Crown Wood's championship chase came to a close on an overcast, blustery day in Reading. With 32 points needed from the game for Crown Wood to be made Div.1 champions, expectations were high.

The pitch looked as though there might be something in it for the bowlers, but with Crown wood's record of winning batting first, it was a good toss to lose. Captain Thamindu Wedatilake duely obliged, letting the opposing team captain win the toss, and put crown wood in to bat.

Wedatilake and Cartledge opened the batting, making steady progress on a pitch that was proving difficult to score quickly on. A combination of a tricky surface, and some accurate bowling meaning it was hard to get the ball away. Cartledge fell to an unfortunate LBW decision, judged out when he edged the ball cleanly off the bat to gully. Handley then joined his captain at the crease, playing solidly in defence and despatching any loose bowling, playing superbly for his 78, then trying one run too many was unfortunately run out. The run rate had started to climb and Wedatilake fell trying to up the rate further. This loss sparked a small collapse in Crown wood's middle order, but once again the tail helped the team to recover to 179 all out from 43 overs.

Tea was had, and an optimistic Crown Wood took to the field in anticipation of keeping Ibis below the modest total set to them. The old ball was used and Crook and Satti opened the bowling. The Ibis opening pair attacked the ball and rode their luck until keeper Azar Maharoof pulled off an outstanding stumping to remove Lavers. The Ibis batsmen continued to play with freedom, and seemed to be reaching the boundary with alarming ease. The decision was made to take the new ball, and see if Crown Wood's pace attack had any more luck in restricting the batsmen. This proved to be a good decision as Ollie Armstrong-Wood picked up the wickets of Jones and Drury. This paved the way for the regular fall of wickets, allowing the spinners to come back after Armstrong-Wood had exhausted his overs. Some middle order resistance came from Pilkington, ended by a cunning “slow ball bouncer” (half tracker) from Crook, which located his top edge as he was trying to put the ball in the Thames. Captain Wedatilake finally justified the wicket keeper and slips having to carry his batting helmet up and down the pitch all season, by pouching a catch close in that fizzed (looped) off the bat from the bowling of Satti. The regular fall of wickets meant the runs were kept down and Armstrong-Wood returned to clean up the tail with Ibis finishing on 150 all out.

In all it was a slightly below par performance from Crown wood in all departments, but was still good enough to pick up 34 points and be crowned Division 1 Champions. Congratulations to Tham and the team for a wonderful season, consistent cricket and some smiles and laughs along the way

Robert Crook