Dirk Wears White Socks

Like Guinness, good things come to those who wait. This could be a metaphor for how to bat at The Field of Dreams or it could be an apology for the tardiness of this weeks blog. It appears there is a small group of sad, desperate men in South Oxfordshire whose Sunday is not complete without a fix of post match analytical ramblings mashed together with oblique references to song titles. To you I apologise profusely.

Saturday started with the now oft exploited and written about trip to West London to oggle at SJM and participate in Cricket AM. I thoroughly enjoyed it , particularly meeting Dirty Dirk Nannes. What a cracking guy, I imagine he would be highly entertaining on an all day session, preferably in his native Amsterdam.

So, what of Shipton? Are they better than us? Can we beat confident, capable, experienced sides?

We didn't make them work hard enough, that is for sure. I believe that Didcot on top form are a better side, and certainly well capable of beating teams like Shipton; full of experience and talent and most importantly confidence.

The weather was like Chester le Street on Saturday, the pitch straight outta Chennai. What has happened to the bouncy, pacey square of a few years ago? The only danger was playing shots too early in an innings, once you get the measure of the pace you could bat for a week and not see a ball spin or seam. The new league balls lose any hardness after about 7 overs and cannot be shined for love nor money. Who'd be a bowler?

Shipton racked up 257 for 5, pacing their innings beautifully, had we not dropped their skipper on 13 (twice) we may have restricted them to 30 less or so. He went on to make 98 not out, batting nearly 50 overs. We toiled, heavy with fatigue and post stardom blues. I think we actually did reasonably well all things considered.

Our run chase never quite gained the momentum we needed to seriously threaten Shipton. Skipper Gates was torn between playing safe and not letting Shipton open up a points gap by beating us. With hindsight perhaps we should have played more aggressively. Last weeks capitulation to Banbury was still playing on my mind and I didn't want us to lose two on the Jonathan.

The real positive was Crab Hands return to form. The best he has looked for a couple of years, welcome back Matt, let's hope the form continues. The big stride and effortless push through extra cover was back, as was the on drive and whip to midwicket. Brockett batted beautifully also, never looking in trouble once he got his feet moving and ended with a tidy 42 not out.

So, what did we learn?

Enough sleep and lack of distractions before the start are important. That three an over for the first 30 overs is fine, so long as you have wickets in hand. Catches win matches (again). Don't hit the ball to the one fielder in the deep when you have an ocean of space around him.

A big game next week at table topping Tew awaits us. I will be getting an early night on Friday, getting up focused and arriving at Tew in plenty of time for a decent warm up.

What about you?

Sunday Blues

It had to happen at some point I suppose, the unbeaten record, held for 22 games, ended yesterday at Banbury as the firsts fell to a 2 wicket defeat.

Asked to bat first, we never got going, losing wickets regularly we limped to a total of 106. Many of us batted for the first time this season and it looked like it too. The Banbury pitch played well and we were undone by consistently good bowling that saw 7 of us clean bowled. The only player to look comfortable was The Judge who drove imperiously on his way to 30 odd before running himself out. I think I will gloss over the rest of the innings.

Defending 106 is never going to be easy and requires self belief as well as great bowling and fielding. We created intense pressure throughout the Banbarians innings; fielders round the bat with plenty of chirp from the new "Most annoying player in the Cherwell League". Cookie talked himself hoarse with some of the most banal yet entertaining drivel heard for a long time. The 40 minute spell before tea had them two down with a wicket each for Stimpo and Cookie.

We attacked with the spinners straight after the break taking another 6 wickets before they reached the victory target.

A quality performance in the field part compensated for the disappointment, in reality we were at least 50 runs short and didn't deserve to win a game batting like that. A more positive approach would have won have got us the runs we needed and the tentative, defensive approach was old Didcot from two years ago.

We must, and will respond for the visit of table topping Shipton next weekend.

I hate losing.

That Smell

What is your favourite James Bond film? If it is Moonraker or The Living Daylights, leave now. You disgust me.

I have a soft spot for Live and Let Die. Roger Moore and Jane Seymour have a certain chemistry; there is the New Orleans Jazz vibe; the spitting law enforcement officer and of course the sinister top hat wearing bald voodoo witch doctor rising out of the grave.

Some voodoo magic was visited on the Field of Dreams yesterday (possibly).

The scent of victory was in everyones nostrils before the match started yesterday for the visit of basement side, Nondescripts. They had lost all their matches and we expected to win.

Having won the toss we invited Nondies to have a bat on a wicket that looked full of runs. They never broke free of the shackles as we took wickets regularly and kept things tight in the field. Northern Gravy bowled with no luck again but should have had at least 3 wickets. Laurel and Hardy mixed containment and attack in the middle of the innings and took 4 wickets between them; 2 smart catches for the boyman Perera, a great tumbling catch from Tee Kay and a smart run out from The Caretaker being the highlights. Stimpo was the pick of the bowling, ending up with 4 for 26, including the top three. I can smell a fivfer is on the way as Jack improves every week. He out thought every batsman yesterday.

Some particularly good cheese and onion sandwiches were eaten as part of a fine tea in the oppressive heat before we set about chasing a target 100 short of what was needed.

It was during tea that the voodoo curse struck. Was it revenge for last seasons humane dispatch of a a rabbit by Skipper Gates coming back to haunt him? I don't know. What I do know is that I have spent a few hours this morning washing and disinfecting all my kit and I have had to buy a new cap.

We set about the chase with a real purpose as The Judge and Jimmy Perera put on 40 odd for the first wicket at 5 an over. Vish was joined by Matt as they took the score to 119. Vish again batted beautifully scoring his 70 from only 88 balls, including 14 boundaries. The rest was a formality as Cookie and Matt saw us home in a little over 30 overs and we were done and dusted by 6pm.

Results elsewhere mean that we are top with 10 points more than at this stage last year. The next four weeks are critical for us, and nothing less than 100 points from these games is acceptable.

News from elsewhere: The seconds had a bad day (more below), the thirds had a good day(see earlier blog) and the fourths recorded their first victory to leave them mid table.

The challenge for all three sides seems to be finding consistency and a run of three victories for any of them will see them challenging at the top of their respective divisions

Disappointing outing for the 2nds!

Seconds were out at Great Tew and were beaten convincingly by 6 wickets. Didcot didn’t have a good day defending their total of 202 for 6.

Didcot batted first and scored 202 for 6 in their 45 overs. Great Tew bowling attack was accurate and Didcot lost both the openers when the total was 32. Then came a 102 partnership between Brad Lynch (61) and Chris Parsons 33. Both batted very sensibly and should have gone to score much more; Chris playing a ‘lazy’ shot was caught at square leg and Brad got himself run out. Andy Griffiths chipped in with 16 and Ross Fryatt was not out on 22. With wickets in hand we could have pushed it a bit further, may be!

There wasn’t anything in the wicket but accurate bowling was required as Great Tew did.

Didcot didn’t have a good day in the bowling and fielding department. However there were some positives; we did take 4 catches, Jose Taboada at slip in the third (4^th?) attempt, Rob Keat at covers, Andy Griffiths at covers a diving catch woken up by his team mates shouting ‘catch’, and an excellent diving catch by Ross Fryatt behind the stumps. If we did take the other catches as well things might have been different. The batsmen who was 55 not out was dropped twice!

Bowling wasn’t as accurate as Great Tew. Although we took a couple of wickets early on they came at a price.

Andy Griffiths took two wickets but at a cost. Rob Keat took 2 wickets not cheap either but he created the chances that we missed.

Sam Smith and Carl Hancock bowled well but were unlucky not to pick-up any wickets, especially Carl’s 6 over spell was fiery and accurate missed the edge 90% of the time.

Disappointing day out, only collecting 8 points for the day’s work. Hopefully lessons learnt and better things will follow soon!