Wimbledon edge a two-wicket win in the 2019 opener

On April the 14th, The lucky few 12 LNZCC players selected all managed to arrive at 1200hrs for a 1300hrs start. Nothing too complicated about that. This fixture is normally the 2nd of the season, this year it is the first. And it certainly felt like early April as the temperature never rose above 10 degrees Celsius. A 40 over match was agreed with LNZCC fielding with 12 and batting 11. The game was noteworthy for 2 players, James Crichton in his Nottman match and Matt McMillen as it transpired at the halfway mark his 6th match for the Club. Please note the powers that be that next time Matt flies down from Scotland for a match for LNZCC he is owed a Nottman cap....

Back to the match, Skipper Sam Martin won the toss and on a hard track which is what we have come to expect at Wimbledon early season he chose to bat first. There followed some solid partnerships of various size (refer scorecard) with the highlights being James Crichton’s brutal innings and some fabulous and invaluable 9th wicket runs from Leith Cowie and Ryan Allan. LNZCC managed to set a respectable total of 221.

Tea was taken and it was good...! And warm as well. We opened up with John Dennis from the clubhouse end and Ryan from the top end, both found some assistance from the track and they were followed by the skipper and Cowie who managed to eek out a few more wickets. The dropped catches and miss- fields in the end cost us no doubt the match. The average age of the opposition was just shy of 20 and of us just shy of 40. Therein is part of the answer. What transpired was an incredibly close finish with the winning runs hit off the penultimate ball.

Everyone batted and bowled. Barkle and McMillen umpired for lengthy spells.

Thank you Martin Conway for umpiring on the day for LNZCC and also for the man of the match wine donation that went to Leith Cowie for 2-36 off his 8 and 28 runs with the bat.