This report comes from 3rd XI skipper, John Gray.
OCs won the toss and unsurprisingly batted on a lovely warm day at Aythorpe Roding’s picturesque ground, home of OCs 3rd XI
The innings started with Ekansh and James Brown opening the bowling which included the interesting contest of James Brown bowling to James Brown the OCs opening bat. It was Galleywood’s James Brown who struck first with an excellent slower ball removing T Bowerman. Ekansh quickly followed up bowling Boutilier for a duck. Opposition Captain M Bowerman and Brown batted aggressively and there were some near misses with half chances almost going to hand. 24/2 became 89/3 when Sam Wicks took a sharp catch to remove Brown off of Matt Howard’s bowling. OCs aggressive batting continued despite good bowling from all the Wood’s bowlers. Dan Howard rolled back the years to his Marconi days with an excellent diving catch to remove their James Brown off of George Thurnell’s leg spin. Charlie Davis produced a tidy spell on League debut before James Brown and Sam Wicks combined to remove 4 batters with the rare sight of Gray holding a catch too. (One for Coach Davies to note). This left OCs 167/8 however a 9th wicket unbeaten partnership took OCs to 197/8 from their 40 overs.
J Brown 4/37, E Boddu 1/24 G Thurnell 1/64, S Wicks 1/21 and M Howard 1/24 were the wicket takers.
J Brown 49 and M Bowerman 60no were the leading scorers for OCs.
The 3s struggled to get going and were pinned down by tight bowling and it soon became clear that we would not chase down the target. However battling knocks from M Howard 16 no and G Williams meant that Galleywood survived 40 overs reaching 52/7 at the close leaving OCs comfortable winners on the day.
Wicket takers for OCs were T Bowerman 1/2
Kiran 1/12, Shelley 1/11,Rakesh 2/8 and Rogers 1/8.
Whilst a heavy defeat I have to commend the spirit of the team with a very youthful bowling attack facing experienced adults and excellent fielding in the face of aggressive batting. All of us need to work on our batting skills. However, the youngsters will be fine cricketers if they continue to show this attitude to playing and in particular training.
Finally, for stats enthusiasts, we did have the sight of James Brown being caught by James Brown!