Morning everyone, and welcome to the match report for what turned out to be a quite remarkable game for terrible Australian accents, equally awful northern accents, and some truly average cricket.   We turned up…well some of us turned up on time, only for the ground to be locked. After a little time, the gate was unlocked and people started to roll in. When all was set, Skip (the less tattooed Summersbee…that we know of anyway) actually won the toss, and with the threat of rain, confidence from last week…aaaaaand the football to get back for, he elected to put Dorchester…continue reading →

On the back of a good string of results, the omens were good for another excellent day of cricket as Wantage arrived to face Thame; the overnight rain had cleared leaving a fine day, the pitch was in tremendous shape, and the Wantage team were through the first set of Les-approved warm-ups before the toss had even taken place. Skip then managed to win the aforementioned toss for once – electing to bat and asking the top order to get a score on the board.  A slight re-jig meant that Rob and Colin strode out to start the innings, Rob managing to just about arrive before the start of the game…continue reading →

A grey day came to an early end on the outskirts of Abingdon on the 19th June to the tune of Gala’s Freed From Desire: the World Test Championship final may have being played in the Southampton gloom; Germany may well have been taking Portugal apart at the Euros; but there was a little slice of Wantage’s own history being made in Marcham as they bullied the opposition into a considerable defeat, among good performances from a number of batsmen and some stellar opening bowling, backed up by a near-faultless fielding performance. Early…continue reading →

In runs Harvey, to bowl what would be the last ball of the game, he delivers, the batsman pushes forward, it’s edged and… more on that later. 7 hours earlier With the weather set fair and the strip looking newer than a test match pitch in Bristol we were all set to take on West Ilsley in what would be the first win-lose-draw game for Wantage CC. The straw coloured wicket, and the sun blaring, made us all think it was a no-brainer to bat first. Not something our skipper had to worry…continue reading →

After having the previous week’s fixture abandoned after the home of cricket had seen a considerable amount of rain, we arrived to play Clifton Hampden on what was a glorious day and with a fine pitch, which appeared to have a little bit of something for everyone. We’ve had plenty of games against Clifton in recent years, some good performances and some very bad, but often entertaining. This was to be no exception.  Bat or bowl first, it was a big call. Thankfully skip was spared making the (inevitable) wrong choice by losing toss, and Clifton…continue reading →

After a first week wash-out, Saturday finally saw a return to league (Covid) cricket, with some now familiar requirements, including changing outside, ‘washy-washy’ on a recurring 6 over basis, and the strict absence of traditional handshakes. Some changes, though, with our first away fixture in our new, ‘localised’ Cherwell division and a visit to a new ground (for most of us) in Stokenchurch. Early weather forecasts saw confident predictions of a 45 minute drive to look at some rain for 4 hours, so perhaps it wasn’t surprising that every single team member took…continue reading →