1st XI v Burnham 2nd Team

Sonning suffered a demoralising loss at the hands of bottom of the league Burnham on another sub standard pitch that played into the hands of the Burnham spinners. On winning the toss, Skipper Gary Phillips inserted Burnham and all seemed well as Harvey Grout and Wade Johnston bowled with aggression and accuracy finishing with 3 and 2 wickets respectively. They were backed up well by Mark Richards who bagged 3 for 14 and Ian Boyton who snared a couple, one from a great catch in the deep by JJ Harris. Duncan Parr was the star in the field , taking 4 catches in helping dismiss Burnham for 142.

This should have been well within Sonning’s reach, but a combination of poor shot selection, a misbehaving wicket which was popping and spinning dramatically, some interesting umpiring and some good spin bowling, meant that they were always struggling. Only 3 players, Parr, Whitmore and Harris made double figures. To make matters worse, the Burnham side showed some of the worst gamesmanship seen at Sonning for some years, led by the disgraceful captain who did everything in his powers to put batsmen off and exert unfair pressure on the umpires.

All in all a dreadful day! Sonning will have to bat much better than this if they are to achieve their aim of promotion. Let’s hope that the other contributory factors of the poor wicket, umpiring and opposition playing within the spirit of cricket do not go against them so dramatically in future matches.

JJ Harris