Whitchurch-on-Thames Cricket Club

  The weather gods were shining on us as the summer anticyclones arrived on schedule and sunny blue skies and 24 degrees welcomed Jack Frost to our first home game of the season On Thursday night the square was still soaking wet, but 3 days of warm sunny weather dried it enough but made the track a bit tricky for Whitchurch who batted first. Good knocks from Andrew Mutepfa 68no, Nick Hill 43no and Francis 29, enabled Whitchurch to get to 179 which was a good score bearing in mind the wicket and their spin bowlers who turned it square. Jack Frost reply stuttered, and they lost early wickets their opener was dropped at the wicket off Grogie 3rd ball of the innings and that was to prove expensive ( more on that later). Tommo bowled well 3 -fer as did Lyn and Grogie but their middle order accumulated runs with the opener acting as anchor. The wicket had by now dried out and was playing a lot better and was coming on more and the opener went on to score a ton. Jack Frost got home by 3 w...

  Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties German Bight, Dogger - yes that was saddo Grogie’s week looking at the weather forecast hoping that we were not going to miss 2 weeks in a row due to the weather! The weak ridge of high pressure that built on Saturday slowed the advance of the weather fronts ensuring that only the last half an hr of the game was played in a drizzle- and much of the rest of the day was dry albeit 12 degrees!  Meteo lesson over - So we won the toss and fielded, and the Farley Hill top order initially struggled on what was quite a good hard pitch bearing in mind what the weather had been like over the last 2 weeks - the covers did their job! - We took a couple of quick wickets - the highlight was Malik’s direct runout from 20 yards away with only one stump to aim at. We bowled and fielded okay but the Farley hill middle order was v strong- their no 4 came in and held the bat the wrong way round ( he was a right-hand bat but had his left hand under h...

  After some rainy weather over the weekend a dry covered track greeted Whitchurch on our arrival at Wokingham CC - the day was overcast but warm but a breeze took the edge of the temperature - good ball swinging conditions we thought but the ball didn’t move that much in the air- so Whitchurch batted first on a good track against a good Wokingham attack and everyone contributed with the bat with 50’s for Woody and Tommo and 20’s from Jon S, Scooby, Andy M & Nick H - we closed on 220 for 5 off 40 overs. Oppo bowling and fielding was good, and they took some really towering catches on a big ground. Whitchurch took to the field and Wokingham found it difficult to get going- they carved a few catching chances into the covers which were not taken, and it was Jonny G who bowled well who took the first wicket and thereafter there was a regular clatter of wickets with again many of the team contributing. Lyn bowled well in his first game of the season as did Corm ,Anand, Scooby, and...

  Match Report Highmoor v WCC Sunday 2 May Widespread showers were forecast, and it was chilly for the first 10 overs of Highmoor’s innings who won the toss and chose to bat on a slightly damp wicket -the sun soon came out though and it stayed that way the rest of the afternoon. Highmoor batted well but Whitchurch-on-Thames’ bowling and fielding was good, and we managed to keep them down to 204/7 off their 35 overs. Nick H, Cormac ,Tommo and Francis deserve special mention for good bowling performances and Jonny G took 2 good catches - special mention also goes to Tommo for throwing himself around in the field and getting 2 injuries ( getting to be a habit this Tommo) - oh I forget to mention Nick Hills catch off a no ball ( don’t worry Nick it’s coming!) Nick L and Jon S got WCC off to a steady start. But as they accelerated their wickets fell (lovely drive through mid-wicket from Nick L and good hitting from Jon though before they got out) . Bring onto the scene Woody and Si...