Be The Man

Back to the business of cricket this week after the rain last saturday. Our visitors, Horspath had been top earlier in the season and were not to be taken lightly.

Winning the toss on a damp, but drying pitch was perhaps more important than normal. I lost it. Bugger.

A slightly makeshift team was shorn of Shaun, and the Laurel and Hardy of spin for the day. One was at Center Parcs undoubtedly honing his archery skills or whatever it is one does in Center Parcs, the other was in the middle of a tour of the bits of Europe famed for their lack of culinary skills and rigid adhesion to order, the Caretaker was last seen waiting for Big Wednesday, no doubt surrounded by a thousand other Caretaker lookalikes. I hope the surf was sick Jordan, dude.

No surprise that we were asked to bat on a sticky dog. Didcot 2009 laughs in the face of sticky dogs and rose to the challenge. Vish and Lats strode to the wicket with the skip's advice to "not cut in the first half hour in case you drag one onto your stumps" ringing in their ears. Lats played a square cut, you can guess the rest. One down. Crabbie hobbled out to the wicket, batting for the first time in four weeks he said he felt a bit rusty. He looked a bit rusty. Rusty or not he was out to a shocking LBW decision. Hit on the upper thigh! He is nearly 8ft tall! Get your subscription checked!

Tee Kay announced his arrival with two bludgeoned boundaries then promptly became becalmed, his reputation as the Beast preceding him. Throughout these diversions Jimmy Perera was doing what he does best. Another fine knock, during which he never looked troubled. He ran out of energy at 64, a fine century was there for the taking. Eat porridge for breakfast Jimmy and the ton is yours.

Cookie played around a straight one, another LBW. All of a sudden a good start had become rather average at 120 odd for 5. Veterans Broughton and Pritchard were at the crease and they delivered again. Adding 70 in 12 overs changed the game again as we headed towards 200. Prich finished with 43, perhaps not his most fluent innings of the season, but a very important one. A few biffs to the boundary at the end and we were going to have to defend 226.

A fine tea from Yorkshire showed just how much modern Britain has changed. No batter puddings with gravy. Home made chicken tikka (on cocktail sticks, no less) and salmon sandwiches. Geoffrey would no doubt think it was dreadful. We all thought it was great and tucked in.

Openers Crabbie and debutant Jim Taylor (Cookie's godfather, apparently) bowled with control and movement both taking a wicket. Don's debut Cherwell wicket to a fine catch from Brockett.

Lat's bowled with a good loop and control of length and picked up a couple of wickets to keep the pressure on. Horspath were never quite up with the run rate but had wickets in hand so were always in with a chance. Enter Mr Pritchard. He took the crucial two wickets that swung it back in our favour. Not enough time or runs to force a win for either side meant a draw was the right result. Cricket was the winner in a good, evenly fought game. 13 points takes us half a step closer to the points we need.

We all need to up our performance for the visit of Bourton Vale next week and be determined that we will be the man to make the difference that brings us another win.

Wallingford II V Didcot II

A bad day at work! Yep after tea it all fell apart.

Didcot won the toss and invited Wallingford to bat first. Everything went to plan to start with; we had a target to get them out for 150 we just about did that. Wallingford all out 154 in the 42^nd over with Viraj Perera taking 4 wickets, Rob Keat 3, followed by Dan Alderson 2 and Stewart Green 1 all bowling well and fielding and catching coming together. The nightmare began after tea; loosing the first 5 wickets; Prasad, Rob Kenworthy, Viraj, Connor and Dan all back in the pavilion for 12 runs in 12 overs! Ross Fryatt (26) and Shaun Stewart (14) showing some resistance and building a partnership and using up the overs, but after the departure of Ross and Stewart we had still a glimpse of a draw with Jose Taboada 25, but could not resist the temptation and was caught at the covers with just 8 balls to go!

Didcot 3rds

Didcot hung on during their game of Alpine cricket against a much stronger Brackley 2's.

Winning the toss we elected to put the opposition and after two quick wickets Brackley settled into two strong partnerships (100,80). Star for Brackley was George Stapleton, home from his gap year just two days before, he finished unbeaten on 91 with Brackley reaching 227-4 on a slow pitch, with a large, slow outfield.

Didcot soon realised we didn't have the fire power to chase and set ourselves a target of 150-3 at the end to minimise their points advantage.At 120-3 after 41 overs (and 35 minutes left) we were cruising. AND THEN, back to Didcot self destruct mode. 12 overs bowled in the next 35 minutes and we closed on 133-9 with George Stapleton taking 3-15 off seven overs.

Santosh, Mike Slade and Clive all got into the 20's before getting themselves out.

Travis Green and Jonathan Mearden batted well and held up Brackley for decent periods of time.

Mike Slade deserves special mention for his excellent spell up and across the Alpine slopes.

Didcot 4ths

Didcot IV put up a sterling performance but faded to lose a game that we should have won. Thame III batted first, and against Humza and Alex Rodman they were 9 for 2 from 10 naggingly accurate overs. Neil Spears bowled well, taking a wicket and a catch, while Jack Broughton continued a dip in form at the other end. The off spin department of the fourths, however, looks safe in the hands of Tom Spears, who put down a marker for the new all rounder with 2 well taken wicket. Maybe stand-in captain Hall should have listened to him a couple of weeks ago when he wanted to bowl. Simon also bowled frugally, Ehsen bowled a couple of overs without much alarm, and then the opening bowlers came back for the final spells to keep the runs down. Only some lusty hitting at the end took Thame to respectability at 146 for 8. The wickets were shared around, two each for Humza and Tom, with a stunning run out also credited to Humza.

All in all, one of our best performances with the ball, and proving that we are getting more competitive as the season goes on. Tea was enjoyed greatly as this was a target that we could chase down.

Neil Spears and Simon Birkinshaw opened. Neil was unluckily out quickly, and was followed by Nick Grain. After that, Tom Spears and Simon started setting the foundation for a good score. Simon played his best innings of the season for the club, thrashing balls to all corners (well, lots to cow and one cut four to disprove the comments that he only had one shot) for 45, before “finger of death” Hall struck again with an lbw decision. Gordon Latimer and Ehsen Nadeem hung around without adding much to the score, so with 5 wickets down at 68 we were in trouble. Hall came in with no specific instructions as they really don’t make any difference. Tom was out for another promising innings of 24 as Thame’s bowling attack (made up of accurate 13 year olds all at 4 feet tall) continued to make regular inroads. Despite Jonathan hitting 5 fours and a six (all to the same flag on the boundary at cow corner) in his 29 not out, the other end was a rotating gate made up of a line of ducks until last man Dave Grain (batting with a badly bruised finger) was given out lbw.

We need more adhesiveness at the crease, but although we lost, it was a good game and there were some very creditable performances in defeat. Humza, Alex and Tom bowled well, Simon and Tom batted well, and the fielding was generally excellent.

The composition of the team is proof of the aims of the team – 6 under 18s, 3 parents of youth players, plus Simon and Jonathan. Adds to the development of the club youth players, the development of the social aspect and we’re on the verge of getting some results.

Four more games, including Bicester at home who we scored 304 against earlier in the season. There are possibilities!