Oxfordshire County Council Staff Cricket Club at Witney Mills cricket club. Sunday 15th August, 35 overs. www.pitchero.com/clubs/bodleiancc/teams/255079/match-centre/0-5106085 On a rare dry day the Mighty Bodley, on an unstoppable run of two wins in a row but after three cancelled fixtures, made their way to gentle Witney to play a new fixture against the marvellously monikered OCCSCC for a 35 over game at Witney Mills Cricket Club. Short boundaries straight and long boundaries square were duly noted by the batters, and the wicket looked a good one for a bat after a dry night. Skippers Gareth Jones (for the Bod) and Ben Parish (for the County Council) walked out for the toss, agreed 35 overs, no retirements, and seven overs per bowler. Parish called incorrectly and a delighted Jones elected to bat, after both laughed off any notion of setting retirements as the low, slow pitch would ensure plenty of chances... A new opening partnership of Gav Robinson and David Shackleton strolled out to get things going for the Bod, with Shackleton asserting his divine right to bat at two, leaving the door open for Gav to face the first ball. Gav was licking his lips though, as eager to get out there as Phil was to parade his pooch to all and sundry. The Council bowling was sharp but varied in line, allowing the batters to get in with a few leaves and some determined blocking. The field was up and it wasn't long before Gav freed his arms and tonked a four to square leg in typical fashion. David was running well at the other end and Bod looked fairly comfortable. Gav moved into the teens with another boundary and just as things were looking settled a straighter, fuller ball thudded into the pads to bring our new openers innings to an end for a well made 16. That kind of scoring will get an England birth these days. But this only brought in Bodley's mightiest run-getter James Shaw, who was immediately into the groove as he tucked into the bowling. Over the next hour or so David and James carved, cut and drove their way to fifties, taking the Bod score beyond 150, and leaving the fielding somewhat ragged in their wake. All this was brought to a halt when, sadly, there was to be a forced retirement for a fielder, as a well struck ball resulted in several broken teeth and a trip to the A&E. Big thank you to Dave Busby for ferrying the injured, was much appreciated by the oppo. We send our best wishes to the fielder in question - hope you get back on the field soon. James retired at this point for a well made 58, bringing young Dan Shaw to the crease to keep Shacks company as the game recommenced. Unfortunately nobody else could quite find the same fluency and a scorecard of single figure scores for Dan, Phil, James, the skipper and Dom eventually left big-hitting Tim Phillipson and Shackleton at the crease with nothing but big swinging on their minds. David was in the nineties, with not many balls left to get the hundred, and Tim was swinging hard and running even harder. Running so hard in fact, that he appeared to have been the victim of the wicketkeeper tying his shoelaces together between balls. And so after running, hobbling and hopping a single, a second match-ending injury in the innings took Tim out of commission as his hamstring gave up the ghost. Tim did however battle through the over on one leg, though David couldn't quite get to a deserved hundred, ending on 93 not out and Bodley on an imposing 192-8. David and James were the stars of the show with 93 and 58, against some decent bowling on a low pitch. Next up was the main event, tea. I don't think we'll see a return to traditional cricket teas this season, so it'll be competitive sandwich-making for what's left of the year. Currently, the very well fed Andrew Milner is clear favourite to take the packed lunch of the year award, but in his absence this week there was a more relaxed approach and I think less pressure felt by his normally drooling team mates. Phil Burnett dispensed with lunch entirely - Great Tew Deli is not on the way to Witney after all (not that taking a detour would necessarily stop him...) - and instead must have snacked on the dog biscuits being used to bribe the pooch into obedience. Or the other way round. Gav had a suspiciously healthy looking salad, whilst the skipper had the remains of a homemade pizza from the previous night, both utterly delicious according to their recipients. Tim had a good grumble and a nurofen to supplement his epic doorstep sandwich. Andrew - we look forward to your raising the bar again next week. With our usual keeper off teaching old people to play tennis, it was decided that the housewives' favourite Stuart Ackland and the skipper would share the burden, all agreed by a process of being politely told by everyone else that they did not, under any circumstances, wish to keep. Ironically our by now horizontal hamstring expert Tim was very keen indeed to keep wicket. Sod's law, I believe. Next time, Tim! With Stu excitedly reminding everyone that he wouldn't catch anything but was very excited to have big gloves, Phil Burnett - with poodle trotting a few yards behind - ran in to wrap up the victory. A four first ball of the match was not what we had hoped for but Stu didn't give any byes away, and we didn't drop a catch, so not all bad. After that it was solid stuff from Phil and opening partner Dan Shaw, with Dan delivering two maidens off his first two overs. The bowling was tight, and Stu was doing a great job behind the stumps, animated though it was. Sharp fielding was keeping the Council from getting away and on another day we'd have had a few lbw's too as Dan was finding the pads with regularity. Before long a good catch was taken by David Shackleton at point as the opener chipped one straight to him, leaving them 31-1. Good start. With a change to James Shaw another wicket fell fairly soon after, a really lovely clean bowled with the off stump bail clipped in classic fashion. With things going quite well and those short straight boundaries having not been an issue thus far, it was then a rude shock to see the ball suddenly, and rapidly, fly over the very tall trees on the boundary and into the field behind as the new batter followed up some worryingly hard-hit fours with a monstrous six off a pretty decent ball. Ominous. Both batters had been pretty lucky to escape a run of lbw shouts but were by now well set and seemed determined to hit the ball out of the ground as often as possible. More impressive still were a succession of perfectly timed flicks off the pads - a high risk shot that fully illustrated just how well they were playing. Bodley had likewise seen two batters dominate, so it was somehow quite poetic that the same course of events was unfolding as we fielded. A target of 193 was good enough to require some big hitting and a few risks though, so the field went back a bit, and Bodley tried to find a length, a line, a pace, that wouldn't get lined up. Shackleton, Dom Hewett, Gav, and our new keeper once he'd handed the gloves to the skipper, all sent down overs and aside from some excellent control from Phil and James it was pretty brutal stuff, though you simply had to admire the skill shown to hit the ball so cleanly. We all agreed we could've done without fetching the ball from the middle of the road so often though. Maybe some evergreens to replace the deciduous trees on that boundary. Try as we might, and the fielding stayed sharp throughout with barely a chance given, these two were not for budging and in the thirty first over the winning runs were soundly struck and a total of 195-2 firmly had the Council as victors. Top scores of 82 and 59 from the number four and number two batter respectively, further emphasised the similarity of the batting innings. Well played. A good game, and one that could've gone either way despite the eventual scoreline. Both teams unfortunately losing a player to injury was an unwelcome blow (get well soon, both), and Bodley fielding a man down the entire innings was great credit to the effort shown. Thank you to Ben and the team for hosting us, and we look forward to a rematch, maybe at Tew, next year! Next match is Peasemore CC at Peasemore, always a good game and a lovely part of the world to spend a Sunday afternoon. See you there. GJ.
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