News

World Win in Wandsworth

The World XI pulled off a stunning last gasp victory in the third instalment of the Wisborough Green v World series to take a 2-1 lead and keep ownership of bragging rights for a further year.  In overcast conditions, Wisborough skipper Alex Nicholls won the toss, and no doubt swayed by the overhead cloud and green pitch, opted to unleash his fearsome seam attack first against what looked on paper to be a very strong World XI batting line up.  The World XI proceeded to post a very competitive 173 all out, with some notable contributions from Cheyene Anderson and Jason Tippins.  In response Wisborough Green got off to a flyer, with Gravey tee-ing off to get the scoreboard up to 20 odd in the blink of an eye.  However, skip P Gibson had a few tricks up his sleeve, and turned to veteran seam bowler Roberto for some magic.  What followed was quite simply stunning.  D Crawford was given a reprieve having been clean bowled from a no ball, but this was last just one ball as Roberto had him trapped plum LBW the very next ball.  Next up, Mike Holder - who can consider himself a touch unlucky that the umpire judged that his first ball would have gone on to clip leg stump had his pad not been in the way, and suddenly it was two wickets down in as many balls.  The pressure was on new man Pete Leishman, and it clearly affected his judgement as he played all round a straight one to give Roberto his hatrick.  With Wisborough on the ropes, the World XI scented an easy victory and early tea.  However, Wisborough steadied the ship and moved to 120.  There then followed a mini collapse as the long Wisborough tail was cruelly exposed by some expert bowling from the World XI.  It looked like game over, but Wisborough skip had somehow negotiated a second bite of the cherry for Mike Holder, who made the most of this by coming out swinging.  Despite the loss of Youngy after a cultured 40 odd, it looked like Wisborough might just about do enough to scrape home, with just ten runs required and plenty of overs in hand, the last wicket stand between Gravey and Mike looked like they would see it through.  A couple of boundaries and suddenly the requirement was just 2 runs.  However, P Gibson is nothing if not cool under pressure, and turned to strike bowler Saun, who duly obliged by tempting Gravey to try and finish in style, inducing the batsmen to mistime an off drive.  With the ball in the air for what seemed like an eternity, Wisborough hearts sank the fielder underneath the flight of the ball was identified as A Pratt, one of the safest pairs of hands in the game.  Pratty duly pouched the chance, cueing wild celebrations from his overjoyed team mates and condemning Wisborough Green to another year of heartache.  Roll on Game IV!

Man of the Match

One of the easier decisions, with a hatrick and final figures of something impressive, it has to be Roberto Kenndy

Chump of the Day

Again, sadly, an easy call.  Having aimed a drive directly to Dan Crawford at mid off, the World X1 batsman marked on a suicidal single.  With J Wallace calling for the ball behind the stumps and the batsman stranded, Dan calmly collected the ball and threw in at the perfect height.  All that remained was for the hapless wicketkeeper to catch the throw and break the stumps.  There was possibly time to light up a woodbine and crack open a tinnie, such was the distance between the batsman and the safety of the crease.  What followed was not pretty, but sadly involved the legs of J Wallace giving way, face hitting turf and ball bouncing harmlessly off the stricken body of the oafish wicket keeper as he lay prone on the ground.  Shambolic.  

The Good News

Well done everyone for contributing to the Kenyan Orphan Project cause - we raised £200 which BP will match, so that’s a bunch of poor kiddies £400 better off.

Until next year

JW