Another Perfect Day for Ovo
The first weekend of August saw the Ovington senior sides pull off another tribute to the late Lou Reed with a perfect day of 3 wins from 3. It has been far from the perfect season so far, but all 3 sides currently sit in a comfortable position in their respective league tables and gearing themselves up for whatever the rest of the season has to offer.
Saturday 2nd August, Ovington 1st XI vs Knaresborough 2nd XI
Ovington: 180/10 (40); C Buckley 66, Cookson 30; Metcalf 3/27
Knaresborough: 163/9 (39.2); Ward 53, Perham 33; Cookson 4/35, James 3/36
Ovington won by 17 runs
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6777306
Three wins in a row (a rained off match notwithstanding). Two nailbiters in a row. Two of those wins against the top two teams in the table. Ovington’s season continued well as it entered the final six weeks, grinding out a hard-earned victory against a strong
Knaresborough team. Having been trounced in a tetchy affair in the reverse fixture, Ovington were keen to make home advantage pay off and claim a bit of revenge.
Knaresborough won the toss and chose to bowl, looking at a green pitch and hoping for some early movement. They gained quick reward, as Joe Whale played (sponsored by York and Selby Tutors) around a quick, straight ball from Sam Baines to lose his stumps. Monty Grenyer joined Tom Cookson (sponsored by The Phoenix Club) at the
crease and the pair rebuilt, going steadily and picking off the loose balls to put together a 50 partnership. Cookson drove nicely, latching onto anything overpitched and kept the scoreboard ticking along whilst Tom Metcalfe got into his rhythm, the idiosyncratic arm-waving and running down the pitch slowly making an appearance as he got going. Cookson eventually got overeager, looking to loft Metcalfe over mid-off, picking the fielder out instead. Metcalfe then found some assistance from the pitch, picking out a dead spot to scupper Grenyer, a back of a length ball shooting low to hit Grenyer on the ankle and trap him LBW. Ovington drifted from 61/1 to 69/5 as more wickets tumbled. Alex Garner Steel was bowled by Metcalfe in the same over as Grenyer, then Jacob Lamb (sponsored by Badger Elite Cricket Coaching) tried to cut a ball which seamed back sharply to bowl him. Charlie Buckley (Sponsored by Sam Spangle) and Tom Armes (sponsored by CDA Energy Services) played patiently together, rebuilding the innings and settling the Ovington nerves a little, targeting the change bowlers with good effect to keep the score moving healthily. Buckley drove well and picked off loose balls on his legs, whilst Armes opened his shoulders to punish a couple of shorter balls. Disaster struck, though, when a horrible mix up between the two batters left them in the middle of the pitch, Armes the unfortunate victim as he was run out by several yards as Baines threw in from the boundary, ending a partnership of 55.Two more quick wickets followed Armes, as Tom James sliced a cut shot straight to point before Matthew Wright got a horrible shooter to rival Grenyer’s, bowled by a length ball which never got above boot height. At 139/8, Ovington looked in real trouble of being bowled up for a sub-par total, but Harry Eckersley-Wilson joined Buckley, who was still moving along comfortably. Harry showed off his clean ball-striking to knock a quick 22, giving support to Buckley who by then had passed his 50. Eventually, Eckersley-Wilson swung at one too many, dragging Baines onto his stumps before Buckley followed the over after, also done by a poor bounce off the surface. A total of 180 was enough for Ovington to feel confident, knowing Knaresborough’s bowling to typically be their stronger suit.
Knaresborough started off well, though. In the face of some fiery bowling from Olly Garner Steel, their openers made a solid start, albeit not always convincingly. Knaresborough captain, Joe Reynolds, turned his back on one short ball and the resulting edge off the back of his bat fell agonisingly short of the wicket-keeper. Several edges landed just short of or lobbed just over the heads of fielders on the off side, leaving Ovington frustrated, despite bowling well initially. Cookson and Wright came into the attack and were sloppy initially,
conceding several boundaries with poor control of length as Knaresborough threatened to run away with the chase.
The introduction of Tom James’ off-spin into the attack brought about a change in fortune for Ovington. Reynolds stepped deep into his crease and cut James (sponsored by flockofcats), only to also connect with his off stump, smashing the bail off and departing for the rarely seen dismissal of hit wicket after an opening partnership of
78 in under 20 overs. From there, Ovington stepped up and took control. James and Wright bowled in tandem, each bowling their 12 overs straight through. Wright (sponsored by York’s Hidden History) recovered from his poor start to bowl with good accuracy, restricting scoring heavily. From 80/1 at 20 overs until Wright bowled Adrian Sturdy, only seven runs were scored in 6.4 overs.
This continued as Knaresborough fell further and further behind the scoring rate. Andrew Ward kept ticking runs off steadily, punishing width outside off effectively as he had done at the start of his innings, but clearly struggled to hit cleanly, several attempted heaves landing just short of in-fielders and failing to get any reward. James eventually bowled Ward as he charged down the wicket, a deserved outcome for his controlled bowling. Henry Perham attempted to get Knaresborough back into the game with some powerful striking, but struggled to find the boundary much as Ovington continued to demonstrate their bowling class. Wright eventually finished with 1/40 from 12 overs, a good recovery after his first over went for 14. James wheeled away at the other end, claiming 3/36 from his 12, earning him the player of the match.
Cookson returned in place of Wright and helped to close the match out, picking up a handy four-wicket haul as Knaresborough eventually looked to catch up with the required rate. Perham holed out to Armes, who clung on well at long-on despite a badly injured hand. Another catch to Armes off the bowling of Garner-Steel an over later must surely have hurt, before Cookson finished off the victory, bowling Keiran Reilly and luring Bernie Keavy out of his crease for a stumping. Knaresborough rescued some small amount of pride (and an extra two points) when Metcalfe reverse-swept Cookson for four off the final ball of the innings, but they had somehow collapsed in a heap. From cruising at 80/1 off 20 overs, the last 25 overs saw them manage 83/8. The victory keeps Division 1 Galtres very tight and interesting, with Knaresborough in second on 108 points and Ovington in sixth on 96, leaving the final six games of the season as a tight-fought promotion race for plenty of teams.
Saturday 2nd August, Burn 2nd XI vs Ovington 2nd XI
Burn: 160/6 (40); Adamson 40; Jillani 3/35 , Price 2/38
Ovington: 161/8 (39.2); Baqai 40; Abbott 5/22
Ovington won by two wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6779576
Ovo 2nd XI travelled to Burn under the leadership of Owen Price with a team that immediately began exchanging stories of all of the various injuries and niggles that they were all bedevilled by. A medical student would have learned a lot from studying that changing room.
Once the cricket began, Ovo found themselves bowling first. This has brought them plenty of success this season although the small boundaries at Burn are notorious for producing lots of runs. Price and Jack Eckersley-Wilson opened up and were greeted with plenty of shots. Some shots were false with many plays and misses but some were true and raced off towards and even over the boundary fence. Owen took the first wicket to fall, hitting the top of off stump, but other wickets were hard to come by and Burn would have been pleased to see their score rise fairly quickly to 60/1. Ovo knew they needed something to happen and turned to the slow left arm of Khurram Jillani. The most dangerous of the Burn batsman, who had scored most of their runs, decided to take KJ on and hit over the leg side. However he didn’t get all of it and the ball lobbed towards, and apparently over, the less than gazelle like Simon Rogerson at midwicket. Rogerson pulled out what appeared to be a forlorn attempt, diving upwards and backwards, but then managed to produce some unexpected hang time and a go go gadget extension of his right arm to clutch the ball out of the air one handed. He may have hit the ground hard enough that tsunami warnings were soon being issued for all countries with a shoreline on the North Atlantic, but the catch was clean and the wicket was taken.
Despite this breakthrough, it was far from all Ovington’s way as Burn dug in admirably. They were helped by Ovington apparently having taken slip catching lessons from Zac Crawley as they emulated the England side by putting down chances (plural) in the cordon. Jack was the man to miss out and he was unlucky to finish the match wicketless. KJ did take another wicket, this time by LBW, but it was still only 3 wickets down at drinks. Rogerson and Ranjan Bhattacharyya kept the screw turned after drinks with some tight bowling but only took one wicket between them, caught by Jack of the bowling of Rogerson. KJ and Price came back on the finish off their team’s overs and took another wicket each, bowled in the case of KJ and a sharp return catch for Price. Runs were also kept under check and Burn finished their 40 overs at 160/6.
Ovo started well in their reply with opening batsmen Noah Morgan and Kareem Baqai latching onto anything short to hit plenty of boundaries. The highlight was a 6 over the offside for Noah as they reached a 50 partnership at a rate above that required. However, from there the Burn bowlers found their length and line and the scoring began to dry up. With the away team now finding batting hard, the home team opted to take pace off the ball and Ovo seriously struggled to score off them. The traditional Wily Old Man bowling from the far end, bowled very slow and very straight which proved perfect for the match situation and he ended with excellent figures of 5/22 off his ten overs. His wickets being both openers as well as Ashley Garner Steel, Sharoon Shahzad and Jack Eckerlsey-Wilson who had all struggled to get him away. The required run rate kept on creeping ever upwards and once Dave Heaton (Sponsored by defencereport.com) fell, it had reached run a ball territory. KJ tried to inject some energy to the chase with a couple of meaty boundaries before skying one and being caught. Price and Oliver Craven (Sponsored by CDA Energy) tried a different approach of tip and run before Craven became the latest to start to hobble with the recurrence of a knee injury. Having seen this, his captain called the young keeper through for a risky single which inevitably led to the 8th wicket falling and Simon Rogerson heading to the crease. The equation was now 29 runs needed off 28 balls and a serious risk of losing all their wickets. The conversation between the two batsman was
“How do we play this?”
“I don’t know”
In the end the approach became for Rogerson to muscle a few boundaries while Price played the more delicate support role. Going into the penultimate over it had become 13 runs to win. At which point Price played the perfect shot, placing the ball centimetres away from the wicket keeper’s gloves and down to the finest of third man boundaries. It didn’t look like he was trying to hit it there but his team were not too worried about such details. Rogerson also clubbed another boundary back past the bowler to leave the equation reading 4 runs required off the last over to win. There was still time for Price to play and miss at a ball that must have missed leg stump by a whisker but someone must have been looking over him that day. The next delivery drifted too far down the leg side and Owen helped it down to the backward square leg fence to win the game for his team with just 4 balls and 2 wickets to spare. You could call it making a meal out of the chase or you could call it judging it to absolute perfection.
Slightly confusingly given the number of losses they have already suffered, the 2nd XI remain 2nd in their table and looking for a few more positive results as the season begins its run in to a close.
Saturday 2nd August, Thorpe Willoughby 2nd XI vs Ovington 3rd XI
Ovington: 309/5 (40); Waidyaratne 81*, Valks 62, Hampel 56; Deshpande 2/29
Thorpe Willoughby: 172/9 (40); L Smith 70; Warner 4/19
Ovington won by 173 runs
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6779576
This week the 3rds travelled to Thorpe Willoughby 2nds in hope of righting a few wrongs from the previous week.
Batting first we got off to a wheelie good start. Graham Walton and Will Hampel got things underway and for once it was Walton who was the more athletic of the two. Hampel unfortunately had fallen off a bike midweek after attempting to pull a wheelie but instead landed flat on his back. A quick start and a heap of good shots to punish the bad balls saw us reach 79 before Walton fell to a good ball that nipped back. Spencer Fern (Sponsored by DWUFB) came in and instantly looked to run quick singles, Hampel looking less pleased as he struggled to move through the gears.
Hampel continued his highly impressive form this season and reached another 50 with an attacking shot to cow before falling shortly after, caught at midwicket after mistiming a full ball. He walked off to applause and although looking like his tyres were deflated he did his job well.
Spencer fell just after drinks, which come the end of this piece might not be a bad thing.
And so it fell to the Uwin Waidyaratne and Matthew Valks show. Shot after shot, quick single after quick single and the ante was upped. The pressure put on the Thorpe fielding showed and after a bad couple of drops Ovington even managed 7 runs off one ball. A dangerous 3 led to 4 overthrows and no-one really knew what to do. We weren’t sure how to signal 7.
Fern also had to do his best Bowden impression after Valks (making a guest appearance) aimed a 6 at the Thorpe village hall and Ovington were flying. Eventually Valks fell after having reached a 50, and Ollie Thrift went in scoring quick runs. Ollie then died on his sword swinging hard and Dave Warner (Sponsored by Dunnington Landscapes) finished the innings quickly. Even hogging strike off the outstanding Uwin who remained unbeaten on 81 off just 51 balls. Last week Ovington conceded 300 for the first time under Warner’s leadership and this week they scored it for themselves.
Tea was bloody lovely and after a quick apple stop with Luke Smith we went out to field.
Warner and Smith opened the bowling with a plan to rough one side up, shine the other and throw it to someone who knew how to use it. Warner took a quick caught and bowled and duly took himself out of the attack so Will Ellis could take over.
Thorpe have the league’s top run scorer so Ovington at times played around him taking the other wickets. Smith had an excellent spell taking two wickets, one bowled and then one caught, a great take at square leg from Fern. Hampel at this point was getting croggied from slip to slip.
Ellis bowled an exceptional spell and somehow went wicketless and Warner turned to Fern. At the start of the spell Fern was tanned brown as a boot from his midweek training stint in Agadir. And he bowled beautifully. Regularly giving Thorpe’s top scorer all kind of problems. He was fully pumped up and eventually took 2 wickets in 2 balls. The first a nonchalant (or completely unneeded) one handed return catch before an unlucky junior kicked the ball on his own stumps. Unfortunately for Fern this is where he hit the brakes. He was now a terrific shade of green and had managed to catch the same illness his brother had on return from their holiday. He had to leave the field and was regularly seen running to the Thorpe bathroom facilities. Smith also ran like the clappers, chasing a ball to the boundary and #projectsmith now seems a reality.
Warner cycled through the bowlers, Ed Bolt who now has so many nicknames that I cannot keep up, bowled a great spell and was mightily unlucky not to take a wicket. Thrift came on and managed to dislodge their set top scorer and Walton pinned the batsman down. Warner (as always) saved himself to bowl at the tail and the division 5 hoover did his thing, taking 4 wickets on the day and being very miserly with it. It included a quick stumping from Andrew Tomlinson who also conceded zero byes throughout the 40 overs. Another brilliant performance behind the stumps.
So Ovington won by 137 runs. All the bowlers did a great job, we were sharp in the field and batting was brilliant. Thorpe did well not to make it a sprint stage and instead kept us honest with a day through the mountains.
Man of the match could have gone to any one of the team but lands at the feet of Uwin Waidyaratne after his incredible batting performance.
The wheel keeps on turning and we go again next week.
Match reports by Matthew Wright, Simon Rogerson and Dave Warner