OW Cricket News

The 2024 OWCC season started as usual at Highclere against the Earl of Carnarvon’s XI. With both of last year’s centurions in this fixture reprising their spots in the side, hopes were high. However, despite Richard Johnson notching up a second hundred in as many years a middle order collapse saw us only post 203. A youth-packed opposition batting line up made short work of the total and we succumbed to a seven-wicket loss. The Eton Ramblers fixture followed a similar path with Joe Scull scoring a ton as we posted 237 on Meads, which the OEs chased down for the loss of six wickets.  

The weather put paid to any significant play in the two games at Wykeham Day. The highlight of the day was the presentation of a small token of OWCC’s gratitude to Bill Holland on his retirement as a playing member of the Club. Despite our protestations that he is still the best opening batsman we have, Bill (who remains Club President) has decided to hang up his pads; his dependable runs and safe hands at slip will be sorely missed. 

Train cancellations on the morning of the fixture against I Zingari caused havoc in our batting line up, but it was nothing compared to that wrought by the IZ bowling attack. Despite a counterattacking 61 from Rollo Quinault (H, 11-16), OWCC were floundering at 91-9 but the final wicket pair showed some resiliance to drag us up to 139. It was never enough and despite a decent bowling performance, IZ closed out the game with four wickets to spare. 

Aaron Hockey (G, 20-24) became perhaps the freshest-ever legitimate OWCC player in making his debut against The Free Foresters on the day after Domum. He made quite the impact, winning Man of the Match for his fearsome bowling, with figures of 2 for 14 from nine overs as we bowled the Free Foresters out for 131. However a classic OW collapse ruined what was a measured start to the chase, and it was left to the final pair of Will Matthews (D, 21-23) and Henry Bertlin (I, 13-18) to score the three runs needed to take us to victory. 

Did Rishi Sunak forget that Thursday 4 July would be the start of Cricket Week when he called the election? Or was he simply hoping to be free for our weekend fixtures? Either way, it was a bad day for cricket-loving OWs all round as we were easily beaten by Gemini. This was followed by victory (albeit under the DLS method) against the Hampshire Hogs before new opposition The Nomads clung on for a draw on Saturday. A similar story rounded off the week as the rain arrived late on Sunday to save the Butterflies. However, that didn’t stop it being quite the day out for Mike Hargrove (H, 09-14) who took 5 wickets to go with his 96 runs. 

There was an imperious victory against The Guards at Burton Court as we set 286 for 7 thanks to a 74-ball century from Rob Harker (I, 13-18), before Jeremy Wilkins (K, 00-05), on figures of 4-2-6-3, ended their chase before it had really begun. The Guards were all out for 89, four of them caught by Tom Perry in the slips! Our second military fixture, against The Rifles at St Cross, started positvely with two early wickets from Will Matthews.  However, our optimisim faded as ex-St Lucian international cricketer, Shervin George, powered his way to 127 in The Rifles’s 284 for 7. Our reply started strongly thanks to Tom Perry (87) and Will Matthews (72). However, a catastrophic collapse was just around the corner as we fell from 181 for 3 to 204 all out.  

The final home game of the summer brought Downside Wanderers to Lords. Having had them 73 for 5 at lunch, we let them off the hook a little finally bowling them out for 168. Henry Nicholls (A, 19-24) serenely anchored the OW chase and despite the best efforts of our middle order (including three ducks) to disrupt things, with his final stroke of the day he took us to victory and himself to his well-deserved century.  

The bowler’s graveyard that is The Hurlingham Club welcomed OWCC for our final fixture. However, it proved to be anything but that, with our openers Richard Cubitt (G, 08-13) and Ed O’Doherty (I, 18-23) ripping through their top order to leave them 23 for5. They staged a partial recovery to end on 135, but that was always going to be too few on the manicured lawns of Fulham. Despite a slight wobble the OWs chased down the score with 5 wickets to spare. 

The first round of the Cricketer Cup took us to Tonbridge. We won the toss and elected to bat. Wilf La Fontaine Jackson (B, 18-23) with 67 and Dan Escott (Coll, 10-15), 37, gave us an exceptional start and Tonbridge heads were starting to droop with us rattling along at 141 for 2. The next 10 overs, however, were a rather pitiful display of “batting”. A few rash shots, a runout and, arguably, a couple of bowler-friendly decisions (think Joel Wilson) left us 165 all out, clearly not enough. In response, despite excellent bowling from Paddy Fisher (B, 17-22), their opening bat – who’d decided to skip Surrey training to play this game – cashed in on a short cow corner boundary (think Gater 3) to make light work of a sub-par total. 

It was another busy season for the Legends – the more experienced division of the Club – including a closely-fought but ultimately unsuccessful first round match in the inaugural Over-50s Cricketer Cup.  This was followed by wins against the Broadhalfpenny Brigands and Radley Rangers, and losses to IZ, St Tropez and the Sons of Bacchus.  Some notable performances across the board including Sabben-Clare, Sorrell (père et fils) and Daniels, but player of the season goes to Baker for several wickets, a few runs but most remarkably 8 catches, more than the Legends typically pouch between them!  

Talking of legends, the Club mourns the loss in recent months of Mark Loveday and Barry Reed, two titans of the Win Coll cricketing community. The outpouring of love from Wykehamists of all generations has been heartwarming, and their obituries can be read above.