We arrived at Old Owens in our usual dilatory fashion for our game against the intriguing named ‘Jack of Diamonds’. For a change, terrible weather during the week was followed up by a perfect summers day, nice to have a reversal of sods law for a change.

With Alex and Rich Hillman unavailable, the poisoned chalice of OCCC captaincy passed to your reporter. I lost the toss and we were asked to bat in a 40 over a side game. Mike Knight and I opened the batting, and started cautiously against some tight bowling. Some aggressive running kept the scoreboard ticking, and we put on 25 in 6 overs before Mike was well taken at point for 12. Bruce joined me, and the score moved on at a decent rate as I played some lofted cover drives, and Bruce gave his pads their usual thorough workout. The 50 came up in 11 overs, but we then had a couple of tight overs as the Oppo’s first change bowlers bowled accurately to slow the scoring. I felt in good touch as I moved on to 28, but then decided to commit my usual form of hara-kiri, calling Bruce for a non existent 2nd, and being run out by a good piece of fielding. I do have a reputation to maintain, and so sadly I must periodically involve myself in these mishaps, but at least I was the victim on this occasion. We were 59-2 in the 15th over, and Rohan Francis joined Bruce and they consolidated against some tight bowling. The Oppo skipper bowled a very tight spell of 8 overs for 12 runs during which he gave nothing away, and Bruce was somewhat becalmed. Rohan played some fine late cuts and drives to keep the scoreboard moving, but our progression was slower than we would have liked as we moved to 74-2 off 20, 86-2 off 25 and then 98-2 off 29 overs. Bruce and Rohan then stepped up the scoring at just the right time, and we picked up 29 in 2 big overs that were just the tonic that was needed. Bruce broke his shackles with a magnificent lofted on drive for 6, while Rohan pulled a beamer to the boundary, and the Oppo felt the pressure as the extras mounted. Rohan was stumped after a well made 33, and sadly Steve Ringer had a wild swing at his first ball and was bowled o reduce us to 127-4 in the 32nd over. Jo Spencer joined Bruce, and they kept up the momentum, Jo scoring with his usual deflections, while Bruce played some fine shots. Bruce was bowled for 38, and Jo was then caught behind off a leading edge for 10, but the scored had moved on nicely to 154-6 off 35 overs. Jacob Holden then held together the end of our innings with a good cameo of 17 not out, with some good support from Olly Sohan and Iffy Islam. Junky played a cultured leg glance for 2 and was bowled by the final ball of the innings as we closed on 183 all out. It was a decent batting performance, as we made up for some slow scoring during the middle by taking full toll at the end, scoring 85 off the last 11 overs.

After reading about last week’s excellent tea, Junky had been starving himself all week, and had even brought an oversized lunchbox to scoop up some leftovers. Sadly he had to make do with 3 large helpings, as the tea was polished off and the leftovers did not materialise, the opposition having too many healthy appetites for Junky’s liking.

Jacob Holden and Mike Knight opened the bowling, and Jacob was rather too quick for the opposition batsmen and had them hopping about. He yorked one of the openers for a duck, and was unlucky not to claim more wickets with several good yorkers. Mike Knight bowled tidily at the other end, and the oppo laboured to 4-1 off 5 overs. A couple of swings to leg by a left handed number 3 got a few runs on the board, but Mike then made good use of a cross breeze as a late inswinger clean bowled the other opener for 8. Jacob completed a fine 6 over spell with miserly figures of 1-4, while Mike claimed 1-16 off his 6 overs, before I brought on James and Junky as first change. Runs continued to be hard to come by, and the pressure eventually told as Junky bowled the left hander around his legs, and after 15 overs the oppo had only reached 31-3. A flurry of wickets then ensued as the oppo’s middle order proved to be even more fragile than our own! Junky bowled another batsmen, and James then claimed 2 wickets courtesy of catches by Olly Sohan and your reporter. James bowled another batsman to claim his 3rd wicket and reduce the score to 33-7 off 20 overs. James and Junky kindly offered to come off after their 4 overs each had produced figures of 3-6 and 2-5 respectively, so Olly Sohan and Iffy Islam came on to bowl. Iffy elected to bowl without his cap on this occasion, and was elated to pick up his 2nd wicket for the club when Mike Knight moved nicely forward to take a catch at cover. He claimed a 2nd wicket in the same over courtesy of a legside stumping by Jo Spencer reminiscent of his glory days (whenever they were!). Olly Sohan was rewarded for a couple of accurate overs with his first wicket for the club, as he wrapped up the innings by bowling the last man. Poor Jack of Diamonds had subsided to 40 all out after 23 overs, and we felt sorry for them after their keen display in the field. A good all-round performance by us though, to which everyone contributed.

Man of the match goes to Jacob for knocking the stuffing out of the oppo’s batting at the start of their innings, and none of us are looking forward to facing him in the school game later on in the season.

OCCC 183 all out, 40 overs (Todd 38, Francis 33, A Saldanha 28, Holden 17*)

Jack of Diamonds 40 all out, 23 overs (Gleadow 3-6 (4 overs), Shannon 2-5 (4 overs), Islam 2-4, Holden 1-4 (6 overs), Sohan 1-1, Knight 1-16 (6 overs))

Result: OCCC won by 143 runs

Man of the Match: Jacob Holden

Allan Saldanha