Abingdon Vales’ second ground had been turned into a caravan park for August, so our fixture was played at Warborough and Shillingford. The ground is set on a lovely village green, with no covers it always make for interesting battle between bat and ball.
Abingdon were struggling to get a team together due to the holiday season being in full swing so only had 9 players. We won the toss and elected to field.
With our 2 specialist opening bowlers being unavailable (Mexico and shoulder injury) we opened with a new attack, Sam Collins and after a lot of discussion with Tom, Nick and Harry, Harry Gillam opened at the other end. Both bowled very well and after 9 overs Abingdon were 12-2.
The run rate crawled along with a mixture of good bowling and cautious batting, we missed a few catches early on. Tom Ling bowled for the first time this season after being released from wicket keeping duties for the day, Tom was unlucky not to take a wicket, which he attributed to having to bowl at the left hander all the time! Others bowlers contributing included Callum Place, Alex Bellenie, Karum Sangha with 2 wickets and Ed Wildman with his first league wicket!
Sam and Harry returned to the attack and polished off things with another wicket each. Abingdon finishing on 133 in the 44th over.
With a modest total to chase Tom Ling and Nick Angus opened. They batted very well Tom scoring 39 before being caught, Nick batted through the innings scoring 65 not out and William Selby Downs chipped in at the end with his first runs for the 3’s 4 not out.