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That any play was possible, given the wet weather of the week before, was a testament to the grounds man, Colin Gould, and the porous nature of the underlying sandy soil. This was one of the youngest OW Cricket sides assembled in recent years and thanks go to Adam Judd for organising the team and it was pity that exams at Loughborough prevented him from playing.
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The school won the toss and elected to field and this turned out to be a pivotal decision. It soon became obvious that batsmen were going to find it hard to score runs and the damp pitch meant that the ball did not come through with any pace and tended to keep low. The school’s opening attack of Storm Lindenberg and Alex Orme pinned the OW batsmen down and in the third over David Wright played a strong off drive, which was brilliantly caught by Tyler Lock, who dived to his left and was at full stretch to make the catch. Captain Ben Copeman managed another 6 overs before he was bowled by Storm. So the OW’s were struggling at 12 for 2.
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Wickets continued to fall, especially when the school brought their spin bowers into the attack. Kavi Patel’s off spin was very effective and he ended up with 5 wickets for 20 runs, his best performance of the season. Left arm spinner, Ben Evans bowled well at the other end and he achieved 2 wickets for 11 runs. Only Andy Phillips and Alex Dickenson managed double figures and both were caught in the deep as they tried to up the tempo and the run rate.
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The school bowled and fielded exceptionally well and the total of 55 always looked too low, even given the difficult conditions. However whilst the OW batting was decidedly rusty this was not the case with their bowling and fielding. Early encouragement was gained when Alex Dickenson’s first ball swung in and took middle and off and Kavi had an early walk back to the pavilion. Kyle came to the crease and immediately played an impressive cover drive for four. Matthew didn’t last long before he was adjudged L.B.W. off the accurate bowling of Johnnie Silver. Skipper Will Taylor steadied the team and he patiently built an innings that turned out to be decisive. His stroke play on the off side was impressive and he accumulated 22 runs before pulling to mid wicket where he was caught by Mike Chevalier. Wickets continued to fall but despite this the school slowly but surely approached the target and a four by Tarun Nethula completed the victory for the school.
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As play had finished much earlier than expected both sides agreed to another match of 20 overs per side and this proved to be a much closer and more exciting game. The school batted first and reached 97 runs all out. Kavi Patel and Will Taylor were the pick of the batsmen with 27 and 26 runs respectively. George Tarrant managed five wickets, including a hat trick and Bradley Cooper also got three wickets.
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Tim Copeman and Andy Phillips started the innings well and were ahead of the run rate of about 5 runs per over. Only some sharp fielding by Nathan Hicks broke up this partnership when Tim was run out having scored 26 runs. Andy Phillips scored 31 runs before being caught and bowled. Things were still going the OW’s way and some good batting by Ben Copeman kept them on target. By the final over 6 runs were needed to win but some tight bowling and two runs outs meant that the school won by one run.
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Thanks go to Mr Todd, Mr Marr and Mr Phillips for umpiring.
The teams were:
OW’s:
Michael Chevalier, Ben Copeman, Tim Copeman, Bradley Cooper, Alex Dickenson, Andy Phillips, Gwyn Phillips, Johnny Silver, George Tarrant, Andrew Wheeldon and David Wright.
School:
Ben Evans, Nathan Hicks, Storm Lindenberg, Tyler Lock, Alex Orme Kavi Patel, William Taylor, Taren, Matthew Vowles, Kyle Vosper and Henry Young
