OCCC 222 (49.3 overs; Austin 60, Cope 43, B Scriven 40) beat Felsted Robins 160 (41.3 overs; Blackwell 48, Dahl 3-21, Ealham 2-23, Broughton 2-33) by 62 runs
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In the end we beat Felsted Robins quite comfortably in the first round of the Cricketer Cup but it was a result which seemed unlikely until our last pair added 68 to give our bowlers a target to defend.
On a gloriously hot day, both sides had been hit by late drop-outs necessitating some late and unexpected call-ups. On paper our batting had depth with our bowling having no margin for error. In the event, it was out batting which almost let us down.
We won the toss and batted, and although we lost three cheap wickets, Brad Scriven (40) and Alan Cope (43) seemed to have things under control before two quick wickets, including Scriven, left us 94 for 5. Cope and Freddie Austin (60) again stabilised the innings before another clatter of wickets left us 154 for 9 with almost 12 overs remaining.
Sam Dickson (26*), who has opened for the School and has hundreds to his name, is a good man to have coming in at No.11 and Felsted, assuming that he was the man to target rather than the set Austin, were happy to give him the strike. By the time they realised this was not the case, the pair were taking the attack to the bowlers and slickly rotating the strike. Although Austin fell with three balls remaining, their stand had given us a reasonable, if still seemingly slightly below-par score.
Felted started brightly, finding the pace of the opening attack to their liking as they reached 41 for 1 in 12 overs. But as is so often the case, the spinners put a choke hold on the batsmen and that pressure eventually told. The second wicket – Hebron, who had laboured 25 balls for 3 – which started a slide was strange. He attempted to cut Angus Dahl and a raucous appeal for what sounded like a thick top edge to the keeper was turned down. Two balls later another cut which he looked to have missed and for which only the bowler appealed was given out. Three balls later Rath fell to Scriven for 23 and the innings never recovered. Blackwell thrashed 48 – aided by two drops in the deep by two of our usually safest catchers – before trying his luck once too often but nobody thereafter looked likely to stay long enough to cause us worry.
George Ealham, who we know to be a class act, made a good debut while we are grateful to Will Langmead, Rob Cowdrey and Rob Jones for stepping into the breach so late on. We are also grateful to Michael Chetwode for not only stepping in as scorer (he forgot Heather had sent him an email resigning 18 months ago) but also for coping with our first foray into electronic scoring and to the good number of spectators who welcomed the chance to return to Jubilee.
We now face Stowe at home in the second round in a fortnight.