OCCC 240 for 7 (Hannah 54* Rosenfeldt 47) beat Headley 140 (Richards 2-15 Copleston 2-1) by 100 runs
We arrived at Headley on a rare sunny day packed with an excellent spectrum of youth and experience – from 18-year-old Ryan Anderson through to 59-year old Mike Chase. Chasey managed to maintain his record of upsetting opposition by declaring the pitch unplayable before the start. It was green, very green, and so a few eyebrows were raised when Eds Copleston won the toss and elected to bat.
A decidedly red eyed Ollie Trower and Ryan Anderson opened up and we looked like amassing a large total until 20 for 0 became 60 for 5. Some good bowling and fairly poor stroke selection brought together our unlikely saviours. Coming out of nearly a decade’s retirement were Chris Porter and Tristan Rosenfeldt. The time Rosenfeldt batted here he did so in a full black-tie dinner suit as part of a charity escapade he was undertaking. This time he settled for more traditional clothing. They batted patiently and whilst Rosenfeldt was less keen on strike rotation the scoreboard was kept ticking. The pair took us 170 before Tristan fell. Elliot Hannah joined Porter and didn’t take long to demonstrate why he shouldn’t be batting at No.9. An unbeaten 22 ball 50 (including three lost balls) gave us a final score of 240 from our 35 overs.
In reply Headley started confidently, with Ed Henderson extremely wayward. A shadow of his former metronomic line and length self, He bowled Headley into the game with 20 wides. Hannah was more controlled at the other end but then Henderson removed both openers with rare straight deliveries. He was replaced by Max Richards, fresh off the plane from four months of debauched “travelling”, who was the pick of the bowlers and deserved more than his 2 for 24. Porter (2 for32) and Copleston (2 for 1) then mopped up the tail and we won by 100 runs.
This was a triumph largely due to some gutsy batting by two heroic veterans that showed the young guns that patience is a virtue and time at the crease means runs. With two wins in our first two friendlies we move on to the serious stuff with a Cricketer Cup first round tie on Jubilee on Sunday.