Hampell Hundred Highlight of Holiday Hootenanny
Spring Bank Holiday arrived at Ovington with 6 scheduled games for the club and typically the blasting hot Spring weather jumped straight to Autumn. So far this year, Ovo have had exactly a 2/3 win record on Saturdays and 100% wins on a Sunday. Mondays, however, would turn out to not be the best day of the week for the club but more of that below. Once again, despite results not going entirely to plan, there were some excellent team and individual performances over the weekend with another young cricketer’s first senior hundred proving the highlight.
Saturday 24th May, Ovington 2nd XI vs Burn 2nd XI
Burn: 74/10 (25.4); Price 5/21, Busby 4/16
Ovington: 75/2 (14); Dodson 43; Howard 1/6
Ovington won by eight wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6779511
Ovington 2nd XI welcomed Burn to The Knavesmire with a much changed team from the week before and looking to get back to winning ways. Bowling first it was, of course, Owen Price who took the first wicket via a snick behind to wicket keeper Oliver Craven (sponsored by CDA Energy Services). This was quickly followed by Price taking the wicket of the other Burn opener caught in the covers by Dom Everard and shortly afterwards taking another wicket caught by “Baby Doc” Wilf Metcalfe (sponsored by Ninja Agility Park) and even a 4th caught by Papa Doc in the cordon. By the time the change bowlers came on, Burn were 4 down and staring down the barrel of a low total. Things did not let up from there as Simon Rogerson soon rattled the timbers to claim a 5th wicket for the team and captain Benji Busby (finally sponsored by Valentino’s York) took 4 more. Busby was getting the ball to lift from a good length enticing 3 catches in the offside ring taken respectively by the 2 Metcalfes and Ollie Dodson. Busby’s other wicket was more spectacular, pitching outside the leg stump of the left handed batsman before hitting the top of off stump. Although that should really say hitting on top of off stump as the ball bounced, looped and dropped in a way that caught the entire Knavesmire by surprise. By then it was a battle as to who would claim a 5-for with two half chances slightly suspiciously put down off Busby’s bowling before Kareem Baqai held on to a high catch off the bowling of the returning Price to help the vice-captain win the race.
Ovington subsequently had 74 runs to get, not a large total but one that has been the beating of a many a team who didn’t take the chase seriously. It was Ollie Dodson who did the bulk of the damage in reply, supported by the wise head of opening partner Baqai, and playing a series of eye catching shots on the way to eight boundaries and one maximum. Dodson was particularly strong over square leg and back past the bowler to score a commanding 43 runs at a run a ball pace. When he is in this type of form, no redhead has looked so striking since Lizzie Siddal was painted by the Pre-Raphaelites. After both openers were out, it fell to Oliver Craven and Neil Metcalfe (sponsored by Tom Ashby) to steer their ship to the finish line which they did with a full 26 overs to spare to help Ovo win handsomely.
Neil Metcalfe and Oli Craven batting for Ovington 2nd XI. Despite appearances, this photo was not taken with some sort of Lord of the Rings forced perspective effect. Nor is one batsmen much further away from the camera than the other.
Saturday 24th May, Ovington 3rd XI vs Thorpe Willoughby 2nd XI
Ovington: 281/1 (37); Hampel 100, Irwin 100; K Bolger 1/34
Thorpe Willoughby: 75/10 (18.3); Smith 27; Jillani 3/21, Bolt 2/7
Ovington won by 206 runs
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6780105
The same Saturday saw the 3rds brigade take on Thorpe Willoughby 2nds at the Millthorpe Bowl.
Captain Dave Warner (sponsored by Dunnington Landscaping) had decided to try and keep the pitch dry from overnight rain by the use of some tarpaulin but only managed to turn it into a swamp. Fortunately, as is often the case, Luke Smith was there to rescue the day.
Thorpe won the toss and decided to bowl on what could be described as the Millthorpe slip’n’slide. (Again, Warner’s fault). Kush Sehgal made a good aggressive start but fell to a great catch. After that it was all about a partnership of over 200 between 14 year old Will Hampel and “Third Team” Tom Irwin. Cloaked in a new bottle of Chanel aftershave, Hampel batted well and smelt even better. Never has a young man looked so comfortable at the crease whilst smelling so good. Will impressed all those present by playing impeccable shots to all parts, running the singles hard where appropriate and even hitting a monster 6 over midwicket. Big things beckon for this young man. Amid all the chatter around how good Hampel was playing, Irwin was Irwin doing typically Irwin things. Fast between the stumps and wise of mind, playing shots to behold with a strike rate of well over 100. Both batsmen retired after reaching well earned centuries, the first in senior cricket for Hampel. Smith and Uwin Waidyaratne came in late to increase the damage, both playing aggressively with Uwin especially playing some cracking shots. Ovington declared on 281 with a handful of overs still to bowl and all retired to enjoy their tea.
Tea came and went, Smith was quick to dish out the team cucumbers and the boys went out to finish the job. Warner opened with some slow rubbish, in doing so taking the opening wicket. It should even be said he could also have had the main wicket of Thorpe’s captain, Irwin making a valiant but unsuccessful effort to take the catch. Unfortunately, Irwin has pecs of steel and the ball bounced off these for 4 runs. Khurram Jillani bowled with menace again, taking 3 wickets which could easily have been more. In amongst it, a slip catch from Sehgal was described as real cricket. Not words often used during a 3rd XI game. Ranjan did Ranjan things once more, taking the wicket of their dangerman with a delightful delivery to kill the game and another wicket ending up in the ever safe hands of Smith. And so it was left to James ‘Tesco’ Mason and Ed ‘Lightning’ Bolt to finish the game, both taking 2 a piece with beautiful deliveries.
A special mention to the Great Wall of Millthorpe. Andrew Tomlinson kept for 111 deliveries, most but not all at the stumps and conceded not one bye. Some might say he was more miserly than a BBQ at the Thrifts.
So another weekend and another win for the thirds.
Monday 26th May, Church Fenton 2nd XI vs Ovington 2nd XI
Church Fenton: 154/10 (38.5); Dancer 44; Price 3/33
Ovington: 133/10 (37.2); Price 30; A Emmott 4/37
Church Fenton won by 21 runs
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6779517
Ovington 2nd XI spent a typically wet Bank Holiday Monday under the flight path of Church Fenton air field, watching a series of vintage planes buzz overhead. It was a good job Dick Buckley wasn’t there or he would have been having bad flashbacks to the Doodlebug Summer. 1944 of course being the year that Dick finally left school, after a long and distinguished teaching career.
Anyway, cricket.
Owen Price captained the team on the day, choosing to bowl first and doing a good job to organise and marshal his team on a potentially difficult day. He was, of course, being closely watched on and monitored from afar by his overlord as Big Brother is always watching you.
There will be a day this summer when Price plays for the 2nd XI and not take the first wicket, although this was not that day after he got one to loop off the batsman’s glove to young Oliver Craven (sponsored by CDA Energy Services). For a while following this the game belonged to Church Fenton as they raced up to 50 runs in no time at all. Not unsurprising for a ground with such a small outfield but not what the Ovington players wanted to see. It took a smart piece of cricket from Spencer Fern to change the game as he cleverly got the shiny, hard, new ball smashed into and straight back out of the car park and away into the great unknown. The Church Fenton batsmen noticeably found the softer and older replacement ball harder to score off. Smart. Order was also restored somewhat by the introduction of Simon Rogerson from the pavilion end. One look at Rogerson’s physique might tell you that this is a man who does not like going for runs and once again he managed to slow the scoring rate. This was not the only thing he slowed down after taking a with a wicket with a his very leisurely first ball and only bowling slower and slower from there. Dom “Breadstick” Everard came on at the other end and, as is typical of Breadstick, looked dangerous whenever he hit the cut strip. Dom repeatedly beat the bat and took 2 wickets in the process. The 1st of these wickets was via a snick behind to Craven, who was having an increasingly good day, and the other via the safe hands of Sharoon Shahzad at point. However, the home side managed to keep hold of wickets and began to accelerate after drinks, reaching 130/4 and eyeing up 200. It was a good come back from the Ovington bowlers to prevent them doing so, beginning with Spencer Fern (sponsored by DWUFB) who removed the top scoring Church Fenton batsman via another catch behind. Dave Warner (sponsored by Dunnington Landscaping) came on for a single over to help Price shuffle his bowlers properly and if Rogerson was bowling in slow motion then Warner must have been bowling in Matrix style bullet time. Still, it proved too much for the batsmen as he managed to entice one to pick out Will Hampel at square leg and with the following ball drew the batsmen out of his crease as Craven rapidly whipped the bails off for a stumping. At least, that is what the scorecard says. The final batsmen were removed by Owen Price via another edge behind to give Craven his 5th victim, a juggling catch by Fern off Price and then by Simon Fricke hitting off stump.
Going out to bat, Ovington fancied their chances of chasing 154 on a pitch that they still contended had more runs in it than that. However, Ollie Dodson managed to send an early and easy return catch back to the bowler to leave his team one down. Will Hampel and Ashley Garner Steel were then at the crease and not for the first time this season, Ovington found young batsmen facing slow and accurate bowling led to a low run rate. This did not alarm or concern Ovington and would not be a problem at all as long as Ovo didn’t lose wickets, say through a couple of run outs. Ovington then lost both of their young batsmen to run outs. A pair of classic run outs with one batsmen run out after being sat on his handle and not backing up and the other undone by a “Yes. No. Maybe. Lets discuss. What do you think? Get back. No, you get back. What are you doing at the same end as me?” calling sequence with their batting partner. Sharoon was soon sent back due to a slightly unlucky LBW and Ovington were 30/4 and lacking any momentum. Breadstick hit one imperious pull then got confused by a full, loopy, slow ball and was bowled out. Craven battled bravely through a knee injury but could only manage 14 runs and Ovo looked like they might subsequently subside rather meekly. The fightback by the family firm of Warner and Fern looked to be in vain but the two batted well before Warner got a shooter to trap him plumb LBW. Spencer was joined by Captain Price who began playing a series of excellent shots including one six back over the sight screen that was clearly the best shot of the day. Spencer showed his talent and potential but became the 8th batsmen to fall with less than 100 runs on the board. Price was still playing some excellent shots to find the boundary and Rogerson joined him to play a few absolutely filthy shots that also managed to find the fence (mostly at cow corner). However, Hollywood fairy tales do not come true and just as the Ovington players dared to dream, first Rogerson and then Price played one shot too many to fall for 22 and 30 runs respectively. Ovington ended up all out and still short by 21 runs. Two points secured on the day and 12 points for the weekend wasn’t bad and still leaves the team in a decent position in the league table.
Ovington 3rd XI were also due to have a game on the Monday and ended up getting the best result in the club as their opponents Hillam conceded due to lack of players. Ovington rise up the table, nosebleeds galore for such heady heights.
We all go again next weekend as the slightly topsy-turvy 2025 season continues.
Match reports by Simon Rogerson and Dave Warner. Photos by Luke Smith and Ben Craven.