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.
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!
The twos team for this Saturday against Risinghurst II’s is;
Andrew Dodd
Andrew Johnson
Simon Arnold
Daniel Crouch
Jo Godsal
Marc Lewis
Phil Tristram
Rob Coles
David Quinn
Carl Chambers
Angus Gardiner-Morrison.
This is an away fixture at Risinghurst, OX3 8HZ. Grovelands Rd, Risinghurst.
Match fees are £10. Please be at the ground for 1.15pm.
If you need transport, please get in touch.
Saturday, 10th July. Away v Britwell Salome II. Please be at the ground for 1.15pm. Match fees £10.
David Quinn (Capt and Wk)
Marc Lewis
Dan Rawstorne
Rich Oliver
Luke Murgatroyd
Daniel Crouch
Jo Godsal
Andrew Pogorzelski
Darren Campbell
Andrew Dodd
Wayne Thomas
Team to play Oxenford II in the semi-final of the Centenary Cup. At home. Please be at Cutteslowe Park for 1.15pm. Match fees, £10.
David Quinn (Capt and Wk)
Marc Lewis
Joe Winkley
Rich Oliver
Wayne Thomas
Andrew Dodd
Graham Atkinson
Craig Houlistan
Simon Arnold
Paul Taylor
Carl Tipler.
Hi.
Below is the 2nd XI team for this Saturday against Britwell Salome II, at home. Please be at the ground, Cutteslowe Park, for 1.15pm. Match fees £10. £15 for Graham!
David Quinn (Capt and Wk)
Andrew Dodd
Carl Tipler
Craig Houlistan
Graham Atkinson
Luke Murgatroyd
Marc Lewis
Paul Taylor
Simon Arnold
Wayne Thomas
Angus Gardiner-Morrison
Please be at the ground for 1.15pm. Any transportation issues, let me know. Match fees £10.
1. Marc Lewis
2. Daniel Rawstorne
3. Joe Winkley
4. Jo Godsal
5. Paul Taylor
6. Simon Arnold
7. Graham Atkinson
8. Wayne Thomas
9. Andrew Dodd
10. David Quinn (Capt and Wk)
11. Mark Stephenson.
Wolvercote II vs Hanney II – 19 June 2010-06-20
On what was by and large an overcast day Wolvercote batted first in a very competitive and entertaining match. They got off to an extremely solid start with Lewis (53) and Rawstorne (26) batting for the first twenty overs before Rawstorne was run out in what looked to the Wolvercote players on the side to be an incorrect decision. It was to be the only decision made by the umpires all day long other than Houliston’s lbw. Lewis had many lives during his innings being dropped several times by Hanney’s fielders but made the most of it with an extremely well constructed innings which included a hooked “six”. Rawstorne produced a similarly well constructed innings which had as its highlight a massive six which cleared the boundary by a fair distance with Rawstorne having come down the wicket to the bowler.
With Rawstorne unfortunately out, Arnold came to the crease and was unfortunate to be bowled first ball by Hanney’s prolific spinner, Hellon (28-4). Taylor (23) was brought to the crease and got proceedings under way with a four off his first ball. Taylor hit Hanney’s bowlers consistently and mercilessly to score his runs very quickly before being bowled by a full delivery. This brought Atkinson (10) to the crease. Atkinson started where Taylor had left off striking a few decent blows but then Lewis and Atkinson were out in successive balls, both giving easy catches away when trying to punish the bowling.
This brought Coles (25) and Houliston (6) to the crease. The combination looked promising with Houliston playing an excellent shot of his pads for six. Unfortunately it was to be his only runs of the game with an lbw following shortly afterwards whilst trying to recreate his earlier six. Tristram (6) joined Coles at the crease and a period of consolidation followed before Coles decided to get into the bowling as Wolvercote approached the 40 over mark. Coles hit a fantastic six over mid-wicket as part of an excellent innings before he finally fell. This brought Quinn to the crease and soon Tristram was out as he began to hit out bringing Thomas to the wicket. Quinn and Thomas set about the opposition bowling with some success and added a much needed boost to Wolvercote’s score bringing it to 181. Thomas was extremely fortunate when he was caught extremely well on the boundary by one of Hanney’s rare good pieces of fielding only for the fielder to roll onto the boundary as he hit the ground. Arnold left the player and umpires in no doubt that the player had touched the boundary and it was in fact a 6 for Thomas.
Hanney, who looked a significantly changed side from the team that Wolvercote bowled out for 35 on the same pitch last year, started solidly and Thomas (1) and Dodd (1-24) bowled well but were unable to take more than one wicket each with a couple of chances going down for Wolvercote. The edge was found, or beaten, on numerous occasions without the ball finding a man and the bowlers were particularly unlucky during what were economical spells. For the third wicket there was a partnership which lasted for a considerable amount of time and gave Hanney a platform to attack Wolvercote’s total. In what was almost a match winning performance, Simon Giles hit 48 for Hanney with some powerful hitting along the ground before Arnold (2) took his wicket with the ball of the day after having given the batsman a bit of chat in response to the length of time he was taking to ready himself at the wicket. A torrent of wickets did not follow but they were steadily taken with Coles (4-50) taking 4. One of the wickets to fall from Coles’ bowling was a strongly hit shot which was smartly taken by Houliston at mid-wicket and another was a similarly well taken catch by Rawstorne fielding at point. The fielding by Wolvercote was by and large excellent all day with Rawstorne being particularly successful at restricting the runs whilst fielding at mid-off where he was kept busy.
Hanney kept ticking towards the final target and in the last three overs they needed 22 runs to win off 21 balls. Taylor (1-7) was brought into the attack and uncharacteristically missed consecutive caught and bowled opportunities but he did get his man with Thomas taking the catch and did an excellent job of keeping the run rate down.
Arnold stepped up for the final over with 8 runs needed for victory and 1 wicket remaining. Arnold’s first ball was excellent and produced a dot with the batsman unable to connect. Off the second ball they scored two leaving 6 needed off three. The entire field and the batsmen were feeling the pressure at this stage. The batsman responded with a big hit to mid-on. With Atkinson fielding in this position the result was never in doubt and sprinting in from the boundary he made good ground to take a stunning catch only a couple of centimetres above the ground with a full length dive forwards. The ball worryingly managed to squirm out of Atkinson’s hands as he hit the ground but with a claw like action he plucked it from the air before it could hit the ground and thus the match was won for Wolvercote.
A special mention has to go to Rawstorne for what are the loudest and longest appeals which anyone on the team had ever heard before. With that sort of conviction it is amazing that the umpires were unmoved, even when Rawstorne was appealing from point.
Unfortunately the writer does not have the scorebook and at the time of writing the OCA’s website has not allowed him to access the match report and no liability for any inaccuracies in this report is accepted.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” was infamously penned by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities and can be loosely depicted as a metaphor to summarise Wolvercote II’s performance in our first defeat of the season to Ducklington II. Like Dickens, we had Great Expectations coming into the game; after a strong start to the season, thus far. However, unlike Dickens, we didn’t have our Oliver Twist – who was busy scoring a 50 for the firsts.
Having won the toss, Ducklington II decided to bat on this hot and humid afternoon. Wolvercote II opened with our two bowlers from the Southern Hemisphere: Andrew Dodd (12.0-1-50-2) and Luke Murgatroyd (9.0-0-32-1). Despite the sweltering heat, both Doddy and Luke ran in hard and bowled good line and length. Ducklington II’s opening pair meandered along before Doddy struck the opening blow with Marc Lewis taking a composed catch at silly mid off. Luke, in particular, was getting great bounce on this wicket – though after we batted on this wicket, it was safe to say that the unpredictable pitch had a part to play! The Ducklington pitch had more bounce than Cheryl Cole’s hair in the L’Oreal Elvive adverts! Nonetheless, the Ducklington II pair of Fullerton (54) and Gee (32) put together a fine middle order innings that included some exquisite strokes. This brought a change of bowling with Simon Arnold (7.0-0-29-3) coming in with his left arm medium pace. Arnie was unlucky not to get one of their main protagonists caught behind but was denied by some scrooge-like umpiring. After Doddy finished his allocated 12 overs, Craig Houliston (3.5-0-19-4) came on to bowl his occasional off breaks. It proved to be a good decision to take the pace of the ball as Houlalitheran got the wicket of Gee with his first ball, thanks to a fine catch at mid wicket from Luke. Craig then got a caught behind with his following ball and ended his first over with a caught and bowled. This over seemed to restore confidence in the team and Arnie was rewarded for his good bowling by taking the prize wicket of Fullerton. Arnie, ever the showman, even did a bit of juggling before grasping the catch. The unpredictability of the pitch was showcased by a ball by Arnie that was gloved behind but due to the trajectory of the ball hit Dave Quinn on the forehead. This left Quinny with a nasty bump on his head; I’m not sure who looked more perplexed Quinny dazed on the floor or Arnie at the bowler’s end! Nonetheless, Arnie and Craig wrapped up the tail, with Ducklington II making 153 off 31 overs.
Wolvercote II opened with the ever dependable Marc Lewis (15) and the ever thirsty Luke Murgatroyd (21). Both batsmen played very steadily till the delayed tea break and had built a solid foundation for the run chase. After tea, Ducklington II decided to take the pace off the ball and expose the erratic bounce of the pitch. Marc’s confidence grew and went down the wicket to their left arm spinner, however was stumped. Next in was Paul Taylor. Quinny understandably wanted us to bat more like Marc; however Paul took this too literally and got stumped first ball. In defence of Paul, this was merely the start of a fine bowling display from Simms (12-6-18-4). This brought in Simon Arnold (20), who built on his good innings in the friendly vs Oxford Rescue, to play solidly but also keep the runs ticking. Unfortunately, yet again, our middle order collapsed quicker than Rio Ferdinand chasing Emile Heskey. In fact, our middle order scores of messrs Tipler, Sherrott and Houliston probably mirror Emile Heskey’s goal-scoring record over the last 3 years! Nonetheless, there were solid efforts from Phil Tristram (12*), Struan Robertson (11), Dave Quinn (19) and Andrew Dodd (12). Whether it was the blow to the temple or confidence after his previous batting exploits, Quinny came to the wicket without his bat! After regaining his bearings/looking at the scoreboard, Quinny decided that a bat would be needed for the job. Alas, despite a good finish, we were always finding it hard to chase the total and eventually we were bowled out for 122. Despite the loss, I am sure that we will learn from this experience and come back stronger.
Craig Houliston
Team for Saturday, 5th June. Away to Ducklington. Please be at the ground for 1.15pm. Match fees, £10.
David Quinn (Capt and Wk)
Marc Lewis
Simon Arnold
Paul Taylor
Carl Tipler
Rob Sherrott
Luke Murgatroyd
Craig Houlistan
Phil Tristram
Richard Oliver
Andrew Dodd.
The match almost did not go ahead due to the atrocious weather conditions but fortunately the umpires decided the match could proceed after a 2 o’clock pitch inspection. The game began at 2:30 with the number of overs reduced to 38.
Wolvercote won the toss and decided to take advantage of the conditions by putting Westcott into bat. There was a worrying start to the innings as Westcott had an individual of the name of Holland in their team who set about Wolvercote’s bowlers in devastating fashion scoring 28 of only a few overs. Fortunately for Wolvercote just as it looked as though this batsman could take the game away from them, he struck a drive with ferocious power straight to Atkinson who was fielding at the edge of the circle as mid-off. It just carried to Atkinson who whilst unable to hold onto it with his hands was fortunate to secure the ball against his stomach using both his elbows.
After this, Wolvercote’s bowlers set about their task and regularly removed the Westcott batsman without allowing any to build a partnership until the very end when Westcott’s aged keeper put on a surprising display of resilience with Walker who batted very well for the home side. Oliver was again prolific, taking an economical fivefer (12.0–4-30-5). Thomas also put in an excellent performance which, had it not been for an unfortunate drop (caused by a loss of footing by Amin as a result of the dreadful conditions) where Amin appeared to have the ball in his hands at least three times before it fell to the ground, would have had four wickets. Thomas (12-6-32-3) was unlucky to take only 3 wickets in what would have been an extremely economic spell had it not been for the big-hitting Holland. Murgatroyd wrapped up Wescott’s innings by taking the troublesome Walker’s wicket.
Wolvercote’s innings got off to a disastrous start despite some early promise with a cracking cut for four from Lewis when Winkley ran Lewis out when it seemed to those on the sidelines that neither batsman had made a clear call. Disaster struck a second time shortly afterwards with Winkley the man dismissed when Amin took a quick single. The team feared a re-run of the poor batting display in the previous match and other than for Taylor’s customary quick fire innings (23) this was the case with only Atkinson and Oliver managing to make double figures other than Taylor.
The wickets continued falling throughout the innings but during that time Wolvercote did manage to put on runs, albeit rather slowly. When the ninth wicket fell, Quinn was brought to the crease to join Thomas with 9 runs remaining. A further single from Thomas and two sweep shots from Quinn that reached the boundary were enough to see them through although it could have been very different because in the penultimate over Westcott’s big hitter, Holland, dropped what can only be described as a dolly whilst fielding at point. Houlistan has pointed out that he did not score three runs as per the online report, he actually scored 4 and his belief is that his missing single has mistakenly been attributed to Atkinson.
Next up in the cup for the II’s will be the winner of the postponed match between Faringdon II and East Oxford IIIs. The game will be at home on the 20th of June. For the sake of the nerves of the players of Wolvercote we hope it will not go down to the final wicket again!
