Fabulous Finish for Ovo as All Teams Win and 2nds Clinch Promotion
Saturday 13th September, Cross Gates 2nd XI vs Ovington 2nd XI
Crossgates: 81/10 (22.5); Darapu 20; H Eckersley-Wilson 3/25, Price 3/30
Ovington: 83/2 (15.3); Whale 36*, Moore 28*
Ovington won by eight wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6779615
The season was on the line as the 2nd XI travelled to Crossgates in the final match of the season knowing that any points would guarantee them a finish ahead of Church Fenton to gain promotion at the first time of asking since their arrival in the Division 4.
As the players and officials approached Leeds they were greeted with a scene not unlike driving into Mordor as thick black clouds rose above the city, though frankly this gave no clue as to the conditions. Arriving at the main gates of the ground many of the cars were forced to reverse as they discovered that the boundary ran right up to said gates. It was noted that this made the notice in the scorers’ box that, ‘Vehicles inside the ground are parked at the owner’s risk’, not entirely necessary.
Despite concerns over the damp nature of the outfield, particularly at the bottom of the significant slope at one end of the ground, following a week of rain, play was set to begin on time. With the storm clouds ominous overhead Crossgates won the toss and elected to bat and the teams emerged with light drizzle beginning to fall. Crossgates may have been regretting the decision to bat as Tantry fell to league leading bowler Owen Price after only the second ball of the game. Despite some aggression from the new batter the rain began to tear down after only two more balls and the players were forced to leave the field.
A significant delay then followed with umpire Heaton leading a number of inspections of the sodden ground. Given the forecast and the condition of the area around the bowlers’ run-ups it was feared that it may be difficult to restart the match. Work began however to remove the surface water and when the weather brightened with a freshening breeze there was renewed optimism that play would resume. Finally, 2 hours after the initial rain and with a second Crossgates umpire having finally arrived, the players emerged to a shortened 28 overs-a-side match.
Price completed what is likely the slowest over he has ever bowled, with the 2 hours and ten minutes it took to complete enough to make even the England test team blush. It was then that Eckersley-Wilson (Harry), an admirable stand-in for regular opening bowler Eckersley-Wilson (Jack), began to steam down the hill, causing chaos and panic among the newly crowned league champions’ top order. Taking the wickets of NK (13), Fedai (0), and Atru Prakash (4), Eckersley-Wilson set the stage for the division champions’ collapse and finished with excellent figures of 3 for 25.
Despite some excellent timing from Mirza (24), wickets continued to fall regularly to the accuracy of Price, Benji Busby (sponsored by Valentino’s York) and Neil Metcalfe (sponsored by Tom Ashby), with the remaining 5 wickets falling for just 31. The stage was set for Ovington, needing just 82 to win, they knew that 62 would guarantee the minimum required number of bonus points to guarantee promotion.
After a shortened tea interval due to the ongoing conditions, the introduction of third Crossgates umpire on the day, and the arrival of a boisterous group the Ovington 1st XI on the sidelines, Ovington began their chase.
Progress was steady initially, with NK bowling well down the hill and the surface continuing to be inconsistent, Metcalfe fell to a caught behind for 1 and Kareem Baqai fell bowled by NK 11. At 19/2 some teams would have been overwhelmed by nerves. However, Lucas Moore (sponsored by Good Food Shop) and Joe Whale (sponsored by York and Selby Tutors) combined to steady the ship and bring both total within sight with some delicate play of the fast bowlers and strong hitting to the boundary despite the slow outfield.
As the target for bonus points came within news came within sight, news began to filter through that, in one of the biggest upsets in the league this season, Church Fenton had lost at home to bottom of the table Burn. Ovington could now play without pressure as Church Fenton could no longer overhaul them in the table. With the pressure off, Ovington steamed towards the target despite a spell of aggressive short-pitched fast bowling from Mirza, who many agreed arrived too late in the attack.
While academic by this point, the bonus point target was passed and, as a rainbow rose above the Crossgates ground, seemingly signalling Ovington’s impending elevation, Whale struck the winning blow with an excellent straight four down the ground to rapturous acclaim from the travelling Ovington support.
Others can speak at greater length as to the achievement of this promotion. But in a season where there have been multiple challenges around availability and consistency of selection, the entire squad can be proud of their achievements. Indeed, with a squad with an exciting blend of youth and experience, it appears that the best years are ahead for this developing team.
Saturday 13th September, Ovington 3rd XI vs Hemingbrough 2nd XI
Hemingbrough: 110/10 (36.5); Khader 35; Stipetic 6/18, Mason 2/11
Ovington: 111/3 (16.1); Life 46*, Irwin 27
Ovington won by seven wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6780207
The last week of the season saw Ovington 3rds compete at home against Hemingbrough. Rain had been heavy and more was forecast but the Millthorpe Bowl looked as pristine as ever.
Losing the toss with his Czech Republican coin Captain Dave Warner got his way regardless and bowled first.
Seth Young started us off and tore in over after over, giving next to nothing away and was mightily unlucky not to get a wicket or two. At the other end Warner (sponsored by Dunnington Landscapes) bowled a variety of rubbish. The stock slow ball, the slower ball, the really slow ball and then an odd faster one. He made the breakthrough although the batsman was disgusted with the lbw shout (we’ll come back to this).
Next man in and Ovington kept up the pressure, a quick over rate supplemented with miserly figures saw Hemingbrough limp to 27 runs off 17 overs.
Warner did have one last appeal. The first man out had come in to umpire at this point, with a loud and possibly hopeful appeal Warner was told it couldn’t possibly be out as it pitched outside off to the right-hander. The new rules are yet to make an official start in the York leagues but Warner did feel that this particular rule change may make it a batters game.
However everyone moved on. James Mason was dynamite for his team, Warner took a catch and Hemingbrough were 2 down, Warner then dropped a catch but luckily Mason kept his cool and bowled the other batter 3 balls later to leave Hemingbrough 3 down. Mason did also manage to hit Mr Tomlinson clean in the face. Left with lips looking like they’d had more filler then Luke Smith’s sandwiches Tomlinson kept beautifully. 37 overs and not 1 bye.
Jacob Mellows joined the attack and looked dangerous before succumbing to injury.
Luke Smith then watched as his captain set a full field to his spin and then proceeded to bowl 45mph quick seamers to an offside field that didn’t exist. Luckily he went back to spin and cleaned up the Hemingbrough captain for a duck.
But the hero of the day was Mr Adrian Stipetic with an outstanding display to give figures of 6 wickets for 18 runs. Beautiful and consistent leg spin had Hemingbrough in disarray who fell from 75/4 to 110 all out.
It must also be said Ovington rattled through the overs, the captain even declined drinks. Which was fortunate because he later realised at the tea break that he’d forgotten to do them.
Picnics were quickly shared and Ovington went out to bat. Irwin came under early abuse from the opening bowler. The bowler was apoplectic that Irwin kept playing the same shot and let him know how bad a batter he was. I should probably point out that Irwin’s ‘one shot’ was dispatching the half-track balls for 4s and 6s that were pummeled into the leg side boundary. Apparently the left handed Irwin wasn’t good enough to instead play right handed and stroke it through the covers, something we all hope he’ll work on during the off-season.
In the end Irwin fell to an attempted 6 too many but it mattered not. Theo Life on his 3rds debut was incredibly calm, playing shots at will and punishing the consistent bad ball. Stipetic did get to bat at 3 but selflessly gave himself up as Life pushed slightly too hard. Uwin Waidyaratne came in and looked in great touch until getting one that stuck in the pitch and hit a ball that should have been 6 straight to a fielder. And therefore it left Sharoon Shahzad to come in and make sure Life couldn’t get to 50. Sharoon did kindly take a couple of singles before getting bored and smashing it around.
Ovington fired themselves over the winning line, knocking it off in less than 17 overs.
So the day and man of the match belonged to the Ovington legend Adrian Sixpetic. A class act of a gentleman and also a cricketer, hopefully he can be persuaded or even kidnapped and forced to play more next year.
Ovington finished 4th in their senior debut season. The captain would like to genuinely thank all who have pitched up and done a stellar job.
Special shout out to the groundstaff who’ve kept Millthorpe in great shape. Smith as vice has been a pillar of support for the year. And also a special thanks to Spencer Fern who selflessly gave up a few hours of his Saturday morning each week to help set up, even when he was playing for other teams within the club.
And with that we’re done. We go again. (In 2026).
Match reports by David Heaton and David Warner. Photo by David Heaton