Oakley 1s won the toss on Saturday and DJ elected to bowl first on a very green-looking Hungerford pitch. Before we could get started, Dave Bowers put us through a very good warm-up that left everyone a bit out of breath—apart from Tom Hartgill, because he runs marathons for fun (weirdo).
Early Breakthroughs and Grunting Stef
Stef opened the bowling excellently as usual and beat the outside edge of the bat more times than anyone can remember. Also, as usual, he was grunting away at every run scored off his bowling. It wasn’t long before he got his reward, removing both openers in quick succession.
Harry replaced Dave from the other end and bowled the Hungerford captain with a good ball that would have got anyone out—so was a bit wasted on this bloke. Hungerford then tried to rebuild in the middle overs and made the most of the occasional loose ball to get to around 120 before our ringer, Greg Spires (who has paid a membership), picked up a couple of wickets. At 126/5, Oakley looked on top.
Momentum Slips Away
Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite turn the screw at the right time and Hungerford managed to build a few partnerships with some sensible batting down the order that got the score up past 200. DJ finished the job, getting a couple of quick wickets at the end, meaning Hungerford were 219 all out. A quick mention for stand-in keeper Mike (Kitchen) Tiley, who took a couple of smart catches, and a shoutout to everyone for fielding on an outfield where you always felt the ball had a chance of launching into your teeth.
A Rocky Start with the Bat
Nigel and Brundle went out to open the batting and looked to put the pressure on Hungerford early with some quick running. This seemed to work for a while, but with the score on 39, Nigel got bowled by a good inswinger from Hungerford’s left-armer—and not wanting to be left out, DJ quickly came and went in similar fashion. At the other end, Brundle was showing an improvement on his strike rate of 20 from the week before but eventually flashed at one too many and was caught for 34.
Tiley then joined the party of people to get bowled by the left-armer, who finished with figures of 4-39. By removing Oakley’s top four, he had put Hungerford in the driving seat with the score on 62/4.
Middle-Order Struggles
Greg and Harry looked to rebuild, and Greg smashed a couple of lovely boundaries before getting out in a sickening way—somehow chipping a half-tracker to mid-wicket. Harry, Noah, and Stef all stuck around for a bit to make sure we weren’t rolled over, but unfortunately none of them could really get going.
Stef joined Greg’s gang of getting out in a sickening way when he was given out LBW to a ball that everyone was pretty sure bounced twice before the crease—apart from the two umpires (one of whom was Nigel, who must have been thinking about what to have for his tea).
The Hartgill Revival
At 111/8 we were still looking at a heavy defeat. However, marathon man Tom Hartgill had other ideas. Coming in at number 10, he showed the rest of the Oaks batsmen how it was done—keeping out the good balls and smashing the occasional loose one to the boundary. At the other end, Will Rabley was supporting him well, even hitting the odd boundary himself—because that’s just what he does.
They put on 40 for the ninth wicket before Will had one cross-bat swing too many and was bowled for 13. Boring Dave Bowers then joined Tom and continued the supporting role, running well between the wickets. Dave was chatting so much nonsense to the opposition, it’s impossible to know how he manages to concentrate on hitting the ball—but the look of confusion on their faces was priceless.
A Spirited Finish
Unluckily for Tom, the end came when he was out LBW trying to flick one off his legs. There’s a good chance the umpire just wanted to get away from Dave, but it takes nothing away from a great knock from Tom and a good last-wicket stand of 30.
Oakley finished on 181 all out, which was a good effort from where we were, and everyone seemed to have fun in a game that was played in good spirits.
A Word of Thanks
Also, thanks to Hungerford for providing teas, an umpire, and a scorer—it’s the little things that make losing that little bit more bearable!