Wolvercote Is make a mountain out of a molehill on way to victory in blustery Garsington.
Braving a gentle force nine gale, and a ground so vertiginous fielders had to abseil to cow corner, Wolvercote Is won the toss and elected to bat. McIntyre (70) and Tofts (45) got us off to an almost perfect start, with the latter outscoring the big Saffa (a fine, surely?) as Wolvercote put on 70 odd runs for the first wicket. This feat was particularly impressive as a knackered Tofts had hit 93 the day before, and McIntyre, in order to avoid being blown over in the wind, had taken the precaution of adding a pair of anvils to his lead Wellingtons. With the loss of Tofts, Proctor strode to the crease with the sole intention of scoring more runs in a weekend that his former Gibbon team-mate. The mission was accomplished some 67 runs later, with the younger man beating the older by two on the weekend, but with the pair level-pegging on 203 in the season.
History does not record whether or not Matt Taylor actually took his pads off over night but, having sat for 45 overs on Saturday, it was not until the 30th over of Sunday’s game that he got the chance to beat out his frustrations on a piece of red leather. A brutal, if somewhat agricultural, 44 runs followed, supported by cameo performances from Asif (18 no) and Burns (13). The latter’s innings including a pair of towering sixes biffed down the cliff at cow, and followed what has to be the longest “comfort” break since Cyril the Constipated ate 4 dozen hard-boiled eggs whilst reading the Doomsday book on a dunny in Bungay in 1087. This took the Wolvercote total to a (surely insurmountable?) 270.
Now comes the less impressive part. Having watched a modest Garsington attack concede runs by bowling short and wide, the Wolvercote bowlers elected to follow suit and, as a consequence, failed to break through the Garsington top order. There cannot be many cricket matches where the number of lost balls exceeds the number of wickets, but, with at least 5 Wolvercote cherries AWOL in the cornfield, and only one wicket each to Burns (12-1-46) and Oliver (12-1-57), the away side’s total started to look vulnerable. Credit is due to the Garsington batsmen with Day (87no), Bound (48), and Wharton (75) playing their way to within 20 or so of Wolvercote’s mountain of runs. However, the undefeated Day slowed down as the innings wore on and, mindful that, if removed, he may be replaced by a slogger with more swagger, Proctor wisely chose to put down a simple catch on the boundary and Gilly, following Ben’s lead, was almost casual in what must surely have been a deliberate drop at mid-on? Thus victory was assured, with Quinn the pick of the bowlers with a stabilizing “taking-the-pace-off-the-ball” mid-innings 54 for 0 off 12.
Wolvercote 2nds showed their battling spirit to win a tight game against Deddington and so maintain their 100% league record. Wolvercote fielded first and skipper Quinn made up for another lost toss by bowling a spell of metronomic accuracy (12-3-34-3), trapping Webb in front early doors. This brought to the crease a young South African (every club needs one…or two!) by the name of Prinsloo. Thereafter it was clear that Wolvercote had two matches to play – one against Deddington and one against Prinsloo.
Whilst Quinn was putting it on a sixpence from one end, Luke ‘the Murgatron’ Murgatroyd took some punishment from his fellow African at the other. Slower balls and bouncers were smote with equal measure. Observers wondered what exactly our favourite hirsute Zimbo had been drinking pre-match. He came back strongly, however, finishing with 1-44 from 9.
A pivotal moment came when Emperor Quinn got one to nip back and bowl Prinsloo for 42. The lads were happy to see the back of him…albeit temporarily. Behind the stumps Will Humphreys put in a classy display of glovemanship. But for the hesitant decision of a myopic umpire, he would have added a clever stumping.
Owen ‘he makes things happen’ Gallagher then came on to devastating effect. He snatched three wickets in his first over and ended up with 5-16. This young builder/vicar is laying solid foundations in his debut season and gave a lesson to the Deddington team – all out for 107. He was supported at the other end by big Antipodean, Andrew Dodd who hit the deck hard with 1-4.
With tea put back, Wolvercote had a quick turnaround and Rawstorne and Godsal faced a miserly opening pair of Buckingham (11.4-5-19-1) and Prinsloo (12-5-14-5). The top order found it difficult to score against such adept bowling. DTB was removed early and whilst Godsal, Humphreys and Forrester got their heads down either side of tea, runs were at a premium and they too perished. Tipler and Beard were also cleaned up and Wolvercote found themselves perilously placed at 19-6.
Graham Livingstone and Luke Mugatroyd showed great application and once they had seen off the opening bowlers, they were able to open up. Graham brought his total runs for the season to 100 with an attractive 26 before picking out that man Prinsloo in the deep. Murgatroyd was in uncompromising mood and flayed the ball to all quarters – his back foot drives with front leg raised have become a trademark. Owen was unlucky to be dismissed from one of several seven ball overs. Luke was in free flow, however, and he was backed up admirably by Quinn whose deft ‘querdles’ and ‘quaddles’ were most entertaining.
Hence victory was achieved in a game where it could have easily eluded Wolvercote. The side move on to play crunch back to back fixtures against Radley.
Following a below par batting display against Kilkenny, Captain Campo decided, after winning the toss, to give the batsmen another go at proving they can post big scores. Everything started well, with myself and Tim scoring at a decent rate without taking too many risks.
Tim and I progressed quickly to our first century partnership, scoring at 4 to 5 an over. We got to about 110 before Tim clipped one off his legs which didn’t clear the fielder. Next in was Ben, who started slowly – at least for the first couple of balls. Although Chalgrove have seen me bat before, they decided to push the field out for me, but keep it in for Ben, which help Ben push the score along quickly. With some big shots and cultured drives Ben quickly progressed past his 50. With a century within his grasp, he decided it was time to have a little walk down the pitch and was stumped on 73 with the score past 200.
Captain Campo decided it was time for the big hitters to have a go and try to push the score on to 300. First in was Gus2; Gus’s innings was short, but still golden! Given out LBW to one that looked a little high. With Gus’s departure, it was time for Mr Burns, promoted from number ten to number five. With the bowler on a hat-trick, Burnsy started with what would be a very rare occurrence in his innings, a defensive shot (there were only two other dot balls in his innings, one of which went for 4 byes).
Watching one of the most destructive innings which followed some of the best batting I’ve seen from both Tim and Ben was excellent. I have to say I was happy for burnsy to continually clear the boundary rope, meaning there was no need for quick singles! Scoring his 50 in what I guess was 20 or so balls we quickly progressed past 300 to end on 311. One of the best batting displays I have had the pleasure of watching – luckily from the non strikers end.
With tea next, where Margret put in an excellent performance, as well as Asif, who put in his best performance of the day getting through 3 cup cakes!
The bowling started well, with both John and Burnsy putting in fine performance, Burnsy had a whole over beating the outside edge. With both runs and wickets coming slowly, the captain decided to turn to the Wolvercote bowler who was top of the averages, and described by one person (himself) as our main strike bowler. Landing it on a sixpence and turning it sideways, his decision proved to be a good one. With strong support from Richard at the other end Jon ‘strike bowler’ Campion finished with excellent figures of 12-3-42-4.
With some poor catching – including a full length diving slip catch which I just got a hand to (the reason I’m writing this)! And some belligerent batting, Chalgrove managed to hold on with two wickets remaining.
Overall a superb batting display, and an excellent win by 161 runs.
“Dan drives Wolvercote to top spot”, “Where there’s a Will, there’s a Wayne” and “Wayne storm weathers the Sunn!” are all pun headlines apt for the tabloids to articulate Wolvercote II’s victory vs Sunningwell II’s. For the second league match of the season, Wolvercote II’s faced fellow newly promoted Sunningwell II’s at Cutteslowe Park. Quinny won the toss and elected to bat.
Wolvercote II’s fielded a much changed side, with quite a few debutants. Opening for us were Dan Rawstorne (78) and Dave Quinn (3). Dan played a typical ‘Dan’ innings with majestic drives and dodgy calls for runs! Dan managed to get his 50 within 33 balls and helped us to a great start. Dan eventually was stumped, but his quick scoring put us in a fantastic early position. Then came in Joe Forrester (40) and William Humphreys (59). Both making their Wolvercote II’s league debuts, this pair continued where Dan left off. They both played composed shots whilst also punishing any bad balls. Their marvellous batting and steady run rate put us in a controlling position for a big score. Despite a loss of wickets as we tried to expedite the run rate in the final 10 overs, we managed to get 229-8 in our 45 overs. Special mention should go to Owen Gallacher (11) who hit 4,6,1 off the his first (and our last!) 3 balls.
If Sunningwell weren’t happy after being set a big target, then they wouldn’t have been any better pleased to find out that someone had been in their dressing room with a penchant for their money and mobile phones. Nonetheless, their bad luck continued as Wayne Thomas (12.0-3-20-4) and Joe Forrester (8.0-1-4.2) carved their way through their top order. This was ably assisted by some tidy fielding including great catches from Andy Howe and Richard Boothroyd. With Sunningwell losing a wicket every ten or so runs, they were always up against especially as our tight bowling and fielding were restricting their run rate. If Sunningwell felt robbed earlier, then they got some kind of justice whilst batting. As their top scorer Ian Goodenough (24) was given out LBW by the umpire, sponsored by Domino’s Pizza, off Dave Quinn (9.5-1-25-1). Whilst celebrating Rob Coles and a few others stated that they thought it was off the bat rather than pad. After some deliberation, we called the batsmen back in as we felt the umpire’s decision was unlike the batsman and not good enough! With Sunningwell putting up a bit of resistance, Quinny brought on Owen Gallacher (6.0-1-29-3) to bowl. Owen bowled great line and length and was rewarded with 3 wickets. It was left to Quinny to break their stubborn 10th wicket pair and lead to Wolvercote II’s to a 108 run victory.
Special Thanks to Margaret, Marc, Brian and Kurt for their help and support. We are currently top of Division 10 with maximum points, so hopefully this will give us the confidence to continue this great start for the rest of the season!
I stepped out of Toftsy’s Alpha for my first appearance for the club with a mixture of emotions. Nerves, intrepidation, excitement, anticipation. All my fears that the season opener might be washed out seemed to have been without foundation as the wicket, although not bone dry, was more than playable.
Campo strode out to the middle, coin in hand, for what may be one of the more important tosses of the season. He returned to tell us that he had performed well in the tossing department and we would have first use of a wicket which would prove to be fair, but which certainly had something in it for the bowlers.
He tossed the new ball to Burnsy, a scar on the bridge of his nose the only sign of his batting indiscretion which resulted in his A&E trip last weekend. His first over was a sign of things to come. Tight bowling, with a good line and length regularly found. John shared the new ball and as with Burnsy hit the spot right from the start.
It might have been a different story had a number of simple chances been held in the field (hands held up here, i dropped 4). As it was, a fantastic spell of middle over bowling from Wayne and Rich, which saw the flow of runs stifled and as a result wickets tumble at both ends resulted in Shrivenham setting us a target of 119 to win.
After a lovely tea had been demolished, mostly by Asif, Tofts and I made our way to the middle to try and find the runs to take us home. I was out in the 4th over, with the score on 26 and Toftsy yet to get off the mark, but that was what he needed to get going. He batted superbly, playing himself in nicely before picking and putting away the bad balls.
He had ample support from Gilly and Dirk, who had both been livewires in the field, before Asif came in to help see the side home. Toftsy finished on a fantastic 50no and his linchpin innings was something we hope to see more of all season.
All in all, it was a fantastic all round team performance. Everyone from Gus behind the stumps, to Burnsy and John’s new ball bowling, Rich and Wayne’s middle over pressure and Toftsy winning knock contributed. A 7 wicket win with 18 overs to spare was more than we could hope for in the first game of the season, but inspires confidence that it may be the first of many. Bring on Kilkenny next week!!
Ben
Friendly fixture: Cumnor vs. Wolvercote May 1st 2011
Under a cloudless sky, and refreshed by a gentle breeze, Wolvercote broke away in the final three overs of the game to win by a nose.
The home side won the toss and started briskly – hitting 10 off an uncharacteristically wayward first over from Wolvercote pace man Simon Burns. At the other end, the Mighty Quinn was faster to blow off the winter cobwebs, and had the home side’s numbers two and three caught behind in consecutive overs, before Burns sent down a snorter to Shorter at number four and Cumnor were 11 for 3. His pecker up, Burns took two further wickets to muzzle Cumnor’s big guns, and finished with figures of 3 for 29 off 5. Despite this decapitation, the West Oxford side were given a bit of a breather as their left-handed comically coiffed long-schnozed Cyrano (a Frenchman playing cricket – now I’ve seen it all!) blazed a face-saving half-century, including some daring dances down the wicket to Burnsie’s brief second spell.
Set an about par 187, the Wolvercote innings began well with some pugnacious back-foot drives from Matt Taylor en route to an impressive 65 – his maiden half-century for the club, and some familiar snouting about from Dave Gillham, before the latter was dismissed for 13 to an equally familiar slap to mid-on. Gus II bounded to the crease and hit one honking maximum, before succumbing to the inevitable rush of blood-to-newly-shaved-head and was stumped whilst charging in the direction of his native South Africa for 15.
Cumnor’s youthful bowling attack was nothing to be sneezed at and did not comprise the snotty-nosed kids of first appearance, and Wolvercote’s middle order folded like a moist Morris Dancer’s hanky: an unpleasant brace of ducks for Sennett and Lamerton was followed by 2 for Tristram, and a scrappy 11 for Campo as he was castled by a straight ‘un so slow that one would be forgiven for thinking one was watching a replay on Sky Plus. Crouch soon followed suit as his late cut was snaffled up by the diving keeper, leaving the visitors reeling at 138 for 8, the home side scenting victory, and the ever-calm Mr Quinn due in at number eleven sniffing the wind as nervous as bin Laden in Abottlabad.
Enter Mssrs. Burns and Gillham (snr). Batsmen of more contrasting styles it would be hard to conceive. The stoic septuagenarian progressed to 6, while the younger man smashed three sixes, and five fours in short order to reach 48 and tie the scores. What followed is the stuff of cricketing legend. The umpire, true to the spirit of third-rate amateur cricket, elected to let two blatant wides go unpunished in the first four balls of the 37th over in order to give Simon the chance to complete his half-century and win the game. However, the fifth long-hop elicited a mis-timed slog-sweep and sent the red leather crashing into the bridge of the unprotected Burns beak. Spectators could hear the simultaneous sounds of crunching bone and clenching cheeks as the man-of-the-match left the field with a broken nose, and Quinn strode nervously to the crease. A textbook forward defensive followed and it was left to Wolvercote’s most senior player to push the winning run off the first ball of the 38th over. What a hoot!
This week one of the most notorious men in the world was back in the eyes of the global media…some people thought that this bearded warrior was hiding in a cave and many had even forgotten about him (including Pakistani Intelligence)…..but Graham Atkinson is back!
Last Saturday, Wolvercote II’s welcomed Britwell Salome II’s to Cutteslowe Park in the Division 10 curtain raiser. Britwell Salome won the toss and put messrs Rawstorne (16) and Godsal (10) into bat. The pair put on a steady start, before Godsal was unfortunately run out by a great shy at the stumps. Despite some good starts from Amin (23) and Tipler (16), the team found itself languishing at 86-6 with 15 overs to go.
With the impetus with Britwell Salome, Graham ‘G-man’ Atkinson and Luke Murgatroyd came to the rescue with arguably the best partnership of the season so far and possibly outshone William and Kate as the pair that everyone was talking about. Atkinson (75*) and Murgatroyd (56*) changed the dynamics of the game and they played with great composure, whilst scoring runs at a steady pace. This 133 run partnership helped Wolvercote set a formidable 219-6 off 45 overs.
Britwell Salome replied slowly thanks to excellent bowling from Oliver (10-7-4-2) and Murgatroyd (8-1-37-1). Oliver gained two early wickets, but it was his ability to stop the run rate that was most impressive including 6 consecutive maidens. The bowling change of Beard (10-1-33-4), Dodd(10-1-52-0) and Quinn (1.4-0-8-2) expedited the fall of wickets as Britwell Salome were forced to chase the game. Notable mentions should go to Jo Godsal for calmness for his run out and Richard Oliver who took a superb one handed catch. Britwell Salome were all out for 148 and Wolvercote II’s won by 71 runs.
It was a fantastic result and it was great that so many people from the squad came to support! Overall, it was the perfect start to the season and will give us great confidence for the forthcoming season!
