The Oaks were reasonably comfortably beaten at The Bounty tonight, going out to Sparopleystoke Hockey Club in the Cyril Thomson Plate.
The Oaks batted first but were soon in trouble against a very strong Sparopleystoke team, some of whom apparently play hockey sometimes but are also very good cricketers.
Wickets went at regular intervals but most of The Oaks batsmen had a reasonable go at putting a good score together. Sadly, it was one of those evenings where we needed just one batsman to come off and that didn’t quite happen, courtesy of some very good bowling and fielding on a good strip.
In the end it was up to Alex Brundle and Tom Barnes to get the score past 100 and at least make a game of it. However, it was never going to be enough as Sparopleysholt had some very good batsmen in their side, in fact so good, that you had to wonder why they play hockey and not cricket in the Southern League?
The Oaks made a good effort at staying in the game and if a couple of catches from the Sparopleysholt batsmen had stuck, it may have been different, but probably not. To be fair, there is little doubt that the best team won on the night.
If there was one thing to be learnt from the game that is to never underestimate a Hockey Club that play cricket, as they make bloody players who should perhaps play more often. Some spectators said they were that good they could even compete in the Guy Jewell Cup, the senior trophy where the top level local players play; I certainly wouldn’t like to be hockey keeper when they whack the puck!
It was quite apt that as the game drew to a close, the bell ringers at the local church began their evening session but it was still a fun evening had by all at the club. The Oaks now need to move on and train hard to keep up their promotion push in County 4.
Good luck to the hockey boys in the final, hopefully all the locals of the quintessential village of Sparopleystoke will be out in numbers to cheer them on against Chalton.
Up the Oaks!