MARK Winchester found the boundary with the penultimate ball of the day to knock Langleybury out of the National Village Cup and keep Wheathampstead’s march towards Lord’s alive.
WCC needed six off the final over, having been set a target of 190 by Langleybury. Winchester and Steve Booth scored four off the first four balls of the over to take them to 189-6 before Winchester hooked the fifth delivery to square leg to send his team into wild celebration.
The four-wicket win crowned WCC has Champions of the Herts and Beds National Village Cup and just four games away from the tournament’s final at the Home of Cricket.
After the game captain Adam Winchester told the Herts Ad: “We are all thrilled with such a fantastic win and can’t believe we’re Champions of the Herts and Beds region.
“The whole club is buzzing and we’re all starting to believe something amazing could happen if we keep playing good cricket. The lads now realise we’re just four more wins away from the dream of playing at Lord’s so we will give it our best shot.”
Saturday’s rain gave way to Sunday’s sun leading Langleybury’s skipper Richard Oxley opting to bat. He and Nahim Amin got Langleybury off to a sold start, posting 47 runs for the first wicket.
When Amin was clean bowled by Adam Winchester for 20, Oxley built another partnership with number three Rhys Williams (18), taking Langleybury to 81 runs before the latter was caught by Richard Winchester.
Richard Soulsby (5) made little impression on the score before giving way to Josh Costello (17). Oxley (62) went soon after with the score on 138-5 but Daniel Walker (13) and Josh Godden (35) added respectability to the final score, giving WCC 40 overs to chase 190.
Openers Richard Winchester (48) and Adam Winchester (62) took to the bowling attack, dispatching them to the boundary 11 times, including four huge sixes to share a superb 104-run opening stand and put WCC on course for victory.
Tight bowling from Langleybury swung the momentum in their favour as 104-1 became 163-6. Chris Martin (6) and Sam Ledger (8) were first to go and were swiftly followed to the pavilion by Ben Griffiths (0) and Peter Griffiths (4).
However, as has been the case for WCC this season, the Mark Winchester (29no) and Steve Booth (11no) batted brilliantly, rotating the strike and keeping the score within sight before blasting the ball to the boundary in the final over to win the game.
Middleton CC are WCC’s next obstacle on their journey to Lord’s. They travel to West Sussex on June 30.
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