STUART HAYTER admits it will be a relief if Wokingham can clinch their return to the Home Counties League for the first time in nine years this weekend.
Just six points are required from the final two matches to guarantee the Thames Valley Division 1 title after Wokingham saw off Finchampstead 2s on Saturday.
It has been a tough time for the Oaks since relegation in 2009, even slipping down to Thames Valley 2b for a season, before a string of near misses near the top of Division 1.
The closest they came to ending their Home Counties exile was in 2015 where they fell just four runs short in their final match of the campaign.
But now it is entirely in Wokingham’s hands and Hayter (pictured), who was at the club when they were last in the Home Counties, admits he is looking forward to getting the job done after the previous years of agonising failure.
“As a squad we’ve been through that in the last couple of years and it is a nice feeling knowing that we’ve been consistent enough this year to be where we are and we probably deserve it,” the captain told The Wokingham Paper.
“I’m very happy so far, but we’re still not quite there yet so we’ll get this week out the way and then we’ll think about relaxing a little bit.
“We need six points. We’re talking 200 runs and two wickets this week and we’re home and hosed.
“But we’re not going to change the way we go about things.
“We want to try and put in another performance against Gerrards and we want to do it in the right way.
“We’ll be training as normal and go through the same process.”
It was far from straightforward for Wokingham on Saturday.
Despite Finch sitting bottom of the table, they made the leaders work for the win in a match which saw 555 runs.
After being skittled out for just 83 in defeat to Cove last week, Wokingham batted first again.
But a huge opening partnership set up the win. Captain Hayter led the way with 91, his highest score of the campaign and when fellow opener Stuart Parsons departed for 75, 172 runs were already on the board.
Dan Housego contributed 57 with Archie Carter adding 22 to take the Oaks to 294-7 at close.
Finch lost a couple of early wickets but fit again Greg Smith proved tough to shift, scoring 65, a knock which included 10 boundaries.
A number of players got into the 20s with Gary Loveday the second top scorer on 42 as the hosts kept the score ticking along.
But the pressure eventually told with Lewis Sharp taking the final wicket, pushing his figures to 3-36, to end the contest with 10 balls remaining.
And after the disappointment against Cove, Hayter says everybody knew what was required against Finchampstead.
“It was a really good game of cricket and I’m just glad to be on the right side of it in the end,” said the skipper.
“It was nice to get a score (of 91) at this end of the season. Getting rolled for 80 odd last week, it was also nice to do it with Stuart at the other end.
“We’ve had a few important partnerships towards the back end of the year which have been very nice to be a part of.
“We were missing a few players against Cove. It was a strange game.
“I think the way that we’ve played over the course of the season we probably knew we’d have one of those coming in, it was just a shame it was against Cove.
“We all knew how important the Finch game was this week to get us to two games away.
“It was nice to go out there and put in a partnership which put everyone at ease.”
And Hayter feels the time is right now for Wokingham to make the step back up to the Home Counties.
“It’s been a long time,” he said.
“I was fortunate enough to play in a few of the Home Counties games when I was a bit younger.
“It would be good for this squad, which is young, to get us back to where we want to be and where we should be really.
“It would be nice to do it at Sadlers End but if it takes one more week, it takes one more week.
“But it would be lovely to do it there this week.”
