Bruised champions face test of fortitude (From This Is Local London)

Bruised champions face test of fortitude

12:20pm Friday 3rd July 2009 in

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AT 6pm on the evening of June 20, everything was rosy in the world of High Wycombe CC.

They had just beaten Potters Bar in the Home Counties Premier League to keep their title hunt on course, and they still had ambitions in three major cup competitions.

Things have changed since then and tomorrow Henley arrive at a club deafened by alarm bells.

On June 21 Wycombe lost heavily at Blackheath in the Conference Cup, four days later they were dumped out the National Club T20 by Gerrards Cross when they failed to get four runs in the final two overs, losing four wickets in the process, and after butchering a winning position against Home Counties basement club Farnham Royal on Saturday they went to Ealing in the regional final of the National Cup and lost.

Director of cricket Keith Newell said: “It’s been a tough ten days for High Wycombe Cricket Club. I’m surprised a few more people aren’t swinging from the rafters.

“It’s been life-sapping, but we live to fight another day.

“What’s gone is gone and we have to get up for this game with Henley.

“It’s almost a must-win for us. Henley are two games up on us and it would make it very, very difficult for us to maintain a chase in the league if we lost. We would need them to slip up quite considerably.”

But if morale is drooping it will be felt most keenly by captain Matthew Eyles.

He was three overs away from carrying his bat against Farnham Royal on Saturday and leading his team to a spectacular victory.

Chasing 282 in just 52 overs, they were almost there with 15 runs required from the last 18 balls and Eyles still unbeaten in the middle on 120.

But when he tried to despatch a full toss on his hip to the boundary – meat and drink for a player of his calibre – he managed to pick out the only fielder in the ring on the leg side.

His exit exposed tailender Simon Bird, and when Chris Sketchley pulled up with a hamstring injury to bring Pete Connell to the crease, Wycombe were suddenly up against it.

Without time to get his eye in, Connell nudged the penultimate ball for a single when two, three or four runs were on offer. That left Bird needing two from the final ball, but a full-blooded swing of the bat failed to connect and Wycombe were consigned to a losing draw.

Eyles said: “It’s difficult when you are trying to score runs, protect the last few batsmen and win the game.

“It didn’t work out and because I was the man in it was potentially my fault.”

Newell says his captain should not blame himself though.

He said: “Matt [Eyles] doesn’t really show his emotions too much but he was visibly disappointed on Saturday evening. To go out the way he did, then lose by two runs...it was too much for him.

“He’s is very hard on himself and he feels he let the team down because he was in fine form and had batted confidently throughout his innings.

“I’m sure if that ball had gone to the boundary we’d have won. It sucked the wind out of our sails a bit, but how can you criticise someone who got 120? We still should’ve won that game.”

Instead, they allowed Henley to move 32 points clear of them with a win over Tring Park.

Newell said: “We’ve shown we can beat teams leading the way. Most of our guys have played at a decent level and this is the sort of game they really get up for.

“This is a chance to turn a few frowns into smiles.”