Haddenham on the UP
Records continued to tumble at Haddenham playing field on Sunday 14 June as Haddenham took on the mighty High Wycombe. In only their second ever league game Haddenham pulled off the greatest comeback in cricket history. Even surpassing the exploits of Ian Botham's in 1981.
The afternoon started quietly. A somewhat depleted Haddenham, thanks to Karen's dog and Sarah's achilles, batted first and found scoring difficult on a pitch that resembled a road, and pudding, and a ploughed field, all at the same time. Whilst Don Bradman would have struggled, a gladiator in the form of Vicki refused to sit upon the ground and tell sad stories, as she bludgeoned 23 off 60 in what proved to be the most important innings of her illustrious career. Haddenham scored 59 in total so you can tell how tough it was. It was a quiet innings all being said, but as Herman Melville said in Moby Dick 'it is always calmest before the storm'.
As the Haddenham team took to the field its inspirational captain Clare F surveyed her injured troops (herself and Claudia) and wondered who was going to step up. We didn't have to wait long to find out because in ran the irrepressible Bels who, doing a very good impression of Bob Willis, took 2 for 13 with an unbelievably good spell of nasty pace. She set the tone for the bowling unit and with Clare F taking 2 for 8, Wycombe found themselves on 12 for 4 and as Clare stated in no uncertain terms 'This is on!' After a mini-revival, it was Emma who broke Wycombe's hearts as he removed their star playing thanks to a worldy of a catch by Nazma, and we then witnessed the most destructive bowling ever seen as Emma removed 3 more batters, which included another great catch by Nazma, to finish with 4 for just 10. Gemma chipped in with another and a final run out meant Haddenham won by 7 runs in an absolute classic.
Haddenham is a team full of match winners and oh how the fans cheered. Fearing for their safety, the players sought shelter in the Whistler, where they also sell very reasonably priced Prosecco.
This was a great match, played in the right spirit against an excellent High Wycombe team.
This win pushes Haddenham up to 2nd in their league and if you hear a funny rattling sound and wonder where it's coming from, it'll be Chesham CC's knees knocking at the thought of playing the amazing women from Haddenham on Sunday 28 June at 1:00, Haddenham Playing Field.
Tim Chowns
