Cambridge University Library at Clare College ground, Cambridge. Two twenty over innings each.
Way, way (way) back in 1994, before T20, the IPL, switch hits, scoops, and (cripes) before Jofra Archer was born, eleven men of Oxford went to Cambridge to play a game of cricket against their counterparts at that fine city's University Library. The result is not important, nor is the result of the rematch in 1995, but the games lived long in the memory and gave rise to the Bodleian Cricket Club as it exists today, as it plays past its quarter century. To mark the occasion and celebrate the progress made by the club a third fixture was organised, again in Cambridge, against a team from the CUL. Sadly the CUL team is no more, but thanks to fantastic organising and the enthusiasm of the Cambridge staff a new team was assembled and a ground booked. Bodley, struggling with late season injuries and impacted by this being holiday silly season, were only eight, but were bolstered by former regular but now fen-dwelling Rob Triggs donning his wool cap again for Bodley to make us a competitive nine. All-time top scorer and this year acting as batting consultant Mike Webb joined the party and we duly arrived at the ground - an expansive and lush beauty - in pouring rain and under leaden skies. Thankfully, this soon cleared and the sun shone brightly, and the ground dried, and the birds sang, and play was set for 1pm as planned. A competitive format of two twenty over innings each, played apart like a mini test match, was agreed, with the team behind on first innings score having the option of innings order for the second half. Got that? Good. Skippers Gareth Jones (for Bodley) and Simon Halliday (for CUL) walked out for the toss and with Jones calling incorrectly, Bodley were invited to bat first. With a good number of spectators having turned out for the home team, and the weather now set fair, play began. Having no idea whatsoever how competitive they'd be, or indeed, we'd be, a mixed batting order was drawn up by the skipper. Regular top-order ball clubber Matthew Neely opened the batting with regular number 11 ball dodger Stuart Ackland, and we sat back to enjoy the show, Neely was sadly soon out, bringing Bodley original Andrew Milner to the crease to join his old pal and cricketing hall-of-famer at the crease. With a limit of three overs per bowler the bowling was rotated and the score steadily built, these two playing sensibly, if somewhat animatedly. Stu, who many had expected to burn brightly but briefly, was displaying Steve Smith-esque sticking power, whilst Andrew rolled back the years to play some lovely drives and cuts. Out for 10 to the CUL skipper, Andrew's departure brought another stalwart to the crease, as Gav Robinson joined the romping Stu. Gav fell shortly after, then the skipper came and went down swinging, before finally, after nearly an hour of play, with 18 to his name including two fours (on a deceptively massive outfield) Stu was bowled as his technique allowed one to just sneak through. Tremendous innings Stu, well played! Even more so as it was achieved with a bat older than the club that has spent most of its life on a pub wall. Bodley's answer to Adam Gilchrist, Tim Philipson, was joined by Rob Triggs, briefly playing some thoroughly entertaining switch hits... and after Tim was replaced by David Busby, the fourth member of the fearsome foursome finished the innings off with some terrific running and Lara-like swishing. Bodley finished up on 87-6, with a great deal of those being wides, unfortunately. It was a good pitch, perhaps slightly low after the morning rain, but certainly consistent and with no demons to speak of - we'd soon see if our first innings was competitive! Gav and Stu opened up for Bod with the ball, and Stu was soon putting in a bid for player of the match with a wicket maiden in his first, and another wicket in his second. That second wicket was however entirely down to a stunning catch at slip by Andrew Milner, taking the ball around his ankles as it fizzed off the outside edge. 4-2 and Cambridge were wobbling. But bang on cue, the CUL number three began a fightback, and with good running from the the next few batters, steadily built a score. With wickets for Neely - at one stage on a hat-trick after some full straight bowling off his long run - one each for Milner and Jones, and three for a tearaway, unplayable Philipson, the final total was 50-8. Rob did some sterling work behind the stumps to limit the wides, and the two sides retired for a sumptuous tea in the pavilion. CUL skipper Simon accepted the offer of following on to build a total, and all tucked in - though not quite as much as they'd have liked to, on Bodley's part, as they had to field again (sorry chaps!). Tea was simply marvellous with a mind-blowing array of cakes and biscuits on offer along with sandwiches, munchies, and a beautiful courgette filo tart. Seconds, thirds, and in some cases fourths were had, and after a good bit of socialising between the sides and attendant sports fans, Cambridge set out to bat again. The CUL skipper strode out with their first innings top scorer to give a good start, and smashed a four first ball of the innings. Looking good, the wicket was taken by Gavin later that same over though, bringing Cambridge's seasoned regular Sally to the crease. The score steadily built as the two batters righted the ship and played some stout defensive shots. Robinson and Philipson bowled out and the skipper bought himself on in tandem with fellow satellite-launcher David Busby. In the tenth over Jones deceived the batter with an even slower one, and CUP were 32-2. With Sally playing well at the other end a partnership soon built and CUP accumulated as Milner, Ackland, and Neely all turned their arm over, Triggs again doing sterling work behind the stumps and Mackinnon reminding us all what a cover fielder can do with quick reflexes and good humour. Boundaries were very difficult to come by, largely down to the enormous outfield, but the pitch was keeping a little low too, with Bodley bowling a full length throughout. No more wickets fell, a few catches were narrowly missed, and the hosts ended up on a hard fought 76-2 from their second innings, which along with 50 all out in the first innings gave a total of 126. So 40 to win for Bodley, and twenty overs to get it. Bodley's evergreen number six and chief six-hitter Tim Philipson suggested an opening partnership of himself and the skipper. and with Neely, Busby, then Robinson to come in after, the order certainly looked entertaining. Both openers hit boundaries early and the score fairly motored along, Jones falling after getting in a muddle to a left-armer, then Tim going down swinging to the same bowler. Neely and Busby entertained the crowds to give a well-fought match a suitable conclusion, Dave's running being another highlight and a mark of his immense fitness. With the scores level in the tenth, Neely knocked the single needed to win in the eleventh, and after twenty five years, Bodley had finally beaten Cambridge at something other than messing around in boats. Player of the match was generally agreed to be Bodley founder member and fan favourite Stu Ackland - top scorer with 18 in the first innings (with a plank of varnished railway sleeper, essentially), and miserly figures of 6-1-15-2. Well played Stu, you'll be at number ten next match! The whole team would also like to pay particular thanks to Andrew Milner and Stu for still turning out after all these years of playing, organising, and captaining, and by doing so keeping our fine, glorious cricket club-cum-adult creche in business for all these years, to the enjoyment of all involved. Thank you chaps, and thank you everyone that plays and helps in any way. Let's make it a half century. Whilst Blues were not being handed out for this contest (have a word, someone), it had been a wonderful day of friendly, and at times fierce (Andrew!) rivalry, with all involved enjoying themselves under thankfully blue skies in a lovely setting. Photos were taken, what remained of the tea was scoffed down, and a return fixture in Oxford was provisionally agreed for next year. We very much look forward to the rematch with our new friends in 2020, and hope this will become an annual event. Thank you from all at Bodley to all at the CUL for hosting us so generously, and making it a day to remember for another 25 years. GJ
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Hendricks XI CC at Stanton St John Cricket Club ground. Thirty five overs.
Bodley's latest game in their 25th year is against Hendricks, Tim Saunders side of University friends named after a brand of gin. Suitable for a team formed round a love of alcohol quite a few hadn't finished their tour night till 5.30 that morning, and looked it as well. Bod have a bit of a scratch side out, only fielding 10 players including Dan Shaw, Max Baldock, Alec and Asad (both practically Bod for the amount of games they play for us) and Dave Shorten. As Hendricks have 12 we also borrow Tim off them. Game at Stanton St John, weather cloudy/sunny/raining all afternoon. Hendricks coming to us after a defeat against the Mads on Friday and then a win the day before, chasing down 205 and winning in last over. As they are on tour Hendricks are asked what they want to do and, surprisingly considered night before, opt to field first. In the spirit of the game Max and Dan open for the Bod, youth policy well to the fore as both were born well after some of us started working for the Bodleian. Dan scores quickly with some lovely boundaries while Max accumulates. Dan then out caught behind (27), which with James in next scuppers any chance of a father son partnership. James scores quickly and pushes the singles along before getting caught for a quick 41, including a lovely six (and these are proper boundaries, not your Renault skip away from the wicket). Tim Philipson and Dom come and go before Dave Shorten hits a quick 38, including another towering six. Max looks like he's going to carry his bat until he's out near the end for a well-crafted 35. Alec, promoted up the order to nu 8 scores a few and along with Asad takes Bod to 190 off 35, a more than defendable total on what is usually a tricky wicket to score on. Tea. Bodley aware that Hendricks are a good batting side but looking around at the Bod team it's apparent we have plenty of good bowlers, two of which, James and Asad, start. And it is Asad that quickly makes the break through with tight bowling carrying on from Thursday and Renault. A ball on a good length is blocked up in the air for Alec to take a good catch close in. Asad picks up a few more wickets, including one of their more dangerous batsman well caught behind by (very) occasional wickie Tim Philipson. James is bowling well from the other end and gets a clean bowled as reward. Hendricks are losing wickets too quickly so an early bowling change brings Dom and Dave Busby on. Dave bowls a tight line of his looping bombs while Dom just bowls a good line and length and is rewarded with two wickets. Dave Shorten and Max carry on the good work and are soon amongst the wickets, Max a bowled and Dave gets a dangerous batsman out with James taking a fine catch coming in off the boundary. Hendricks fall well short of Bod total, even with Tim Saunders, playing for us, going off at the fall of the penultimate wicket to bat for the oppo. Hendricks all out for 115 off 33 overs. A lovely game to play in, and hopefully Hendricks enjoyed it despite the result. Bodley wait with anticipation for the announcement of player of the match award by Hendricks, the recipient rewarded with a bottle of the gin the team are named after. Under-age drinking proves a common theme, after last years award to Dan this year Max is chosen, reward for an excellent batting display and good bowling. SA Renault F1 CC at Sanford St Martin Cricket Club ground. Twenty overs.
With those curmudgeons at the Met Office foretelling a great soak for the weekend - beginning this evening - it was with eyes looking to the heavens that we assembled at the picturesque (but only the second best ground in the county according to our opening bat) Sandford St Martin. Trees lining the ground on all sides, the hum of agriculture and the buzz of light aircraft overhead, with a well-stocked clubhouse and very friendly opposition, make this fixture one of our favourites on the calendar. After an exciting game last year that saw us victorious having batted well first up and fielded like demons (fielding demons, not evil demons), the same was on the agenda for tonight, and a good, fresh wicket promised runs aplenty. Skipper Gareth Jones won the toss and opted to bat, and it was with a sigh of relief, the sun peaking through the clouds and rain nowhere in sight, that we got underway. To the great envy of other, Dave-less local clubs, Bodley are blessed with many Daves, and two of these fine fellows opened the batting - Freeman and Shackleton - with a close field and a man back on the shorter boundary in front of the clubhouse. Renault had a fair few youngens amongst them (outrageous, isn't it?), bolstering the experienced regulars, and the opening salvos were subsequently of decent pace with somewhat unexpected swing and a mean crosswind further moving the ball in the air and after pitching. Tough batting at times, by the looks of it. But the Daves all eat bowlers for breakfast and these two were soon scoring well, with some lovely shots behind square from Freeman and the now routine textbook drives from Shackleton. With the score ticking along Freeman reached his retirement (25 in this game) before most of us had even looked at the batting order. Next in was Bodley's Yorkie (his official title) Gavin Robinson, who was quite dramatically lbw soon after arriving. But moving on... Shackleton continued to run hard as Leigh McKiernan joined him to set about the bowling with relish. Unusually for Dave, he was batting sans helmet, giving the sizeable crowd a fine display of his wafting bouffant as the wind lapped at his lapels. Class. Perhaps distracted by this alpha display, Leigh was unfortunately out stumped shortly after entering the fray, bringing the skipper to the crease and a rebuilding job to be done with the score needing a boost. With this in mind Gareth played out a fine maiden, leaving the ball outside off stump with an unconventional technique of swinging the bat quite safely nowhere near it. The hirsute Shackleton had by this point been inexplicably caught behind, another victim of the swing and crosswind - though the pitch continued to play well, so far as the bounce was concerned. With the crowd being deprived of a Tim Philipson show by a good catch, Asad was now at the crease with the skipper, as the overs ticked down. They both kept swinging and ran hard, and after some boundaries from each, Gareth finally brought the bat down straight to send the ball arcing over the clubhouse to land just inches from his opposite number's parked car. Lost in dreamy appreciation of the shot for the next few overs, he was soon out clean bowled trying to do the same again. Club spirit guide and rambunctious elder statesman of world cricket Andrew Milner joined Asad, and quickly put his new titanium knee (the gold one is being forged for next season, we're told), to good use. So keen was Andrew to charge the bowlers and run twos that he was enthusiastically stumped having batted well and lifted the score past 100. Local tinker and man-about-the-shire David Busby was in next, twirling his bat around in anticipation of the glory to come. The crosswind and inswinging deliveries had come as something of a surprise to all, and had accounted for several wickets, but scoring had still proved harder than it might on a good wicket. We very much hoped the same would apply when roles reversed. With precious little left to score from, one more was added by buzzer and the score settled on 115-6 from our twenty. A bare minimum really, and probably about twenty short, we thought. But who knows? A quick turnaround, more analysis of a few dismissals in the absence of DRS, and out we went. Asad and a revved-up Leigh took the new ball, and with that short boundary well covered by two of our Daves, one of whom was creatively using a nearby bench as a fielding aid, Asad charged in. With a very fine third man (that's you Tim, you fine young thing) and a slip in place the edge was on the cards as the crowds fell silent for the first ball. Ball pitches on a good length and lifts nicely off the wicket, flying past the outside edge of the bat and clipping the top of off stump to the disbelief of the unfortunate batsman. As perfect a first ball as you'll see, at any level Renault are 0-1 from 0.1 overs and congratulations rain down upon the bowler. Leigh bowls a tidy first one and in Asad's second the edge is found from a similar ball to the first wicket, this one finding the edge and thudding into Gareth's gloves behind the stumps. Two down, Bodley going well. Runs start to come more easily now though, with some hard hitting stretching the field and bowler's lines straying. But in Asad's third over another wicket falls, this one captured by Gav as it flies straight into his chest at point. Well held, and they're three down. Surely we're on a roll, surely we are? No. No Sir. Renault have two baseball players in the side, one of whom we've seen before, and one we haven't. The former is finally prised out of the crease after causing a little havoc and a great attempt in the deep by Dave Busby to take a skier, as Gav gets one straight and through the batter to take off the bails with a beauty. With one batter now retired for a destructive 28, the fours continue to come for Renault and the total looks about twenty, maybe thirty runs short, as we'd feared. Credit to Alec Paton and Stu Ackland for running their legs off out on the boundary, but we just didn't have the runs this time, and the clubbing of the baseball-inspired batters got through the field almost every time. With Stu and the venerable Milner finishing up the bowling after Shackleton gave the crowd a look at his long gallop, things were kept tight at the climax, but the winning runs were struck with a single from Milner, a reminder to the skipper to get him out of his pattern of siestas and wine tastings, and to bowl him sooner! All in all a very good game, against a genuinely lovely team that we always enjoy playing. A hearty tea was served up afters, and the bar opened with beers for all, and a Dubonnet for Andrew. We'll be back to this glorious ground next year hopefully, with a win on our minds. Well played all, and thank you to Renault for hosting. GJ. Oxfam CC at Cumnor Cricket Club ground. Twenty overs.
Hoping to break an annoying losing run Bodley CC head to Cumnor to take on Oxfam. Sun hot, first day of the Ashes and friendly opposition put everyone in a good mood and it’s always nice to play at Cumnor. Bod are fielding a strong side. Cumnor firsts are training on the pitch when we arrive, and present a stark contrast to Bod and Oxfam players as they go through a pretty uncomfortable set of drills while we stand around and catch up with friends or sit down and watch. Also noticeable is the large amount of flying ants around, just before the game starts they all take off and fill the air for a good five minutes before we can start. Having found themselves in the middle without a coin Bod skipper Gareth suggest best of three boundary marker tosses. Looks ridiculous from the boundary, but Bod win the toss and elect to bat, Dave’s Shackleton and Freeman to open. Oxfam have had batters that have taken the game away from us before so as it is our home game we can set the rules and impose a 30 and retire rule - plenty of batting to come so swing and run hard is the order of the day. The Oxfam opener bowls a tight and fast first over, But Oxfam’s second doesn’t, with a lot of loose deliveries that cause problems for the Dave’s to score off and for the scorer to keep a record of. His first over takes 13 deliveries to complete and is a recurring theme throughout the innings. Extras cost Oxfam 44 runs of a Bod total of 148, with a lot of deliveries unplayable. When Oxfam get it right their bowlers have a knack of dropping the ball on a length which proves hard to get away. Dave S and Phil both retire, Leigh scores well but the general feeling is that the total is a bit below par considering the fire-power in the batting line-up and the expected onslaught yet to come. A quick turn round and Bod bowl, the skipper taking the gloves as regular scrum-half Neely is in Texas of all places, and immediately we are in trouble. One of the Oxfam openers goes on the attack from the start, playing shots depending on length and quickly retires after smacking Leigh and Stu for 6’s and 4’s at will. Some of the sixes looked to have dislodged bird nests in the towering trees circling the ground. The first innings showed all that slower bowling was the way to go, and despite the boundaries Bod are bowling well and the fielders are attacking the ball. Gavin and Dom carry on keeping a tight rein on things and a superb spell from Arthur picks up the wicket of Ben, Oxfam skipper and a good bat who has often scored big against us (for the Strollers as well) when Gavin takes a well taken catch fielding at point. Dom bowls well and picks up a useful wicket when Dave Busby takes a good catch and with Tim and Alec roaming the covers Bod manage to slow the scoring down after a number of Oxfam batsman got to 30 and retire. Then a controversial moment. A skier gets excellently caught on the boundary by Arthur, first parrying the ball up in the air and then catching second-time round. Big cheers and congrats to Arthur as the energy and noise levels go through the roof, only for the Oxfam team in the pavilion, who it has to be said have an excellent view of the boundary from their elevated position, call it a six as for them Arthur has stood on the line. A difficult decision to take but one that is (almost) universally accepted. The show must go on, and on it does. But then a bit of canny gamesmanship. Oxfam, to win, need to bring on their retirees, and a few of the tailenders seem to run themselves out to achieve this. So, 11 needed off the last over, and the opening bat back in. It's basically the world cup super-over, and Stu is Joffra Archer. A few singles, a wide and then a big hit out to deep mid-wicket finds Arthur, who rifles the ball back to the keeper, well in front of the stumps. With the gun batter tearing back for a second to keep the strike a dive for the stumps takes the bails off and the run-out is achieved. Phew. Another retiree comes in, again a big hitter, and with the noise levels now at fever-pitch, Joffra shuffles in. A dot and then a loose last ball, with four needed to win, sees a leg-side full toss fly to cow corner, where Shackleton has been deliberately placed for his good arm and normally safe hands. As team-mates watch, yell, and hold their breath, Shacks jogs calmly in and knocks the bails off just as the batters are attempting the third run with two runs needed. So, a close, boisterous game, played in friendly way, with a Bodley win off the last ball, what more could you ask for? Well played all, a great win, and a good time had at the clubhouse afterwards. SA, GJ |
Note from the Ed.Generally always written late on the night of the game. Any accuracy or sparkling prose is purely accidental. Archives
September 2019
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