Wolvercote v Chalgrove, 21 May 2011

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.

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