1st XI Match Summary
The 1’s won the toss and asked Hanborough to bat on a drying Cutteslowe wicket. Tight bowling from everyone, including 5 for 28 from Barkat, restricted Hanborough to 139 in 46.5 overs. There were three catches in the slip cordon by Amit’s new catching hat, which empowered both Amit and Chris to hold on to sharp chances. Highlight of the fielding was a comedy stumping by Gus: a sharply bouncing ball from Chris Lynch beat both bat and keeper’s gloves and lodged in Gus’s armpit. The batsman assumed the ball had beaten everyone, walked out of his ground to survey the chance for a speculative bye and was 5 yards out of his crease when Gus finally recovered the ball, he and the batsman locked gaze for a delicious moment before Gussy cheerfully whipped off the bails! The Wolvercote reply was over before it started as the Wolves collapsed to 27 for 6 by the 19th over and then 34 for 8 by the 26th over. However, this brought Shelly and Babbs together at the wicket and they ground out the next 25 overs before Babbs fell LBW for 10. Barkat came in at 11 and every ball heroically survived was cheered from the boundary as the 1’s clung on the full 53 overs to save the game.
2nd XI Match Summary
The 2nd XI had a very similar game to the 1’s at Broughton and North Newington. Batting first the 2’s made 141 thanks to 48 from Mark and 36 from Divjot. The home side gave up the chase early on and cussedly batted out their 45 overs ending up on 106 with 2 wickets in hand to deny the 2’s a deserved victory.
3rd XI Match Summary
Batting first at Freeland, the 3’s were going well at 90 for 3 largely thanks to the good offices of Daniel (31) and Deepak (23) and Toby (21) before collapsing to 117 all out. Freeland made short work of the total, winning in 26.3 overs for the loss of 3 wickets, all of which were taken by Ayyaz (3 for 34)