2005

(Here's how I remember it... although some of the details are a bit blurry) It was a cloudy, but warmish afternoon that set the scene for a load of mostly hungover Wantage & Grove cricketers to face Steventon, at their ground, on a poor wicket and bumpy outfield. I had to ask Gorgeous to Captain. I was going to do it for this game, but I was not able to focus my thoughts as I could only concentrate on not being ill and trying to stop shaking. It seemed that Steventon had the…continue reading →

We always enjoy the Letcombe game (except our double thrashing in a single afternoon last year), and yesterday's game was no exception. Letcombe were allegedly slightly weakened by having a cup game on the same day, but this didn't seem to matter, as they beat us anyway. It was a close game. I failed to win the toss and therefore, much to the team's dismay, we fielded first in the blazing heat. We played a 35 over game. Letcombe's Lawrence Gardiner opened the batting and managed to bat all the way through the…continue reading →

A scorching Sunday afternoon gave us the perfect setting for a nice game of cricket against Eynsham yesterday. We played a 35 over game. Wantage batted first achieved a good total of 189 for 5. POD faced the first ball of the innings and started playing some nice shots through the gaps in the fielding side. It was a couple of overs before Long Dog faced a ball, and one ball was all that he faced. The ball hit the pads and Olly, who was umpiring, fingered him without hesitation. I came in…continue reading →

A lovely sunny day on Sunday set the scene for our game against our last game against Harwell this year. You should remember that last time we played them we beat them, so Harwell tried harder to get a full side out. Unfortunately, after asking me to provide 2 players for them, they turned up with 10, so we ended up playing 12 vs 11. Graham volunteered to play for them to strengthen their batting. Thanks Graham) We won the toss and decided to let Harwell bat first. Stewie and Carl (Hippo) Wooloff…continue reading →

We had a good game yesterday. We played Swindon Nalgo at home and batted first, putting on a total of 205, but were all out with three and a half overs to go. Lurch and Alan had a partnership of 110 before the first wicket fell when Alan was bowled by one of their better bowlers, a spinner named Mahmood. Lurch then faced a challenging over from Mahmood where there were at least 4 LBW appeals. The umpire (Muppet) had some difficult decisions to make and eventually gave Lurch out. Lurch refused to…continue reading →

Yesterday saw our first win of the season, against my old team, Harwell International. Although most of their team was borrowed from Wantage Saturday side and Andy Henson. This does not detract from our victory at all. We played the best we've played so far this year. Superb fielding, bowling and batting led us to a great win. David and Graham were the batting stars putting on a partnership of 141 between them. David playing some fine strokes against some tough bowling to score 53 not out and Graham using his usual batting…continue reading →

We had a good game against Cold Ash on their plastic strip yesterday. The weather was variable throughout the afternoon, but didn't really interrupt the cricket. Cold Ash set us a target of 174 to win after some good bowling especially: Peachy 7-1-17-1 Muppet 6-0-23-2 Lurch 4-0-19-2 The outfield was short and the batting strip was favourable to the batsmen, however our opening wickets fell quickly, with Tweeky being run out after being unable to stop at the crease and turn around quickly to get back to the other end (think supertanker). Stout…continue reading →