Past, Present and Future

If you could choose any animal to be, what would you choose ? It is quite a long list to choose from as there are at least fourteen species of fish, 3 other mammals, more than a dozen insects and 148 species of owl.  I occasionally ponder this question. How about you ?

Yesterday brought yet another glorious hot, sunny day and the usual saturday rituals of knotted stomach, putting on left shoes first, buying of red bull and tabs and for some lucky souls buttering endless loaves of bread and slicing quiche and pork pies. Cricket must be the only situation where men and boys gather to share pork pies. (apparently 78% of them are eaten secretly).

Didcot's finest gathered at the Field of Dreams with a shared feeling not experienced for some years; how would we respond to having beaten the villains and dames of Brackley and winning two games back to back.? The answer? Emphatically!

I cannot remember a more satisfying win in my short time at this club of ours. Inviting the opposition to bat first again, stand in skip Simon Pritchard demanded a repeat of last weeks disciplined, professional performance. Watching from the boundary I would have given us 6 out of 10. Not very good you may think. What was different was that despite catches going down and some sloppy ground fielding the team stayed positive and together. Fine spells of bowling from Judge Jules and Caretaker Morrison wrestled the initiative back; taking 3 wickets apiece and bowling 31 overs between them they restricted Tiddington to 213 from 53 overs. Had the fielding been sharper either of them would have the pfieffers they deserved. The innings finished with crab hands Jones limping around the boundary having pulled a muscle that most of us don't even possess (adductor, anyone?). Many lesser men (not from Yorkshire) would have cried into their sandwiches. Matt rubbed some Gout cream in and strapped on his pads.

The pork pie interval was somber, partly because it was damn hot, but mainly because chasing over 200 at 4.5 an over was something Didcot don't do anymore.

We had a talk about personal responsibility and who was going to get the runs. The consensus seemed to be that 'Someone Else' would. Mr S. Else doesn't play for Dicot, so we were doomed.

As with many prophecies the next 8 overs seemed to be self fulfilling. 36 for 4. We were shooting ourselves in the feet again. What followed was the new Didcot, the Didcot that fights and believes.

Cookie and Pritch both started looking like they had never played the game before.  They toughed it out though and gradually the fluency came and the runs followed. By simply leaving the good balls and putting the bad ones away they scored at 5 an over and finished the game off. Both played the best innings I have seen from them (although I am sure they will tell you about better ones). An unbroken partnership of 181 saw us home by 6 wickets. Spare a thought for The Judge, he spent 34 overs padded up chewing his fingernails. 

How do we follow that? We go to Horspath next week and make it 4 on the bounce.

Mixed fortunes elsewhere...... The seconds racked up over 200 again, another 50 from Vishane and 30 odd from 'Didcot Legend' Dave Allen with useful knocks from the lower order. It wasn't enough though and we wilted in the heat.

The thirds will want to quickly forget about their day, 86 all out didn't look like being nearly enough. At 36 for 6 in reply it was starting to look like we may pull off an improbable win. Catches win matches however..........

The fourths had their best result of the season, drawing at home. A career best score from Jonathan Hall no doubt making his day in the sun well worthwhile. It is onwards and upwards for the future stars of Didcot.

Tally Ho...........

It's Not The Thing Henry

I am going to start by mis-quoting Gore Vidal - "Nothing makes me happier than seeing a friend fail". 

The 1sts left Brackley with 25 points and heads held high yesterday after a performance that fills us with confidence and most of all satisfaction. After inviting them to bat we restricted Brackley to a total of 97 for 8 from a mind numbing 53 overs. Newby, Ian Sinclair, opened the bowling and from ball one had pace, accuracy and control. Matt (Angus) Jones came up the hill with metronomic accuracy and movement. Brackley had no answer and not once broke free from the shackles. Supported by a monster short spell from Cookie and some superb ground fielding it took 43 overs for the 50 to come up, such was the dominance. 

Ian finished with 2 for 25 from 20 overs and Matt 4 for 50 from 25 overs. We were never troubled in the run chase, knocking them off for the loss of only 3 wickets; admittedly with a little help from Brackley's pantomime villain Henry Newby dropping a sitter at slip and running away from a ball that was hit quite hard at him. 

Sadly, our other teams faired less well, all losing  heavily. I am sure they will respond and come back fighting next week. 

So, the challenge next week is for all teams to raise their performance again, whether it be to bounce back from defeat or to build on a good performance. Most importantly though, play the game in the right spirit. Swearing, sulking and unsporting behaviour are just not the thing to do.

Steve

Fight For Your RIght

I awoke with a sense of excitement, tinged with concern that the weather may spoil the party on Saturday.

I need not have worried, the clouds scudded overhead for  most of the afternoon, but the rain stayed away. It was reet nippy though; perhaps we need a log fire in our pavilished.

A first victory of the season for the 1sts against Sandford St Martin was well earned, we had to fight all the way and never really bossed the game. A fine performance from Matt Jones with 4 for 49 and then 71 with the bat. Julian Hitchman with 5 for 48 dedicated his phiffer to Cheryl and the one with red hair from Bucks Fizz as he worked himself into a frenzy of eurovision excitement. Simon Pritchard fought hard throughout his innings, finally finding some timing and even hitting a couple off the square to finish with 30 not out. 

The 2nds took 16 points from a draw they dominated at Abingdon Vale, 81 and 42 from Perera's Senior and Junior set up a total of 219 for 5 with some powerful hitting from Jose Taboada, Dave Allen and Connor Morrison who hit the ball (much) further than anyone else. Vale ended up 9 down and 30 odd short with wickets for Carl Hancock, Sean Willmott and another 5 wicket haul for Didcot Legend Dave Allen

The 3rds also dominated a drawn match against Oxford and Bletchingdon, runs from Santosh Bhat and some blatant jug evasion from Paul (blue suede shoes) Costello and Haydn Durrant with 49 each set a competitive total. The opposition were never in the run chase and settled for a draw early on.

Our 4ths continued to enjoy riding the learning curve setting Tiddington 140 odd to win in Division 10. A debut Cherwell League wicket for Jack Broughton (son of another Didcot Legend) was a highlight, as were the skippers trousers.

The early part of the season is about hard work, determination and fighting hard to find some touch with the bat and rhythm with the ball. Experience teaches us this.  Pritch summed it up - "it's not a day for the flashy b*****ds". 

Patience

Well, that's the first weekend of the season proper done and dusted. 

A bit of a curates egg of a day, a fine victory for the 2nds with good performances from Henry Latimer and Vishane Perera with the bat and from Sean Willmott with the ball; a comfortable draw for the 3rds with a magnificent 111 not out from Andy Ireson; defeat for the 4ths despite some good contributions from many in the team and defeat for the 1sts who failed to perform to our potential with no stand out performances despite 4 wickets for Dan Alderson and a fine knock at the end from Tom Kennedy.

Confidence and belief are fragile commodities and we were short of both in the 1sts. I believe that the only answer is hard work allied to determination.

Getting 44 players out every saturday will also require similar qualities if selection for this coming weekend is anything to go by! 

Dreadlock Holiday

I don't like cricket. 

I love it. 

To some of us the words of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme (aka 10cc) will have been ringing in our ears last Saturday. It really is the only sport worth bothering with when the sun shines, the barbie is cranked up and the thwack of leather on willow echoes back from the power station walls.

Saturday's Interclub matches marked the proper start of what is going to be a festival of Cricket for Didcot. If we believe the Government spin machine (The met office) this summer is going to be a cracker, so slip on a hat, slop on some sun cream and settle into your deck chairs.

Saturday's two games showed what promise we have at our club; both keenly fought and competitive with some superb performances with bat and ball on all sides. 

A great start to the JOGLE fund raising as well, please continue to support this fantastic effort, I am sure we could all see the limited facilities we have in our Pavilished. We all deserve so much better and have to make it happen ourselves.

The real competitive stuff starts this week with a Downs League match on Wednesday evening at the Field of Dreams followed by four, yes count 'em, four Cherwell League matches on Saturday. 

It is time for the all of us players to stand up and be counted. Don't leave it for someone else to get the runs and wickets, no 'yeah buts', no blaming the pitch or the umpires. Play Hard, Play Fair and enjoy being part of a fantastic club playing the best sport In The World.