(Report from Tom Welch)
It was really a fantastic cricket week and thanks to everyone who played and volunteered to play and helped with all the other aspects of what goes on in making this week a special week. The weather was more than kind to us and we managed to get all 5 games in in full and mostly in brilliant temperatures and sunshine. The matches were all played in great spirit and were all very competitive. Importantly we put on a very good day every day for our opposition.
Hugo, captain of the Gaeities, spoke very eloquently on Thursday lunchtime about his memories of cricket week over his years of coming to Oxford Downs. It made me think that that is the reason why we are doing it each year. We are creating great memories that will live on and that makes ODCC a special club. As Paddy said in his closing speech it felt like a real club effort this year. Lots of people coming together to make it happen.
The lunches and teas were fantastic and commented on all week. The speeches at lunch time and the port was great. The umpires were brilliant. The ground looked fantastic. The scorebook scoring was wonderful. Maggot’s hot tub was a thing to behold. The Thursday night indoor one day international was well fought. Tony Lurcock nearly batting out the final over against the Gypsies was pure entertainment. Frankie was 232 not out in the two games he played – awesome. Maggot sleeping at the club all week was proper leading by example. James France saying to Maggot as they are both 50+ not out at lunch time and just about to go back into bat after a lunchtime pint and port, “Come on Maggot, you and me, both get 100s, come on we can do it. I do feel a bit pissed though.” – classic.
I’m not sure how good stats are at telling the story of matches, but anyway here are some stats for the week along with the individual game stats below. Some of the games don’t look that close on paper, but all of the last 4 games could have gone either way at various different points in the matches. For example when the Gaieties were 132 without loss after just 20 overs our declaration of 280 (giving them 50 overs to get it) was looking perilous.
This cricket week:
A total of 5 matches were played
2195 runs were scored
445 overs were bowled
67 wickets were taken
A total of 32 ODCC players played.
The match with the highest number of runs was the Free Foresters game with a total of 523.
The match with the highest number of wickets was the Gloucester Gypsies games with 15.
The most appearances were as follows:
| Will Watts | 5 |
| Jonny Meardon | 4 |
| Jonny Law | 3 |
| Scott Akers | 3 |
The highest run scorers were:
| Frankie Crouch | 232 |
| Will Watts | 167 |
| Amin Rafiq | 138 |
| James France | 114 |
| Henry Sensecall | 89 |
The most overs bowled were
| Jonny Law | 39 |
| Jonny Meardon | 38 |
| Jak Soppett | 31 |
| Steve Roberts | 23 |
| Gus watts | 19 |
The leading wicket takers were:
| Jonny Meardon | 13 |
| Jak Soppett | 8 |
| Jonny Law | 5 |
| James Connolly | 4 |
The individual match stats were as follows:
Monday 28th July – Queries bat first
| Runs | Wickets | Overs | Result | |
| Queries | 190 | 10 | 57 | |
| ODCC | 192 | 2 | 37 | Downs win by 8 wickets |
Notable batting: Frankie Crouch 117 not out
Notable bowling: Jonny Meardon 3 for 38 from 12 overs
Tuesday 29th July – Free Foresters bat first
| Runs | Wickets | Overs | Result | |
| Free Foresters | 265 | 7 | 45 | |
| ODCC | 258 | 7 | 49 | Draw |
Notable batting: Frankie Crouch 115 not out, Henry Sensecall 64
Notable bowling: Jonny Law 3 for 78 from 18 overs
Wednesday 30th July – Gloucester Gypsies bat first
| Runs | Wickets | Overs | Result | |
| Gloucester Gypsies | 265 | 5 | 44 | |
| ODCC | 248 | 10 | 51 | Gypsies win by 17 runs |
Notable batting: Amin Rafiq 138, Alex Ling 54
Notable bowling: Tony Lurcock 2 for 31 from 3 overs
Thursday 31st July – ODCC bat first
| Runs | Wickets | Overs | Result | |
| ODCC | 280 | 2 | 44 | |
| Gaeities | 209 | 10 | 45 | Downs win by 71 runs |
Notable batting: Will Watts 119, James France 101
Notable bowling: Jak Soppet 5 for 42 from 14 overs, James Connolly 3 for 5 from 6 overs, Jonny Law 2 for 42 from 12
Friday 1st August – SOA bat first
| Runs | Wickets | Overs | Result | |
| SOA | 143 | 10 | 44 | |
| ODCC | 145 | 4 | 29 | Downs win by 6 wickets |
Notable batting: Tom Welch 58 not out
Notable bowling: Jonny Meardon 7 for 36 from 12 overs, Jak Soppet 3 for 45 from 17
Thanks to everyone again and let’s hope we can do it all again next year.