On Wednesday, we welcomed St Clements Strollers to Middleton Park for our penultimate home T20 game of the year. Arriving at the ground at 5:15, we could see the eagerness of the opposition with no less than 6 of their players already there. 

 

The oppo won the toss and chose to bat first, a sensible choice at this time of year. Matt Dipple opened the bowling with a very good first over, troubling their batters and only conceding 1 from it. Elliot Barton took the 2nd over coming back from a few injuries. He found his line by the third ball and took a nice caught and bowled. After 2 overs, Strollers were 2 for 1. 

 

Matt again bowled a troubling third over, bowling their opening Carter for a duck. By the time the 5th over ended and good work from both Matt and Elliot, Strollers were 9-3. 

 

Man in form Anirudh took the sixth over and was rewarded with his probing lines with a catch at cover by Elliot. 13 – 4. With calls from Sam Norley suggesting we get the BBQ started early tonight, was he tempting fate?

 

Yes he was. Strollers brought out George Tait to bat at 4. Oxford 1s and Oxfordshire player. Luckily we saw the back of him quickly, although due to retiring at 31. This was followed by the oppositions skipper. Nawaz and Baldock both making unbeaten 30s and retiring. Elliot took our final wicket with “spin” and we were set a total of 120. 

 

Harry Way and David Cole opened the batting for Stoney and were watchful of the good lines they were facing. David going for a third was then found face to face with Harry way at the bowlers end and was run out. Harry was “stumped” according to the scorebook. I guess you have to count it as something. The ball ricocheted off the keeper, pinballed about and them somehow hit the stumps. Ani made a quick fire 18 before being caught and from there on we were always behind the run rate. 

 

Two good knocks from Elliot (15) and Ali (20*) gave us a respectable score of 102 after some good bowling from the opposition but we came up short. 

 

Both teams retired to the BBQ, still with plenty of gas left (luckily it wasn’t started when Sam suggested) and concluded a good evening at the club.