Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

The remarkably antiquated rules of the Berkshire League, combined with a host of dropped chances, conspired to deny Crows' 1st XI what would classed as a thumping victory in most other forms of cricket.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first on a sultry afternoon at Woodford Park, skipper Pete Northall and his brother Steve put on an enormous 155 for the fourth wicket, with Steve hitting 68 and Pete falling agonisingly six runs short of a maiden ton. Saviour and the Red Barron made quick fire contributions of 19 to add to the momentum of the innings, as Crows posted a handy total of 274-8 from the allotted 45 overs. To be fair, Woodley put in a tremendous effort in the field, given the hot conditions and hard, bobbly outfield. The story of the match could have been very different if they'd held any of the numerous catches that were dropped.

Alas, the latter was also Crows' regret and cost us an outright 'win'. After superbly controlled opening bursts from Ross (Judith) Chalmers (who picked up one of the openers in the 13th over) and Turbo Terry Charles (who finished his opening five overs with three maidens for just 11 runs), Woodley fell well behind the required rate. However, despite both passing the edge with regularity, more wickets were hard to come by and with the young Woodley opener beginning to open up, the game was very much on.

At this point, Pete turned to 'Golden Arm' Luke, who recovered well from some early tap to make the breakthrough in the 24th over, following it up with another, courtesy of a fine catch behind the stumps from Junior. Fluffer then got in on the act, removing the dangerous opener and benefiting from Jimmy-Jimmy Carson showing the rest of us outfielders how to catch for his second wicket.

At 160-5 from 37 overs, the game was pretty much up for Woodley and, sure enough, they shut up shop in search of the so-called draw. Judith and Turbo were recalled and the partially-fit Jon Cole even ran in with purpose for three overs, picking up a wicket courtesy of another Junior catch. Nevertheless, despite  miserly bowling (Ross's second spell 3-2-1-1), Crows couldn't find the remaining three wickets and had to settle for a 'winning draw'.