Saturday 1st XI

Captain:   Toby Green

Vice Captain: Damien Honey

League:  Surrey Championship Division 4

Home ground:  Brewery Road, Horsell

2008 Fixtures

2007 League Table

2007 League Position: 3rd  Surrey Championship Division 4

2007 Player of the Year  - Jason Barber

2007 Reports

W&HCC 235-6 - J Hubble 103*, R Morley 59

Old Ruts - 222-7

Now middle order collapses we are used to, a few years ago we were used to fridge collapses as well, but a tree collapse is new to most of us. Therefore at 12.30 whilst the window was being repaired from Friday nights break-in attempt, when the massive tree outside the club collapsed onto the road no one knew quite what to do, except check that their car was not beneath it!

A rather curtailed warm up didn’t upset anyone given the stifling heat and all were happy as Dog kept up his incredible run at winning the toss, electing to bat as has become our norm this season. Tom Dunbar was very anxious to chat to members of his family arriving early so decided that the only fair way of doing this was to place the 1^st ball of the innings (a rather friendly legside full toss) into short leg’s hands. Whilst the oppo were understandably delighted by this early gift, the rest of us were not fooled by Tom’s restrained outburst at getting out to the first ball of the game as he reached for the sun cream and headed for the other side of the ground.

What then followed was our highest partnership of the season as Rosco and Jarrad eased us into ascendancy, both passing 50 as the score hit three figures. Eventually after 33 overs of batting Rosco decided that he had had enough of Jarrad giving him stick about the rugby score and hit the ball straight back to the bowler (Day) who had his first bit of good luck since arriving at Woking as it was his car which was buried beneath the tree. The partnership ended at a superb 131 and for a moment all attention turned to the Mascot Derby on the TV which to be honest was somewhat of a disappointment as Kenny Kennington the dog/lion/brown cap led from the start.

Henry rushed to the crease looking to continue the good form he had showed scoring 47 in the ‘hit and giggle’ 20/20 final in midweek, but sadly didn’t last long as the Old Ruts spinners looked to turn the key. Day picked up his 3^rd wicket that of the skipper Green and Ganguly picked up a deserved wicket just after Cy had been run out.

Meanwhile at the other end Hubble was holding firm and looking immovable as he approached his ton. With the score on 180 for 6 and Qais heading to the crease – anything was possible – a continued collapse and 200 all out, scrambling to 220 off 55 overs or as per last week – Qais takes over and smashes it around. Another superb knock from a guy who has been a revelation this year given that its his first season in the 1s took the score up to 235 – Qais scoring 35 off just 15 balls smashing three sixes. The only worry was would he give enough of the strike to a now exhausted Jarrad to allow him to complete his ton. Fortunately Jarrad scrambled 4 singles to make his way to 3 figures and his timing was perfect as Jane and James had just turned up to witness this.

The innings was closed and the usual battle for the superb onion bhaji’s and pizza commenced. This week’s winners were the seamers again so the spinners were thrown the old ball to start things off in the 2^nd innings. With the absence of Ryan and Gibbers and the retirement from bowling of Jarrad, Henry was asked to show us his previously unseen leg spin and produced some great deliveries early on which had Haffeez particularly confused early on. At the other end the Honey badger was having a great battle with Molloy, beating the bat on occasions before Molloy smashed him for 10 off one over.

Dog decided to take the new ball and Rosco looked very dangerous and completed another 6 over spell without getting injured – has anyone else noticed how he only seems to injure himself bowling away from home. Morlers recovered after a blistering attack and eventually straight after drinks removed both the Old Ruts openers who had put on a more than useful 90 runs. Tempers became rather frayed as Woking players became rather wound up by a few things that went on but it would be fair to say that we rather over-reacted and were quick to apologise after the game, after all it was a very good competitive game on a belting wicket. I blame the heat.

Old Ruts had a good foundation to press for victory and the middle order scored at a quick enough rate to keep it just about possible. The other interesting factor was that Woking had bowled their overs so quickly that there was a definite chance of getting more back than the 48 assigned. Sadly for the many spectators who had amassed by this point the chase was called off when the 6^th wicket fell and an exciting finish did not occur. In the end Woking bowled the same number of overs back as they received and Old Ruts were 14 runs short of target – a decent game of cricket some might say. Ganguly passed 50 in the last exchanges before falling to a smart catch by Roger off Henry.

The heat had taken its toll on many and there was only one solution – time to Drink the Fridge, via a brief stop off at the bbq. There was an early assault on the fridge by the A3 service crew who had popped in for the day and then one or two people were seen to be drinking pints and quickly corrected. By half 8 the left hand side was drunk and the bell promptly rang. Back up was called and it was good to see so many new faces down the club enjoying a social occasion in the superb evening weather. As it became clear that the fridge wasn’t putting up much of an effort, the strawpedo’s came out and so did the aftershock in varying flavours. Tom Dunbar was finally making a strong contribution to the day and Gribbler was struggling to show his support for Kent in the 20/20 final without swearing…..

By 10.30 the fridge was defeated and starting to fill up again as no one was in the mood to go home. A great time was had by all – shame it was only the 3’s who could celebrate a win but when have we ever let the loss of 13 points get in the way of having a good time.

All that remains to be said – is well batted Jarrad, thanks to Couch for preparing a belter, thanks to Piers for picking Couch in his side so the Becks were not raided early, thanks to Morlers for the bbq, thanks to Mentalist for setting up the fridge and serving throughout the day/night, thanks to John for getting the booze in and to M for being sober enough to clear up when most of us weren’t.

I think its time to make this a yearly event.

Old Rutlishians 206 all out off 51.5 overs

Woking and Horsell 189 for 9 off 49 overs

Winning draw to Old Ruts

An under prepared Woking and Horsell side fought valiantly but were unable to force a victory in their 1^st game of the season. Having put newly Old Rutlishians into bat they allowed them to amass too many runs to making chasing comfortable for a batting line up which had had so little practise. In the end it was left to last pair Giles Green and Dough Duckworth to play out the last 3 overs to achieve a draw.

 Earlier on the Old Ruts innings had been held together by captain Salman Mohammed after good spells by debutant Qais Nawaz and the evergreen James Morley (3 for 28) who picked up 3 quick wickets following drinks to leave them struggling at 63 for 3.

 Mohammed who had chanced his luck early on with 2 dropped catches, took the attack to the bowlers although Ryan Pogson impressed with 2 wickets and David Gibney picked up the wicket of Read in his first over. At 133 for 6 Woking looked to tie up the innings, but Mohammed stood firm and had good help from the lower order.

 Ross Morley (3 for 28) returned to blast out the tail and Mohammed for 73,  but then number 9 Cooper blasted a quickfire 31 to push the Old Ruts score above 200.

 Woking’s innings had the worst possible start as skipper Toby Green fell for a duck as Ruts opted to start with an all spin attack. Ross Morley and Pogson stabilised the innings before Morley was bowled for 21 as the new ball was taken. Tom Dunbar looked tentative at the start having only just picked up a bat for the first time since last season, but once he entered his stride, Woking began to build some momentum.

 Pogson fell for 28, but Adam Portlock hit the ground running, batting very positively from the off. As the target reached double figures the run rate required was still around 5 and importantly 7 wickets were still left. However, this was always going to be a tough ask at this stage of the season.

 Once Portlock fell for 27 and James Morley went for 14, a middle order collapse followed and all of a sudden Woking’s thoughts turned to saving the game. However, whilst Dunbar was there victory was always a possibility and he and Honey forged a run a ball partnership of 25, Dunbar moving past his 50.

 However, once Dunbar fell for 66 and Honey went for 10 in the next over it was left to Green and Duckworth to bat out the final overs. A task which they achieved quite comfortably apart from a few interesting moments running between the wickets. Woking finished up 18 short of victory and 10 short of the winning draw target.

 “A bit of a stop start performance today,” was the verdict of team manager Damien Honey. “There were many good points though. A lot of our established players started off well, both the Morleys looked in good touch with the ball, Rosco in particular bowled pretty quickly. It was good to see Adam bat so positively and Tom looked in great nick once he got going.”

 “It was also really encouraging to see Ryan and Qais come in and perform so well on debut. There were definitely more positives than negatives, we just gave ourselves 30 runs too many to chase and we will also look to bolster our batting line up in the next few weeks.”

 This weekend Woking are at home to Southern Railway.