And so, with 11 players and returning bowling legend Adam Moody we were set. Winning the toss stand in skipper Joe ignored the advice of Michael Vaughan and WG Grace and put them in, no doubt buoyed by the strongest bowling line up the seconds has seen in a long while. Bis from the Hempton Road end and Richard rolling back the years from the Aston end kept it as tight as Collins’ snare drum on Remembrance Sunday. Not many wickets but more dots that a Titanic SOS had Charlbury at 2 an over at first change but that had seen more drops than a Michael Gove drugs party. But what a first change bowler Deddington had as Moobs came down hill and Kat from the other end.
The scoring rate took a further hit as Richard took a running catch off Moobs before Kat bowled a couple out including the very creditable young opener. Then a very rare Deddington wicket with Joe taking what he will tell you was a slip catch (short third man may be a bit harsh). Next ball saw a golden duck catch to Kat before Moobs s dodged a jug with a dot ball. Then more rolling back the years next ball seeing a thickish outside edge find a flailing right hand glove with a surprised but falling over Collins attached. With Joe and Gary delivering the last few overs saw Joe tried the old put down a wide and wait for a batman keen for runs stride out a scoop it to Kat, before Joe finally found his length and bowled the 10th and final man. 5 bowling points please.
So chasing 140 Joe and Bis took the field, he opened the scoring with a lofted cover drive but then sadly a lofted forward defensive saw him reaching too far and putting up a diving catch well taken at short mid off. An over later Joe was done by one that stayed low (a feature of the first inning that the bowlers didn’t want me to mention). This bought more rolling back the years with Moobs (Adam Moody, a regular of this club two years ago) and Richard to the fight with Adam driving the first boundary to bring up double figures. And so it settled nicely with batsman 3 and 5 doing a good job of opening. With 41 on the board Richard fell for 9 caught at mid off. In went Kat when Richard was stumped at the keepers 10th attempt (he’d spent most of our inning whipping bails off for no apparent reason up to this point..). Andy to the fore before in an interesting experiment Collins joined him at 8 as Kat went LBW. A few more runs were tickled before Andy got LBW shortly before Collins top edged a ball coming down with snow on to be caught behind having dragged the score to 66.
And so it was Father and Son team Richard and Torin Holmes to see us home from the half way mark with 10 overs to go. Some might think this a bit of an ask but with relish they set about the task that included a hook shot for 4 from Ritch bringing up 80 while the batting point was being put away. The overs ticked over too quickly and sadly missing ‘60 run a game skipper Simon’ saw us fall just short as he enjoyed Serena getting beat and we fell just short with the Holmes duo doing us very proud with a performance that sits along side Oldfield and Oldfield and Stiff and Stiff et al. And so finished a popular fixture with 21 folk playing the game in great spirit and much humour.
