As England reached the summit of world cricket, closer to home Elstow 2nds turned in an equally professional display to mirror the efforts of the national team with a particularly meritorious victory by 93 runs over fellow strugglers Winslow Town. Pete Burraway led the charge with a blitz of boundaries in the last fifteen overs of the Elstow innings, a stunning salvo which effectively sealed 30 much needed points for his relegation threatened side.
At 110-5 Elstow were staring into the abyss but the fifth wicket stand between Burraway and Hikmat Waqar yielded 97 runs, nicely setting up the victory for the visitors and putting them within touching distance of safety. Earlier Michael Dickson followed up last weekend’s impressive performance with 35 valuable runs at the top of the order, rebuilding Elstow’s innings after the early loss of the Las Vegas-bound skipper, Nigel Ryalls. Way down at this stage, Ed Wisson and Dickson put on fifty runs for the second wicket then a quick succession of wickets left the away side moody blue before Winslow were all shook up by the brilliance of Buzz and Hiko. The apprentice took the lead from the master as a succession of boundaries propelled Elstow past the 200 mark. Burraway eventually fell for 75 and Waqar 45 as Elstow finished on 241-8 from 44 overs.
Tea. Mercifully no anaemic hotdogs and beans this year. Instead the vastly underrated cheese and onion sanger underpinned a terrific effort from the host tea lady as the satisfied Elstow boys tucked in while the majesterial presence of Sir Jeff Stelling in the background hinted at the imminent end of the summer game for another year.
The home side’s run chase got off to less than auspicious start as Middleton ran himself out attempting a speculative second run. One of the innings seminal moments came when Winslow skipper Eccles slapped a rising drive to Ed Wisson at cover. This well taken catch sparked the Elstow fightback. If that wicket was key, this was matched soon after by Guraj Galsin’s first senior wicket, the dangerous looking Coxon senior edging behind.
Coxon junior proved the only real resistance after this, unbeaten at the close, his 61 was a knock of real substance and quality in stark contrast to the collective blur of his middle order contemporaries. Rex Hedges was the architect of this particular downfall, his bowling here reminiscent of club legend Freddie Summerfield in his pomp, a three wicket maiden the highlight of his career best figures, 7-1-18-5. While Hedges stole the bowling headlines with his outstanding feat and Nick Lewis mopped up the tail, special mention should go to Hiko for a scintillating spell of fast bowling that softened up the opposition for his fellow bowlers to exploit.
M-o-M: Close call this week but Hikmat Waqar pips Pete Burraway and Rex Hedges. A sparkling 45 with the bat, a white hot 10-4-11-0 with the ball and the winning catch. All this while fasting too. Done well.
D-o-D: A few contenders here; Guraj’s trousers, Hiko’s Charles Charlie Charles boundary riding and Charlie Watson’s tumbling around in the outfield all raised smirks among their colleagues.
