23rd May 2010, Crowmarsh (Derek Shorter Cup), Away – Win

Again, not much time for a big report this week. Sorry. After winning the toss again, Wantage elected to bat first and give Crowmarsh a total to chase. 157 for 7 didn’t seem to be enough on a fast outfield, but Steve Yates opened the bowling and initiated a victory by taking two wickets on his first two balls. Both were amazing and unplayable and changed the game, for this he won man of the match. Wantage took 30 overs to get Crowmarsh out for 123 and won the game with everyone making…continue reading →

16th May 2010, Steventon, Home – Win

I’ve not got much time this week to write an extensive match report, However, I will say that it was a good performance from Wantage and less good from Steventon. Wantage chose to bat first (after winning the toss) and put on 211 for 8 and then bowled Steventon out in the 26th over for 131. O. Taylor Run Out 45 B. Rendell Caught 23 S. Bramley Not Out 67 B. Ross Bowled 0 S. Bulpitt Caught 16 G. Summersbee Bowled 9 B. Martin Bowled 40 N. Wilkins Run Out by the captain…continue reading →

Dorchester – Away – OCA League

Massive thanks to the new Nick Burton (Aka NiB) for putting together a match report for last weekend's game. On a hot day Colin lost the toss and Dorchester unsurprisingly invited us to field, although Colin went some way to redeeming himself with a good catch diving forward at mid off to give Duncan his first wicket of the day. The temperature rose a few more degrees when Duncan engaged in what could diplomatically be termed 'healthy debate' with their opening batsman regarding batting technique. To his great credit he channelled his aggression…continue reading →

Garsington II – Home – OCA League

Sorry about delay in putting together the match report for the Garsington game, it would be great to get some volunteers to help out with writing the match reports. There is plenty for each captain to already be doing for the teams and club… Garsington, I’d say the “old enemy”, but they aren’t really. They are simply the team who won the league last year, meaning playing them again now is a good signpost on whether we are improving as a club. Last season we lost comfortably to them in the first tie,…continue reading →

Sunday 9th May 2010, E&W Hendred, Away – Lost

The season started with a minor cock-up as, after a week of scraping around trying to get a team, I ended up with 12 players. This turned out to be fine as I wasn’t feeling too bright and was more than happy to drop out of the team and score instead. Barry “Coach” Martin took over the captaincy role and the game started with Wantage batting. The Mercers opened and it wasn’t long before Hendred took their first wicket, dismissing Alan “Raffles” Mercer on 2, caught and bowled. Peachy replaced him. “Three”, everyone…continue reading →

SSJ Willows – Home – OCA League

The first game of the season, and what a lovely day we had for it! Grey, bleak, threatening and an almost certain forecast for rain, ideal. I'm going to keep this season's match reports a lot shorter than those of last year, there is no need to write 1000 words, hopefully this will encourage more people to get involved with writing them. First toss, a good one to win, so I did. Well, he called wrong, that still counts as me winning in my book! Decision made to bowl first, the best way…continue reading →

30th August, President’s XI, Home – Win

A mostly hungover team took on the President’s select XI last weekend and a friendly battle between two strong teams ensued. Having used underhand tactics the previous evening by stealing one of our ringers to play for them, the President’s XI opened the batting in a 35 over game. 28 overs later and with 158 runs on the board, we got our first wicket. It wasn’t that our bowling was bad, but there had been some dropped catches that went down to difficult chances. Pippy had delivered his signature dive but this time…continue reading →

23rd August, Swindon Civil Service, Home – Win

With England on the verge of winning the Ashes, we had a match against Swindon Civil Service. Remarkably, both sides managed to get a full team out and took to the field with the sun shining on a hard and dry wicket. Swindon had won the toss and had decided to bat. And bat they did. We found it amazingly hard to get our first wicket. In fact their number two batsman, M. Giddings retired on 100 galliantly letting some of the rest of his team have a bat, or possibly just protecting…continue reading →

9th August, Cold Ash, Home – Win

Sorry, no report, but here’s the figures: A. Mercer 39 O. Haine 0 S. Bramley 4 L. Faulkner 0 R. Martin 4 T. Lane 50 D. Henson 0 J. Mabbett 34 G. Summersbee 14 not out C. Mercer 0 C. Mackinnon 2 not out Wantage 155 for 9 J. Mabbett 7-3-18-4 R. Martin 5-1-21-0 T. Lane 5-3-10-2 C. Mercer 5-2-16-2 D. Henson 2-0-3-0 C. MacKinnon 0.2-0-0-1 Cold Ash 73 all out.continue reading →