1st XI beat Woking & Horsell

Saturday 6th May 2017
Travelbag Surrey Championship Division 4
Stoke D’Abernon 231 for 8 (50 overs)
Woking & Horsell 209 all out (47.2 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon won by 22 runs

Stoke’s 1st XI began life in Division 4 with a hard fought win over Woking & Horsell who played a good game in a good spirit.

Inserted having lost the toss Stoke lost three early wickets as James Trower fell to an outstanding one-handed grab at mid-wicket; Will Gudgeon edged to slip and Jack Raimondo was bowled. 12-3.

Stoke were in serious need of a re-build, and got that and much more as James O’Gorman and James Whitmarsh batted the next 32 overs, constructing a record 4th wicket partnership in all male league cricket for Stoke of 148. (http://www.stokecc.co.uk/record-partnerships/)

O’Gorman invested good time getting himself in whereas Whitmarsh was generally more positive; but by the time they were separated both were in full flow, O’Gorman beating Whitmarsh to 50 and reaching 75 before losing his partner for 62 when he picked out wide mid-on. Ian Hopton failed to trouble the scorers; but O’Gorman took his personal contribution to 99, (16×4), before managing to deflect the ball to the keeper off the retuning Devalia who recorded figures of 6-1-35-3.

Kane Fullalove, (13), and Dan Gluckman, (17), played nicely to keep the board moving in the closing overs, the latter picking up a huge six that landed over his team-mates on to the concrete path before bouncing into the pavilion roof. Both were dismissed by sixth bowler Woods, (8-1-39-3), in the pursuit of quick runs.

Alex Bond, (9 not out), and Toby Tarrant, (6 not out), nursed the total up to 231 for 8 by the end of the innings; the most economical of the bowlers was Fernando who recorded figures of 10-0-28-0.

Jo was back on teas and didn’t disappoint and Stoke took the field with optimism; but things initially didn’t go to plan. Only opening because he had to go early, Devalia played a number of shots and 57 runs came from the first eleven overs. Stoke had already used five bowlers; Alex Bond going over on his ankle when sending down just his third legitimate ball and hobbling off the field. He would take no further part in the game.

After the total reached 67, (52 of them to Devalia), Trower sought permission from visiting captain Keene to summon Stoke scorer Ralph Coleman from the side-line to field. Sportingly Keene agreed and with a full compliment in the field things started to happen.

Devalia was bowled by Gluckman, and in the next over O’Gorman effected the run-out of Hussain. Two new batsmen had to re-start things; but Keene and Warner were up to the task and added another 46 runs to keep the visitors on track, run-rate not an issue after Devalia’s early positivity.

Nevertheless the Stoke bowlers stuck to their task. Gluckman and Hopton bowled their ten over allocations in one spell and shared five wickets. Hopton, (10-1-34-2), had leg-before shouts against Keene and Wolffe answered in the affirmative; these wickets were either side of two more from Gluckman; Gudgeon juggling and falling under a slip catch offered by Woods, then Peters chipped a return catch off his last ball to finish with 10-0-43-3.

It was 142 for 6 at this point, but Warner was batting well and some experienced lower order players stayed with him to inch the visitors nearer the line. White helped add another 20 before he was lost to an avoidable run-out; Raimondo doing well at backward point and Gudgeon breaking the stumps at the bowler’s end.

Then another 33 runs were added by Warner and No.9 West. Warner had reached 74 before the returning Tarrant bent back his middle stump. It was advantage Stoke but West and No.10 Fernando moved the total past 200. Run-rate was starting to be an issue after good work by Tarrant, Fullalove and O’Gorman; and when West mis-cued on to Raimondo off Tarrant, (10-1-44-2); the last pair had 22 balls to score the last 24.

O’Gorman stuck to his planned lines throughout his two spells to maintain control, and was rewarded with the last wicket when West, (23), holed out to Raimondo in the deep to complete victory.

An excellent victory in front of a decent crowd, (boosted by a number of party-goers in the adjacent building), where all twelve made a contribution. Next week Stoke have a double-header against Hampton Wick Royal; the 1st XI travelling to Bushy Park, the 2nd play their first home league game of the season at The Rec.

Scorecard : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/2897003