OECC 1st xi 151 for 8 (37.5 overs) vs Oakfield Warriors 150 for 8 (40 overs)
First game at College Meadow, featuring the return of the King of Twickenham Richie, lose toss, wait for completion of 5 minute committee discussion by oppo, let’s have a bowl.
Noah started things off the right way with a deadly, dipping low full toss bringing him a caught and bowled off the first ball of the match – fantastic start! Things settled a little as Oakfield’s 2nd wicket put on 38, warily playing Noah and established opening partner Reyhan. Lively fielding kept a lid on things and the next breakthrough came as Irv replaced Reyhan, snaffling the other opener. Conor came on shortly afterwards and soon began bowling in tandem with Dom. This was the period that set up victory. A couple of caught and bowled dismissals for Conor, along with a spectacularly entertaining delivery from Dom which bowled Oakfield’s number 5 round his legs. Between them this pair squeezed and squeezed – Conor’s 9 overs going for 31 and Dom’s for a miserly 17. Oakfield couldn’t put a big partnership together and wickets fell regularly once they started pushing to up the run rate. Josh took a decent catch off Reyhan (a significant number went down, especially off Reyhan, though Dom’s was entertaining. Dom did hold a steepler on the cow boundary, getting Irv his third wicket to add to a sharp return catch. On reflection, though catching could improve, the ground fielding was a real positive today – putting some real pressure on the batters, both when they couldn’t find a single, then later when searching for boundaries they kept on finding just singles. Nick is worth a special mention, spending most of the innings sweeping – with his usual zippy quality. Though the pitch was, of course, rather slow, keeping the oppo to just 150 off 40 overs was a decent achievement – they were well short of par.
Despite some lingering concerns over the team’s ability to chase (we’ve not had much practice during ‘the Turner era’), there was confidence given the strong and deep batting line-up we had. An opening partnership that took us past 30, up with the run rate was ended far too early as Irv fell to an overly aggressive shot. Louis was looking great and added another 20 or so with Ken, who scored the team’s first runs of the league season from the number 3 position. Louis fell and Hammer joined Ken, however, once Ken fell unluckily dragging on a slower ball, Reyhan played one great looking defensive shot – sadly not where the ball was, and a hat-trick was on. As a bowler you wouldn’t want to see Dom taking guard for your hat-trick ball, and indeed, a fully middled forward defensive took some of the wind out of Oakfield’s sales. He and Hammer put on around 40, in a steady, generally drama free stand that took our score into 3 figures, before Hammer fell to Oakfield’s leggy. In a bold move, Irv sent Josh in, to try to finish the game quickly – he didn’t, through Oakfield had three deep midwickets after Josh’s first ball. Sadly, a pitched up straight one wasn’t in his arc, and Josh made way for Nick. Typically busy at the crease, Nick brought the support that Dom needed to keep pushing the score on, but was undone by an outrageously good catch. This brought Richie to the crease, who managed his trademark classic drive for 4, but the rust got him shortly after. Had we been thinking rationally, we might have been worried that we still needed 25 with just 2 wickets left, but Conor brought the extra momentum needed with some cultured shots and lusty swipes, finishing on a confident 16 not out, to complement Dom’s excellent 36 not out.
A win, perhaps that should have been more comfortable, but, victory nonetheless – and they all count. There’s room for improvement still and a chance, next week for others to stake a claim as a few regulars are out for a week.
Victory brought a burst of creativity in the post-match awards:

MOM – Dom (unanimous)
DOD – Rikin (long story – ask Richie)
Champagne Moment – Hammer (rolling back the years in the outfield)
Rikin Parikh Positive Race Relations – Louis
Hammer super supporter – The Howard Bonds
Tom Franks Moore fielding award – Josh
Nicola Fuller Safeguarding award – Hammer
The Ron Turner ceiling fan award – Richie
The ConDom award for spell of sustained dominance sponsored by James Doyle and Joe Bellingham – Conor and Dom
Chairman Mao award – Conor
Best chat award (sponsorship opportunity available – contact our commercial director) - Ken