Wantage and Grove Cricket Club

A slightly drizzly start to the match with Uffington soon cleared up into a
lovely sunny day with a perfect dry wicket. I won the toss and opted to
field first figuring that we’d done well recently on run chases and hoping
that the drizzle didn’t turn into anything more sinister. We decided to
play a timed game.

Both teams had too many players, so, in the interest of giving as many
people a game as possible, we played with twelve players each. Somehow
though, Uffington ended up with eleven so we ended up lending them a fielder
later on. Duncan “Lurch” Wooloff, being friendly with the majority of the
Uffington team, had already abandoned us and was put into bat as an opener
for them.

James “Moobs” Mabbett opened the bowling for us and a bye in the first over
meant that Lurch was about to taste the wrath of Moobs’s bowling. Moobs
fired one in on a perfect length that nipped back in and took out the off
stump sending Lurch back to the pavilion, first ball. I’ve never heard a
Wantage celebration as loud as this one. The only person that wasn’t
celebrating was Lurch. Moobs, understandably, won champagne moment for this
great ball.

After such a great start, the remaining Uffington batsmen batted boldly,
hitting boundaries at every opportunity. Many times (possibly 11, if we
counted correctly) the ball was mistimed, going directly to a fielder, only
for the fielder to drop it allowing the batsmen to retain his position at
the wicket and hit more boundaries. It’s unusual for our team to drop so
many, but the planets were aligned such that this was the day where nearly
everyone would drop one. Amongst these chances, however, some were caught.
I got the first from Peachy’s bowling, Olly “Wiggum” Haine caught a skyer
from Pippy that weaved away from him in the wind but he caught it at arms
length. Stewie “Angel” Bulpitt managed to snaffle one from Moobs’s bowling
and Ryan “Pippy” Martin dived superby to his left to grab a strongly hit
ball to square leg from Wiggum.

Paul Cripps was on a hat-trick during his first over after Wiggum’s catch
and bowling the next man. The hat-trick ball was delivered and edged, but
unfortunately carried about 4 feet over Tweekey who jumped, but it was too
high for him.

Pippy bowled their other opener, Peachy got an LBW, Moobs and Tweekey also
bowled two of the tail-enders.

Lurch came back to the crease for the last few balls and batted left handed,
playing a nice sweep shot that went for four and getting a couple of singles
too. One from a switch hit that meant that he was playing right handed
again.

So, at tea, after 39 overs, Uffington has put on a very challenging 248 for
10.

Bowling:
Moobs: 7-2-23-3
Pippy: 7-1-45-1
Peachy: 7-1-33-2
Cripsy: 4-0-31-2
Angel: 3-0-29-0
Muppet: 4-1-28-0
Tweekey: 4-0-17-1
Wiggum: 3-0-21-1

Andy “Ferret” Gray and Michelle put on a nice tea with Strawberries and
cream and tomberries and lots of other lovely stuff. Thanks and well done.

After tea, Ferret and Muppet opened the batting. Lurch opened the bowling
for Uffington. Ferret cut two lovely shots through the covers, each going
for four. This showed Uffington that we were in the game and going for it.
Sadly though, things soon changed. Lurch’s second over was a wicket maiden,
Muppet being the victim of an LBW that was plumb. Muppet: 1 run.

Ferret was next to go when he was caught in the twelfth over for 24. Barry
“Circus” Martin looked on form getting a quick 44 before getting caught.
Angel followed soon after when he was superbly caught and bowled for 2.
Peachy went next ball, then Moobs was caught three overs later for 2. Three
overs later, Pippy was bowled for 18.

Things were looking grim. With twelve overs to go, 141 runs required and
all of our big hitters out, Graham “Gorgeous” North and I had no option but
to make like Boycott and dig in to the end for the draw.

We started playing defensive strokes with the odd flash of the blade to
relieve the boredom. Gorgeous, unfortunately, flashed at the wrong ball and
was caught. Tweekey came out to the crease and saw the rest of the over
out. Taking Gorgeous’s dismissal as a lesson, I played sensibly to the next
over defending every ball with the exception of the last ball which I played
for a single and very stupidly, trying to hog the strike ran for the other
end. Tweekey courageously ran, even though he knew that he wouldn’t get
there as Lurch pinged the ball in to the keeper and ran him out. What an
idiotic run! At a time when we needed to retain wickets. Did I feel
stupid!

Olly came out next and between us we saw out the remaining overs. I got 22
and Olly, when he knew it was safe to play a shot, hit a lovely four through
cover. 135 for 9 at the end and the result was a draw.

All in all, it was a good game. We let Uffington get too many runs by
dropping too many catches in the field, then our middle order collapse
finished off all hopes of winning. Still, we remain undefeated for the last
8 games, which is something to cheer about.

Moobs was our man of the match for bowling seven overs and getting three for
23. Well done Moobs.

Pigs ear went to Paul for an awful dropped catch.

No game next week, but Letcombe at home the week after.

Nordic.

The Quokkas game is back around, this season we got lucky with the weather and even though it was extremely blustery we got a game in. Remembering last season where we only got the game up in London, no home tie due to the rain.

With the “series” tied at 1-1 there was some huge pressure (yeah right) on this game. With Steve “Nordic” Bramley having to leave he volunteered to run the bar and score as he had to leave before the end of the game. Because of this, Duncan “Longdog” Wooloff took up the captaincy reins. Losing the toss, luckily the Quokkas decided to have a bat, which is what we would have set them to do if we had had the choice. Stuey “Danger Angel” Bullpitt opened the bowling with Goeff “Daddy” Wooloff. After Bully had bowled 4 overs he was taken off, ending with figures of 4-1-11-1. Angels only wicket was slightly controversial, its been said that the umpire, not being sure of the decision gave it out on his captains advice (who was batting at the time). Caught behind, good hands by Rich. Replacing Bully was Tom “Fielding Captain” North who bowled 5-0-16-1, the single wicket a clean bowled. At the other end, Goeff had got tired of bowling, his 6 overs finishing with figures of 6-2-17-0. Carl “Lard” Wooloff dropped a tough chance at gully off of Geoff, one of those ones which drops just in front of you. A whale like bellyflop forwards only meant that Lard over dived and “wristed it”. My apologies for not running through everyone’s bowling individually, 9 of you buggers got a bowl, basically everyone bar myself and Rich (he had the oversized gloves on). So I’ll do figures and a comment on everyone else… (in no particular order):

Paul “TBC” Cripps: 4-0-19-2 : First time bowling for the club, 2 weeks, brilliant! JUG!
Olly “Chief” Haine: 4-0-27-0 : Solid bowling, apart from the one which pitched 3 strips wide…
David “Muppet” Henson: 3-0-27-0 : Conceded the same runs as chief, in less overs, call yourself a bowler?
Tim “Harry Potter” Weekes: 5-0-14-0 : Economical for once, WOW!
Lard: 2-0-21-0 : Your realllllly quick carl
Longdog: 2-0-21-1 : Solid, got a key wicket.

A big well done/unlucky goes to the Quokkas opening batsman (and I think captain, but don’t have score book) who batted through for 99*. If only he had taken the single off the last ball. The Quokkas finished on 166 for 5 off of their 35 overs. A good score in the windy conditions.

Teas were done by Tweekesy, the away team described them as the best teas they have ever seen. Cannot really argue with that, they were damn good, you have done the club proud sir!

So to start the chase. Opening the batting was myself (Pod) and Lard. Dak (again, no idea on the spelling sorry, “commentcorrect” me) opened the bowling, firey opening spell with some juicy short stuff. Which for once I put away for boundaries, apart from the one which nearly knocked me over my own stumps. We saw him off and each over bowler in fact. After around 10 overs we had not lost a wicket and were going along nicely at nearly 10 an over. Lard rushed to his 50 with me on 40. At drinks, we required 30 more runs to win, I had got stuck on 48 and Lard had rushed onto 80. Strike hogger! I got my 50 just after drinks and we went on to get the winning runs in the 20th over. Carl got himself stuck on 98* and myself on 57*, some scoring irregularities however brought the question up of how can our two scores plus the extras not equal the total. At this point Chief stated that he though he had forgotten to add one over to the batsman. By the look of the over we had scored 2 runs each in it, sensibly I got given all 4 runs, as why would Carl want a 100 in that manner? So I finished on 61 and Chief earned himself Pigs Ear.

Champagne moment went to Geoff “Daddy” Wooloff for a juggled slip catch off of Paul’s bowling. It really was a cracker. Pushing the ball up as it flashed at him and having the composure to grab it on the second attempt.

Man of the match, deservedly went to Lard for his runs, the team generously let him off for the hundreds of runs he had given away whilst bowling and the dropped catch.

Good spirited game and look forward to the next installment of the Wantage vs Quokkas story.

Pod

A beautiful sunny day greeted us at the club and prepared us for what turned out to be a well balanced, very enjoyable game against Eynsham.

For the first time this season, I lost the toss, which turned out for the best as, in retrospect, I don’t think we’d have won if we’d batted first. So we went out into the hot sun to field and bowl at the strong Eynsham batting lineup.

The first thing that surprised us was the aggressive batting style of the Eynsham number one who tried to smack the nice new shiny leather jacket offof the ball every delivery. After swinging and missing most of the first ones from Stewie “DA” Bulpitt and Barry “Circus” Martin, it was no surprise to see him walking back to the pavilion after only 10 balls when Circus bowled him.

The next two batsmen however, batted with more respect of our openers and did very well. Duncan “Lurch” Wooloff and Sam “Bruce” Moore took over the attack and the next breakthough came in the 14th over when Bruce put in a short one to the left hander who pulled it sharply into my left hand at square leg. A painful event, but well worth it just to get out the lefty that kept confusing me by making me keep change the field around.

Bruces next wicket came a couple of overs later when he trapped the newcomer to the wicket by possibly the most plum LBW I’ve ever seen (even from square leg).

Then came a drought of wickets and a slow trickle of runs. David “Muppet” Henson bowled an economical spell with the exception of six in his last over that smashed the opposition wicket keeper’s windscreen. This delighted the crowd and most of the fielders, but unsurprisingly, seemed to upset their wicket keeper. PoD dropped a catch. I’ll say that again because it doesn’t happen very often… PoD dropped a catch. A dolly too! The ball was skied and was falling gently towards some of the safest hands in the club apparently some pollen got in PoD’s eyes or something and the next thing we knew the ball was rolling around on the floor. Weird! Then a misfield for 4! What was going on? Hopefully, just a temporary infliction.

The 28th over brought a flurry of runs for the remaining 8 overs. A. Hinsley and S. Jones had settled in and were comfortable smacking the ball over the boundary whenever possible. They particularly liked Tweekey’s bowling, S. Jones dispatching balls over the fence and over the A417 whenever possible.

Eynsham finished with 172 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. Our bowling:
DA 6-0-30-0
Circus 6-2-22-1
Lurch 7-0-39-0
Bruce 6-0-14-2
Muppet 6-0-19-0
Tweekey 4-0-40-0

Rich made a lovely tea, and a few quid. Well done Rich. Thanks for volunteering.

So, a challenging target but with an outfield that was well cut and allowing balls to reach the boundary with ease if it was possible to play the ball through the gaps in the field.

Our usual slow start set up the innings nicely, with wickets falling regularly every four or five overs. Self confessed “Silly shots” were the downfall of Andy “Ferret” Gray, PoD, Gorgeous, DA and Tweekey who between them scored 19 while Lurch, who opened, stood at the wicket tutting and rolling his eyeballs back into his eye sockets. The slow start continued into the 23rd over as everyone played themselves in only to be skittled out again.

We were now 62 for 5 off 23 overs, requiring a seemingly improbable 9¼ per over to win. Then Bruce took control at exactly the same time as a nice loopy spinner came on, and changed the face of the game. With 46 runs coming from Hughes’ three overs, we were now looking at a marginally better target of 52 from the remaining seven overs, that’s just over seven per over for those that can’t do maths. Hughes, however did get Bruce out with his last ball, caught. Bruce had scored a fast 47 runs which changed the face of the game. Lurch was just short of his fifty and more importantly staying at the crease holding the team together, offering advise (whether wanted or not) to the incoming batsmen. Bruce’s sixes earned him Champagne moment. Critical shots and beautifully executed.

Circus and Rich lost their wickets cheaply while trying to stay on top of the run rate. The faster bowlers were back on and bowling very well. Muppet came out in the 32nd over and between him and Lurch brought the score on to 162 for 8 with one over to go.

The tension was unbearable. Six balls and eleven runs needed with a very difficult bowler to score them from. Muppet was facing and scored two runs from the first ball. The fielders were all around the boundary and Muppet and Lurch were running as fast as they could scamper between the wickets. One run from the next ball. One from the next. Three balls to go, seven required. Then a breakthrough. Muppet drove the ball back past the bowler with an effortless shot for four that even Muppet said that the bat had done all of the work. He’s so modest.

Another two from the fifth ball of the over left us tied, needing just one from the last ball. All that was required was contact with the ball and some smart running. Muppet executed it perfectly.

Our batting:
Ferret 2
Lurch 58, not out (excellent! Carrying his bat. Man of the match!)
PoD 5
Gorgeous 3
DA 7
Tweekey 2
Bruce 47 (Jug avoidance but batting that changed the game)
Circus 8
Rich 4 (Why hasn’t he got a nickname yet?)
Muppet 14, not out (a very cool headed performance)
Nordic Did not bat (Thank god!)

What a game! Some outstanding cricket from both sides. Thanks, Eynsham, for a special game. I look forward to a rematch next year and hope it’s as close.

Well done team. A good performance all-round!

Nordic

Here we are again, against the old foe Crowmarsh. Luckily (soon to become unluckily) this is not the highly competitive, life changing, win at all costs Derek Shorter Memorial match. It is only the highly competitive, life changing, win at all costs friendly between us and them.

I want to make sure Crowmarsh feel satisfied by this match report, after some website abuse which was received from one of their players, who will remain nameless, because looking at the scorebook he didn’t dare show his face at the ground (or of course gave fake details).

Moving on, as per usual good old skipper Steve took the reins of the team. Oh no wait, that’s right, he was too hungover to captain today due to a rather successful beer tasting evening the night before. Therefore the armband was handed to Duncs, and myself. Duncs took the toss, and lost it (a real Wantage captain), and we were set to bat first. Andy “Dundee Ferret” Gray and Alan “Raffles” Mercer were sent to face the opening attack. Both making a solid start, fending off banana balls from one end and attempted bouncers from the other. It’s well known that the opening batsman’s job is to see off the opening bowlers, therefore Raffles succeeded in doing this by getting bowled, for 19, by the last ball of the opening bowlers spell. Dundee was next to go, caught for 12. This brought Barry “Circus” Martin and Dave “Muppet” Henson to the crease. Barry instantly stepped into his normal role of confusing the bowlers, Crowmarsh Captain Rich was surprised to see Circus walking down the wicket to take his customary new guard whilst the bowler is still 3 or 4 paces from delivery. Muppet was dismissed for 3 after playing around a straight one, Duncan “LongDog” Wooloff didn’t last much longer before being caught for 7. Both wickets falling to Chris Strange. Me (Pod) next, after fending off a number of beamers I got myself out, won’t give my excuses I’m sure I complained to everyone about it on Sunday. Whilst all this was going on, Circus was spanking the ball to every part of the ground. When Crowmarsh brought on a young spinner Circus decided to push on a bit. Hitting 4, 6, 6, 6, 1, leaving Andy Steer to hit a 6 from the last ball of the over. Circus was finally dismissed by a “good” catch by Strange, there was a feeling of a misjudgement but you can’t question a one handed catch when the ball is flying over your head. Circus finished on 71 with great support from Andy with 29. Wantage finished with 166 from their 35 overs.

Teas, thanks to Muppet’s mum who did teas. Well volunteered Dave. The only way to describe the cakes is by quoting Peachy: “Hey Steve, Libby has competition here”. Need I say more? No ham though, or Ice lollies (which I really hope we get next week).

Time to field, LongDog and Alex “Panels” Peach opened the bowling. Mainly because we made Panels bat 11 and because LongDog had to leave at 6 to go for dinner with the misses. He bowled 6 overs, with figures of 6-1-13-0 before having to leave and handing the captaincy to me (Pod). With no early wickets the two openers were starting to settle down, taking advantage of Circus’s batting tiredness hitting him for 4-0-33-0 from his spell. Moobs bowled well, but again no wickets. Time for some spin me thinks, Muppet and Raffles took up the task. Last bowl of Muppet’s first over got the wicket of captain Rich trying to sweep, top edge and a dolly catch for me (Pod) behind the stumps. Big high, which only got higher when Raffles got a wicket, LBW, with his very first ball. Both openers gone and Crowmarsh still requiring 80 from 13 overs. Muppet took the third wicket with his first ball of his second over, hat-trick ball, no luck! Raffles finished with figures of 6-0-17-1, Muppet with 7-2-23-3. With two overs to go, Crowmarsh required 25, pressure on, Moobs had asked to bowl the final over from the top end and didn’t he do well. Quick, straight, only conceded one run, by far the best over he bowled. Meaning 24 from the last over, which Panels started, only for the scorers to change their mind and decide he had already bowled his 7 overs. Raffles took over to bowl the final over and only went for a couple. Meaning that Wantage won by 20 runs!

Not surprisingly, LongDog got pigs ear for leaving early, champagne moment went to Raffles, not for his bowling but for catching Chris Strange. Man of the match had to be Barry for his runs!

Great result guys, well played all around. Good solid batting performance, good bowling and brilliant backing in the field. Lets make sure we keep this up for the real game, the Derek Shorter later in the season!

Pod

Hendred Away - Win

After last season’s downpours it was great to have a hot, sunny day for a game of cricket so early in this season’s fixtures. Tweekey and I arrived at Hendred a little late having had to hand around waiting for Strawberry Lightening at Harwell who had our scorebook to write up last weeks match report (apparently it’s on it’s way) and had left it at home so had to go back to get it.

I won the toss (that’s three in a row!) and controversially decided to field in the blazing sun. Gorgeous North took to the field in a non-keeper role and decided to field at fine leg at both ends so that he could listen to the footy. Apparently there was some game on. However, after a couple of overs jogging from one side of the pitch to the other, he changed to a gully position for every other over to save time and effort.

Hendred’s Ade Francis unusually left the field early, not picking a slightly slower ball from Muppet Henson that was probably only slower due to lack of effort. When the ball popped up off the leading edge of the bat, Muppet had an easy catch to dispatch Ade back to the pavilion.

Four overs in and we’d got an important wicket. Runs were hard to come by from the openers (Moobs and Muppet) and after only four overs each, both were replaced due to the challenging heat. Muppet having only conceded one run.

PoD and my old Harwell team-mate Bill Ross replaced Moobs and Muppet. A couple of overs later another wicket fell to PoD, I casually took a catch.

Although the bowling now was a little slower than the openers, it was still proving difficult to get away and to find gaps in the field. After the 16th over, Hendred only had 31 runs.

Raffles Mercer and Tweekey took over the attack and still runs were hard to find. Raffles, whose leg ball was somehow pulled to gully, Moob’s sharp reactions pulled off a stunning catch with his right hand that amazed everyone. Raffles took one from Tweekey. We were doing well, but Hendred had brought on their secret weapon, a youngster! Mongo and Dundee had three overs each, attempting to dispatch said youngster, but he was outclassing them with real cricket shots (plainly cheating). After a bit of this and needing a win Moobs and Bill were brought back on to sort it out. Bill sorted out Ivan Mulford, who was at this point starting to slap the ball around well when an edge came my way in gully and surprisingly I took a second catch.

Moobs was clearly getting tired of being slapped by the youngster and decided to up his game with a fast over. This did the trick and the youngster was sent back to the pavilion after his stumps were splattered. Harsh treatment, but Moobs felt it was fair as the youngster had crafted a beautiful 34 from our bowling.

So, following that, in the remaining time, Bill got two wickets in one over, a flier that nearly went into orbit (always tricky) caught well by PoD and one spooned to Tweekey.

Muppet and Tweekey finished off with an over each at the end and Muppet got his second caught and bowled. He obviously doesn’t trust anyone else with the catches.

So that was it, a target of 113 to win having taken nine of Hendred’s wickets after 40 overs.

Somewhere in the previous melee, Bill managed to earn himself the Pig’s ear by throwing the ball at his own head. A scene that is hard to imagine and equally hard to describe. Some might say “how could he miss”, but when you’re lying on your side in the slips trying to flick the ball back to the keeper it’s clearly an easy mistake to make; One that provided amusement for both teams.

Bowling:
J. Mabbett 7-0-22-1
D. Henson 5-3-2-2 (you’ve got to be pleased with figures like that!)
C. Mercer 4-0-12-1
B. Ross 7-1-15-3
T. Weekes 6-0-12-1
A. Mercer 6-1-16-1
A. Gray 3-0-14-0
M. Tugwell 3-0-25-0

Tea was good. A Wantage style, do it yourself that had a nice fruit bowl and a lovely cuppa. Lacking slightly in quantity in the pickle and cake department, if you’re greedy like me, but nevertheless pretty good. I give it 3 out of 5 teapots. Thanks Hendred.

So 113 looked quite an easy target and surprisingly it was. None of our normal top-end collapses interfered with the requirement to win.

Gorgeous and I scored 25 each I was dropped by the keeper on 5 but got away with it, but finally I toed the ball to mid on and was caught and Gorgeous was caught somewhere when I wasn’t looking.

Dundee and PoD finished the game with 26 and 21 runs respectively with extras getting another 17 to take us past Hendred’s total in the 24th over. Dundee showing off a bit in the final over with a reverse sweep for one run that earned his a cheer from the boundary and champagne moment.

Bill earned Man of the match for his 3 for 15 off 7. Special thanks go to the Bulpitt’s (Stuey, Rich and especially Alice) for coming along to cheer us along.

So one Sunday win up with plenty more to play,

Nordic

Apologies for no match report for the Cold ash game, we were let down by thereporter.

Batting:
B. Martin 7
O. Haine 4
S. Pritchard Not very many
S. Moore 25
C. Teale 0
C. Mercer 21
S. Boag 13
A. Peach 7
S. Bramley 6
T. Weekes 1
D. Henson 2 not out.
Total 98 all out

Bowling:
S. Moore 7-2-13-0
C. Mercer 4-0-25-0
D. Henson 7-0-14-1
A. Peach 7-1-16-2
S. Boag 5-0-16-4B.
Martin 2.2-0-2-0

Cold Ash’s total 99 for 7

It’s that time again! welcome to the new season and the first game of the year and with that, we require the first write up of the season… I, (PoD) volunteered, gives me the chance to big myself up a bit more. Last Sunday, we took on Minster Lovell at home, 2pm start, great weather. Okay that’s the boring “factual” bit done.

Almost everyone managed to make it on time, or close enough anyway. Minster Lovell were there before most of us though; Nothing new there though i guess. I’d like to welcome the two newest members of the club, Sam and Andy, who did manage to get there on time. I will get onto their new nicknames later on - Peachy has been busy again.

I’ll move swiftly past the usual changing room banter. Stuey “Danger Angel” put his pyjamas on, Steve “Nordic” being generally naked and the like. There is certainly one thing of note though, (no not “gifted”), its was Graham “Gorgeous George’s” birthday, so happy birthday sir!

On to the game. Incredibly, skipper Nordic won the toss and decided we should have a bat. Good, good. It’s always good to get into the action early in the first game back. Myself and new boy Andy opened the batting. Andy lasted only the first over before being caught at point trying to cut a short ball. I think all agreed it was the right shot to play, just maybe a tad early. This brought Danger Angel to the crease. I didnt last much longer, first ball of the fifth over was all. Andy and I got 2 and 3 respectively. Now, with Bully and Nordic batting things were looking good! Until someone, desperate to get off the mark, called a run through which would of been tight at the best of times and Nordic was run out. Dave took to the crease. At this point Stuey was looking semi-safe, Dave looked safe but unable to get the ball off the square. These two batted well and took the score on to 100 odd before Dave was bowled by the first semi-decent ball the guy bowling at him had bowled. Bully got to his 50 to the great applause of the crowd, but by crowd i mean his family. He struggled to get many more and it was M00bs who was doing much of the scoring. Bully was finally dismissed for 53, opening the door to Peachy to test out the new bat, pads, batting shorts. Some might say he should have spent the money on a laptop instead so he could read this but hey-ho. These two played some interested shots; I hesitate to call some of them cricket shots. Moobs was playing lovely to leg, but driving (attempting to mow through cow) wasn’t quite working. Peachy had clearly been reading the batting manual and was desperately trying to get out of the line of the ball, however this isn’t always the best thing to do when the bowler is bowling straight. Moods got himself out on the penultimate ball leaving Rich to come out to face the final ball, dot. We finished on 141 for 7 from our 40 overs.

Final batting figures:
Gray 2, C Mercer 3, S Bulpitt 53, Bramley 2, Henson 22, G North 0, Mabbett 28, Peach 11.

Tea time! Now I remember why I play cricket. Libby had again out done herself, cookies and cakes of the highest standard as per usual. It’s a shame we don’t rate our home teas, because they would certainly be up the top.

So this means we have a total to bowl at, a total which is possible to defend. Stuey and Moobs opened the bowling, not like they had done anything much already today. The first wicket we took of the season was thanks to some fabulous fielding by new boy Sam. Direct hit run outs always go down well with your new team. This singlehandedly, probably did enough to move his nickname away from Demi (as in Demi Moore) onto Bruce (as in Bruce Willis). According to the nickname secretary Peachy, Demi wasn’t manly enough. Moobs bowled well with little success, some good batting made it tough. Stuey bowled tight lines and touched upon the swing he found last season, but was still struggling with his wheels. Officially he bowled the slowest full bunger of all time! Stuey finished with figures of 6-1-25-0, and Moobs 6-1-24-0. First change saw Muppet and Sam “Bruce” bowling, after a very ropey start Sam found his length, first over went for 20 odd (10 from first 2 balls). With the opposition requiring another 30 or so runs. Time to bring Peachy on. 9 balls later they had the runs they required. Well bowled Peachy! Between his over and a half, I stepped up to bowl an over. One wicket, no runs, top average in the club methinks! The wicket was a horrendous half tracker the batsman mistimed in Rich’s direction who took the catch with ease. Easier than the earlier one that he had made a meal of.

I promised to get onto this, Andy’s new nickname, thanks to Peachy and his description of catching technique, he became “Dundee”.

Man of the match had to be Bully for the batting, champagne moment the run out by Bruce, pigs ear was again Bully for running Nordic out.

Next week we go to Cold Ash. Artificial wicket here we come!

WAAAYYY first day of the season! Who’s excited? I certainly am. However Mr Met Office isn’t. It is going to rain this afternoon by all accounts, which is of course bad. Means it could be an on off day.

We have Minster Lovell at home today, always a tight tie between us and them. We have a history of bottling it though which is bad. Hopefully we can step up (if we get the chance).

Everyone should come along even if you are not in the team, we have a satelite dish at the club house now! And a tv!!!

Fixtures up!

Wednesday fixtures should be added Sunday/Monday night depending on when I get chance.

Looks like the sunday team have ALOT of home games this season, 12 home, 6 away. ACE

Don’t leave it to the first game to practice that reverse sweep or doosra!

I’ve booked a lane for nets at 4pm in the Wantage Leisure Centre for fourweeks from Sunday 30th March to the 20th April. Please put it in yourdiaries. I’ll remind you closer to the time. The cost will be £2 each.

Get the bat out now. Give it a coat of oil and shed that extra Christmasweight ready for start of the season.

Steve