Journey's End

Outwood's journey in the Surrey Slam ended on Wednesday night in an extraordinary game at the OCG.

Both teams arrived promptly for a 5pm start. Outwood were at Chaldon, while Chaldon were at Outwood. A 20 minute dash by the Outlaws back to the OCG followed and by 5.45pm a 14 over game was underway with Outwood winning the toss and electing to bat.

Think Slam and you think of crunching cover drives and towering sixes as batsmen plunder bowling and the score ticks up faster than the national debt.

Not this particular evening. When Ashley's wicket fell with the score on eight, little did we anticipate what followed. Harry was out in the third over with the score on 22. Not our normal stellar start, but nothing about which to be unduly concerned. Wickets followed at regular intervals, and at 45-5 with 7 overs to go the Outlaws were still in with posting a reasonable target. Two overs later Ouwood were all out on 47. Nowhere near enough you'd think, with four overs unused.

If Outwood's start was poor, Chaldon's was worse. At 27-7 in the 10th over The Outlaws were very much in with a chance. Bowling was tight, fielding was tighter and there were some breathtaking catches from Michael and Mark. Boundaries were cut off, and maiden overs bowled.

Sadly, as so oftenis the case with low scoring games, an edge for four, or one bad ball tonked for six can have a disporoportionate effect on the outcome. So it proved to be.

Akram and Irfan combined to edge the Warriors close to their target which they reached with 12 balls to spare.

A margin by T20 standards, but in the contect of this game not much more than a fag paper. The full scorecard is here

The journey is over for this year, but a creditable performance by our young side, coming through a competitive league against tough opposition. They served up thrilling late summer cricket to watch in some very tense and exciting games.