Division Nine
Tiddington 3 beat Thame Town 3 by 4 wickets
http://www.cherwellcricketleague.com/scorecard.php?Match_ID=6723
Match report
Home vs Thame 3’s
5th May 2018
With huge expectations the ‘Cocks’ started against local rivals and probable title contenders Thame 3’s. Expecting lots of hard graft needed to get Haseley ready the team arrived early to find very few rabbit holes. However the field of daises and dandelions hide quite a few-contractors decided to have a day off it would appear!
Neil did the best thing all day and won the toss and chose to bowl. On the back of a promise that this would be the best wicket to be played on at Haseley it soon become apparent that the typical slow and low would be maintained and with a long outfield scoring would be hard.
With a strong 2’s level pace attack, Ellie and Batsey were asked to open up. Bungalow struggled in his first spell and looked to be a direct replacement for Woody with a few no balls occurring. Unfortunately his best ball fell foul of this call after knocking over number 3’s stumps. Ellie was tighter and got the break through with a nick behind. Sharp piece of work stood up by the veteran and our esteemed leader. The proof-reader would also like to add that he should have had a second caught behind but for ‘go pro’ not hearing the noise. She soon followed this up by bowling the other opener.
This brought their only bat to the crease. The red goat, who had replaced Ellie after her spell, put the ball in good areas which resulted in the batsmen smashing it to fielders in the cover region for dots. After a word from ‘Big Dog’, the frustrated batsmen tried to smash Ali out of the park and only succeeded in nicking behind. Nathan B with quick reflexes, stretched, stuck out a paw and took a brilliant one handed grab. With Tidd in the ascendency, Pedro(7 overs, 4 runs) and Ali (7 overs, 13 runs and 1 wicket) bowled very well to an ever increasing defensive Thame. Cally came on but it was not a day for spinners which left us with an angry… sorry, ‘disappointed’ Cally for a few overs. He soon returned with his inspiring words and encouragement of others. Jamie and Ellie returned and piled on more pressure. Thame realising they needed to actually attempt scoring pushed harder which resulted in wickets flying regularly for the vastly improved second spell of Bates. At one point he was on a hat-trick but ended up with great figures of 12.3 overs, 5 wickets for 22 runs. Thame finished on 75ao.
Teas were kindly provided by the McCaig family and were a delight. Always onto a winner with watermelon on offer. Great variety of sandwiches tucked down with a strawberry and cream scone-delicious. Perhaps just as delightful was being asked at tea if we minded if the oppo keeper filmed using his go pro. Maybe he was hoping to improve his chat or ‘go pro’ with his keeping but that seems doubtful.
Our batting opened with the solid Nathan Dales and current 9th leading Cherwell league run scorer Rocket. On Ray’s best ever pitch, Rocket unfortunately misjudged the bounce at Haseley that never goes above knee height and was bowled by a double bounce bouncer for his first ball. Weeksy soon followed by nicking the dangerous McStay behind. The serious and determined Dales and I batted us back into contention with a partnership of 56. Luckily McStay decided to injure himself. Dales fell short of seeing us home having been caught by a decent catch at cover. What happened next was the classic Tidd collapse. Big Dog played a typical innings-nice four and then sky one up. I followed in a similar way with the required runs being less than 10. Pedro came in and was bowled adding a small amount towards the victory. Worry began to emerge with Bates striding to the wicket but fears dissipated with Ali hitting the winning runs. Solid win by Tidd though we gave a few needless bonus points at the end to Thame. First win under our belts and we go again at Haseley again vs Cumnor 3s, next week.
