Delayed Match Report
On the final day of May the Wilcot midweek team travelled to Urchfont, if you have ever been you will agree the ground is nearly as pretty as Wilcot , looking across to the Salisbury Plain escarpment and with cows grazing in the field next door it is a lovely setting for an evening of cricket. This was to be the captains first game of cricket on a grass wicket this season and upon inspection it looked hard and a little green. The toss was done and won and a decision to bat made.
An opening partnership of Mark Warburg and James Cox was decided on and both soon realised it was a slow wicket compared to the astro and a struggle to get runs away. after much toiling James decided he had had enough and was promptly bowled in the 6th over with the score on 26. incoming bat C Powell soon discovered that boundaries where going to be hard to come by and running singles seemed to be the only way to score. The overs ticked over without much excitement, highlights being mark losing the match ball in the roadside hedge hitting a six and then Mark retiring 2 balls later. The captains innings became more and more frustrating with every shot finding the well placed fielders on boundary ropes. Prior to the match starting Wilcot regular Andy Smith requested a move up the batting order to gain some time at the crease a request that i was happy to provide and he was put in at the lofty heights of number 5. unfortunately it took me till the 19.4 over to get anywhere near 30 , actually 28 where i was caught and bowled by a rank hop of a delivery providing Andy with the well-deserved 1 delivery at the crease. Wilcot ended the innings on 116 runs for 2 wickets with Jonathan Evans scoring 29 in a much quicker fashion to the captain.
Hope was in the air as I had made it look difficult to score runs on the wicket, we felt the total was defendable. Olly Scott Harden and Jack Cox were tasked with opening the bowling both bowling good line, length and pace. unfortunately the Urchfont batters did not find it as hard to score runs and we soon found the opening batsmen had retired after scoring the allotted 30 runs. at the halfway point Urchfont were 20 runs ahead with no wickets down a loss felt inevitable. with some regular change in bowlers and the introduction of Wilcot debutant 11-year old Lucy Cox the runs started to slow down. Then a breakthrough! in the 18th over and with Hugh Marshall firing down leg breakers a diving catch was taken after the batsmen played onto his foot and into the air for the captain to take the catch behind. the score on 108 for 1 with 2 overs left all of a sudden you could see the Wilcot faithful smelling blood. 2 overs remaining and 9 runs required, Konrad was brought into the attack bowling 3 dot balls and 3 singles scored, the final over came and Jack Cox was brought back into the attack, fielders in close pressurising the batsmen. unfortunately the Urchfont captain does not buckle under pressure scoring a 4 of the 1st ball followed by another 2 on the second securing the win for Urchfont with 4 balls to spare.
Unfortunately, another loss for Wilcot midweek but again it was a competitive game that came down to the final over.
| Batting | Runs | Out | Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | |
| Mark Warburg | 30 | Not Out | O. Scott Harden | 3 | 0 | 29 | 0 | |
| James Cox | 13 | Bowled | J. Cox | 2.2 | 1 | 13 | 0 | |
| Chris Powell | 28 | Ct | J. Watherston | 2 | 0 | 14 | 0 | |
| Jonathan Evans | 29 | Not out | A. Smith | 3 | 0 | 15 | 0 | |
| Andy Smith | 1 | Not out | Jonathan Evans | 3 | 0 | 16 | 0 | |
| Konrad Woodrow | 0 | DNB | L. Cox | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | |
| Hugh marshall | 0 | DNB | H. Marshall | 2 | 0 | 12 | 1 | |
| Jamie Watherston | 0 | DNB | K. Woodrow | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | |
| Olly Scott Harden | 0 | DNB | ||||||
| Jack Cox | 0 | DNB |