Some more silliness followed. One batsman decided to try and hoik everything over cow and took guard on about 7th stump to help in this quixotic mission (he ended up being caught in the deep). Next, Vish played the part of rugby scrum half to try and effect a run out and damn near tackled the stumps in the process. The upshot of it all was Woodmansterne posted 162. Very chaseable we thought. But, oh, the grim inevitability of it. Putney CC 21-5 after 10 overs. A downcast, even solemn mood hung in the air. Though not in Bam Bam's mind. An eternal optimist is Damandeep Singh. We knew things were going his way when he leathered a cover drive on the up so hard that it burst through the hands of cover and still had the legs to gallop to the boundary. Jamie, at the other end, watched in quiet wonderment as Bam Bam dispatched Woodmansterne's attack with a mixture of brute force and precision. With only 4 an over needed, he never overextended himself or tried to play one shot too many. His 50 was up in no time. But it wasn't until he was in the 90s that the chase looked like it was really going our way. Stomachs were in mouths as Bam was dropped on 99...but he got there. A simply sublime ton. Though he was out soon after, GP and Will were able to finish the job with relative comfort. Well, a victory. Something to show for our efforts on the road. We owe an awful lot to Bam Bam. More please.

Date	Time	Team	Opposition	Location	Putney	Opposition	Result	Scores	Points	Toss
28/05/2016	1pm	Saturday 1st	Woodmansterne	A	164/7	163/7	W		20