Match report – Wolvercote Is away to Garsington 22 May 2011

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 30^th 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.

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