The first league game of the season saw Crown Wood 1st XI host last years runners up, Mortimer West End 1st XI in the BCL Premier division. The new season saw a change at the helm for Crown Wood as John Cartledge took over the reins, ushering in new beginnings for the team, with the half the side under 20 years old.
Cartledge won the toss and decided to field. Gremlins in the early season wicket showed themselves straight away, the ball moving around off the seam, proving ideal conditions for the Crown Wood opening bowlers. Ravi Godbole (3-18) took the first wicket to fall; Ashley Fowles (2-31) removed the dangerous - but injured - Jamie Stead courtesy of a brilliant one-handed diving take from CW keeper Andy Taylor. Jono Bray and Tom McKenzie played as best they could on a seaming wicket - Ben Pearson claimed his first 1st XI wicket with McKenzie's prized scalp. Bray was bowled by a beauty from Rob Crook, who bowled 12 overs of controlled spin to really halt the momentum of the MWE innings. Ollie Armstrong-Wood (2-23), CW's other young debutant, claimed Bob Hodson's and Nick Bielby's wicket, showing promise with some good pace bowling. Lusty blows from Andy Johnson and Jay Patel took MWE to a competitive, but not daunting, 148 all out. No batsman reached 30, but contributions came from all the team.
CW's reply started poorly as Chris Allwright was dismissed by a diving Jono Bray at cover with seven runs on the board. The skill of Bielby and Hodson in pitching the ball in the right place on this wicket was making life very difficult for the CW batsmen. In what could have proved a crucial moment, Godbole was dropped early in his innings. Wedatilake and Daniel Cartledge were given out LBW, and by then the score had moved on to 61-3. Together with Rob Crook, Godbole moved the score along to 112 and CW were favourites, in fact, coasting. However, Kenny Allsobrook, the MWE captain, brought himself on and changed the course of the game, with the wicket of Rob Crook. Moving the ball away considerably, he had Crook caught at second slip. Meanwhile Godbole was prospering by making use of more dropped catches, and waiting for the bad ball to punish. But with the score at 120, having just hit a straight six, Godbole badly judged the need to push the score on and took one too many liberties with Bielby, and was bowled via inside edge and pad for 79. MWE sensed the fragilty of the CW lower order and went for the kill. Allsobrook had Fowles LBW, and then bowled four batsmen in very quick succession, decimating the CW reponse, and taking CW from 120-5 to 138 all out. Allsobrook's figures were 6-34, Bielby and Hodson had identical figures, 2-33.
In reality a young Crown Wood side did well to push the experienced and stable MWE side as far as they did, but will rue the fact that, yet again, they got so near to an upset but couldn't finish the job. MWE will take heart from recovery from the early season wobble and will certainly be contenders for the title come the end of the season.
