Oaks See off St Mary’s
The Oaks comfortably beat neighbours St Mary’s in an up and down friendly game on Saturday. In a match played in 50mph winds, the Oaks batted first but were soon left reeling on 50 odd for 5 amongst a mix of good bowling and rusty shot making.
The middle order changed the game and 44 from Alan North, 50 from Ian Bennett and 63 from Will Cheyney, put the Oaks back in control as they finished their innings on 225.
Chasing the target, St Mary’s collapsed in the face of some excellent bowling. James Wiltshire topped the wickets chart but it was the other James (Adams) who strangled the scoring rate, going for just six runs in six overs. There were also wickets for Ian Bennet, Will Cheyney and Sam Stobart as St Mary’s were skittled for just 45.
So, a comfortable win for the boys and it was great to see the new players in on the action, with Will Cheyney undoubtedly the man of the match.
All bodes well for the new season.
Oaks out of Village Cup
The Oaks went out of the village cup yesterday after a hard fought encounter with Amport.
Batting first, after several batsmen made good starts then got out, it was down to Brad Compton-Bearne to hit a quick-fire 56 to boost several other cameo roles from Woody, DJ, Elliot, Alex and James Bayliss.
Defending 225, we got off to a flier, taking 4 early wickets but Amport fought back well and took advantage of some rusty bowling as the extras mounted up.
Our cause wasn’t helped by losing the bowling and the technical nous of Clive Welsman through injury, and the game drifted away. A late fightback gave us a bit of a sniff at a dramatic victory, but with a fielder down, it wasn’t to be and Amport deservedly won a well fought affair by 2 wickets.
Amport are in our league this year, so this game has taught us that we will be competitive a league up, but we will have to get used to fact that it will not be the cakewalk we had when getting promoted from County 4 last summer.
Teams will have more depth and won’t just roll over when their top order have been removed.
We can learn from it, work out where we could have been better, and get ready for a tough but exciting season ahead in CN3
On we must travel.
*Please don’t forget that the Fantasy League season starts on the 7th May. Your subscription goes to the club and there are prizes for the winners.
Register here.