Winning now will be key to title charge, says Oaks skipper

STUART HAYTER says building momentum throughout the upcoming longer format matches will be key to Wokingham’s chances of promotion.

The Oaks have made a fine start to the Thames Valley Division 1 campaign, sitting second in the table with four wins from six, including victory over previously unbeaten leaders Cove on Saturday.

Spinner Paul Dewick was the star of the show with seven wickets while Archie Carter hit 52 runs as Hayter’s men chased down the target of 163 to win by six wickets.

And that success in Hampshire marked the first of nine ‘timed’ matches as opposed to the ‘win/ lose’ cricket which sides play at the start and end of the season.

The main difference is that teams chasing a big total can defend their wickets and play for a draw, making it tougher to force through 25-point victories.

“Where we are at the moment is good going into the longer format,” Hayter told The Wokingham Paper.

“We’ve just got to try and keep this momentum going.

“We’ve won the last two now. It will be nice to get a couple more on the board, but it’s hard because you have to bowl sides out if you bat first.

“It seems that everyone in the league can beat everyone else so I think the league is going to be a good one to watch this year.

“It is tight. There’s 25 points between the top six, which is just one win.

“It’s about picking up points where you can but if you can get over the line and get 25, it makes a big difference.”

Wokingham, who face winless Finchampstead 2s at Sadlers End on Saturday, finished fourth in 2015 and third last year as they continue to try and win promotion up to the Home Counties League.

And Hayter believes his charges are well placed for another title tilt this time around.

“We’d like to kick on and try and go up,” said the skipper.

“But it is such a difficult league to get out of with only one going up.

“That’s the challenge we’ve set for ourselves, that we want to be pushing for it.

“I think we’re going about it in the right way, it’s just maintaining the momentum that we’ve managed to pick up in the last couple of weeks.

“We are in a good position after six weeks but we’ve got to do a lot of hard work over the next few weeks to see where we’re at at the end of the season.”

On paper, it should be a good chance to pick up another victory on Saturday for the Oaks when Finch make the short trip across the borough.

Following promotion to Division 1, the Finchampstead second string are still seeking a first win, losing all their games until last week’s draw with Cookham Dean.

But Hayter believes that now Finch’s first team are returning to full strength after a difficult opening to the season, that will filter down to the Thames Valley side too.

“We’d love to beat Finch, but they will have some players back,” said the Wokingham captain.

“They’ve had a few issues over the last few weeks but I think they’ll have a pretty decent side out on Saturday.

“I can envisage it being quite a close game and we have to put in a performance again to beat them.”