Mixed bag of results for Ovo in late July
Despite some results going against them and some badly timed rain (including the unfortunate cancellation of Funday) both the 2nds and 3rd team remain in strong positions in their respective league tables. Below is a round-up of some of their recent results including once guest report written by someone described by the New York Times as the greatest writing talent of his generation.
Saturday 26th July, Ovington 2nd XI vs Scholes 2nd XI
Scholes: 89/10 (27.2); Roberts 39; Eckersley-Wilson 4/30, Price 3/7
Ovington: 91/5 (22.4); Shahzad 31*, Munir 2/19
Ovington won by five wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6779571
Ovington 2nd XI welcomed Scholes to the Knavesmire with another early start to try and avoid the worst of the zombie hordes attending the adjoining races. Ovo chose to bowl first and with their preferred opening bowling combination working together, they soon made early inroads into their opposition. Owen Price took the first wicket to fall, via a catch by Owen Price that was later declared by Owen Price to be a contender for catch of the season. To be fair, other observers also praised the effort as he had to make plenty of ground from his follow through to where the ball was landing and still required a dive and a one handed scoop. Well done that man. Jack Eckersley-Wilson was also quickly on the board by bowling the other opening bat and then the it all started happening. Scholes managed to lose 4 wickets for 1 run to leave them at a perilous 31/6 and looking like the early start would be followed by the earliest of finishes. Eckersley-Wilson and Price each took two of those wickets, Jack’s coming via another batsmen bowled and a catch from Ashley Garner Steel and Owen’s via catches from wicket keeper Andrew Tomlinson and the healing hands of Sharoon Shahzad. Change bowler Dominic “Breadstick” Everard even induced another edge behind to Tomlinson but the final 3 wickets proved harder to come by. Scholes, quite sensibly, launched a bit of a counter attack with a number of aggressive shots to try and bring their score up to something respectable and finished with a total of 89 all out. Not a match winning score but one that looked much better than it might otherwise have done. By then Breadstick had picked up a 2nd wicket and captain Benji Busby (Sponsored by Valentino’s York) had taken a wicket himself and took the final catch off the bowling of the returning Eckerlsey-Wilson.
In reply, many of Ovington’s top order made starts without going on to make it pay. Kareem Baqai was first to go, managing to thigh a ball onto his stumps that otherwise seemed to be going well wide. Theo Life struck a couple of boundaries before being bowled by a ball that he initially thought was an absolute jaffa only to be told later that he had just played round a straight one. Noah Morgan played some nice shots, especially down to third man, before also being bowled and Ashley Garner Steel inevitably got bowled by a Wily Old Man bowling slow and straight. Khurram Jillani made it 5 from 5 of batsmen getting bowled out, choosing to run round the ball at least 3 times before it hit his leg stump. “Not a good shot” was the analysis of the opposition wicket keeper and in truth, I don’t think KJ was in any position to argue. At 56-5 it looked like Ovo might be finding a way to turn the game into a loss. Then they sent in the nurse who healed it all. Sharoon proved the only batsman on the Ovo team that day to kick on, reaching an unbeaten 31 including 3 powerful fours and two big sixes over midwicket and long off respectively. He was talked through his innings by his captain who also remained unbeaten and Ovo reached their target with time to spare.
The result keeps the 2nd team in the promotion places but there are still plenty of challenges to come before any of those scores will be settled.
Saturday 12th July, Ovington 3rd XI vs Ben Johnson 1st XI
Ovington: 146/10 (33.2); Fern 40, Walton 36; Hebbi 6/38
Ben Johnson: 147/4 (18.2); Huded 51, Wells 31
Ben Johnson won by six wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6780153
On the 12th July, the 3rds took on top of the league Ben Johnson at the Millthorpe Bowl. The team were missing their “influential” skipper Dave Warner but hoping for a good result to keep up their own title ambitions.
Stand in Captain Luke Smith won the toss and chose to bat first after having approximately 13 minute’s sleep returning from holiday that morning. Will Hampel and Graham Walton opened the batting and put on a very quick 41 from the first 7. Will was out from an lbw from which, as he was walking off, said it was going down leg but later admitted was plumb. Spencer Fern (Sponsored by DWUFB) came out to bat at 3, and for the second time this season, Walton and Fern had a 50 partnership with a large amount of them coming from Graham. However, eventually the partnership was broken as Graham was out from a good slower ball from the Ben Johnson bowler. Luke Smith then came out to bat and played a nice dab down to 3rd man for 4, he watched it roll to the boundary whilst walking backwards down the pitch. Luke was eventually caught and bowled when trying to run up the pitch to smash the bowler straight back over his head, but it instead landed safely in his hands. Next in was Ollie Thrift, who was also the next to get out to the Ben Johnson spinner by being bowled by a straight one. However, it was good bowling as he had been turning it a lot before that and had a good straight ball that hit middle stump. Will Stockton came out next. Spencer after a good innings was the next to go, hitting the ball very high in the air and a good catch from the fielder saw him out. Unfortunately, this writer only saw one of the wickets past this point as he went to go get some water from the pavilion, so he’s just going to assume that they were all as a result of good balls. Ovington ended 146 all out, which wasn’t a bad effort.
Spencer opened the bowling from the houses end and Luke opened from the school end. Spencer took the first wicket at the end of the second over. However, it seemed it only made it harder for us as their number 3, unlike ours, was a very good batsmen. He came out and whacked the ball everywhere, which made it very hard to bowl. It led to the first bowling change with Sam Walsh replacing Spencer from the house end and he managed to get their number 3 out with a ball that hit his back pad and skimmed the bail on leg stump. Once again this did not make it any easier for us as their number 4 could also hit the ball very far. From the other end, Bruno Bayles came on to bowl in his first senior cricket game and took a wicket thanks to an amazing one-handed diving catch from Graham. From that point onwards, Ovo struggled but the combination of young debutants and old timers we stuck together. We took one more wicket, Graham bowling and their number 4, who had scored a quick 50, hit the ball straight into Spencer’s hands.
We lost the game, but there was still a good fielding performance with no catches dropped and everyone putting in maximum effort.
Saturday 26th July, Ovington 3rd XI vs Pocklington 3rd XI
Pocklington: 321/4 (40); Sumner 87, Fiorentini 66; Chandra 1/23
Ovington: 139/9 (all out) (35.1); Heaton 37; Pieterse 2/22
Pocklington won by 182 runs
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6780165
After a complete washout week, the 3rds headed back to Millthorpe into a showdown with Pocklington. Early team news showed Pock had gone very strong and Captain Warner needed a plan.
Unfortunately Warner’s plan resembled something that a poor man’s Baldrick may have dreamt up. Warner thought the pitch would maybe do a bit so after winning the toss he chose to bowl, the 3rds at this point were yet to lose chasing this season. That statistic may not have been intact by the the end of the game.
I wont overplay or underplay this, I will tell you very simply what happened. Brandon Bishop (Sponsored by Black and White Cat) bowled well and did create one chance, which captain Dave Warner put back on the floor. Gaurav Chandra bowled well and took a wicket but then tore his hamstring and was nearly airlifted out. He was last seen making final arrangements with his family in case he didn’t make it. Jacob Mellows bowled well but the opposition still teed off. Spence Fern (Sponsored by DWUFB) bowled less well but somehow managed to stem the runs. Oliver Craven (Sponsored by CDA Energy Services) gamely bowled 2 overs at the end and through no fault of his own got peppered into the short leg side boundary. James “Wilko” Wilkinson took some serious tap but also got a wicket. Then we come to Luke Smith and Captain Warner (Sponsored by Dunnington Landscapes). They got absolutely pummelled. And when I say pummelled I mean I’m surprised the ball didn’t just explode it got hit that hard. Between the 2 of them they bowled 83 deliveries and went for 140 runs. No Pock batsman had a strike rate of under 100, one managed a strike rate of 272, in doing so losing 3 of Ovington’s balls. Ovo only conceded 18 extras, showing how much we bowled into the middle of the bat before it flew for a boundary. Graham Walton behind the stumps was exemplary and although we conceded more runs than Warner after Bishop’s half time sandwiches the attitude was very good, ridiculously good in fact for a team setting unwanted records.
In reply, the batting was good in parts. David Heaton (Sponsored by defencereport.com) looked good on his return playing some nice shots to the boundary. Walton again showing age is just a number. Young Will Hampel hit one ridiculously effortless 6 over square leg before calling for a change of bat and inevitably spooning up a simple catch to point. However it was Warner and Smith who provided the truly ridiculous moment, this one all on Warner.
Whilst Smith was just 10 away from his 1000th Ovington runs, Warner called him through for a suicidal single after hitting the ball directly to a newly installed square leg fielder. In Warner’s defence Smith said in the break that he was trimmer and a couple of notches further down on his belt. Warner took this to mean Smith was now able to run the 100m in sub 10 seconds. Turns out we aren’t there just yet.
We live and learn. Next time Warner sees a strong opposition batting line-up he’ll take his medicine and bat first. Smith will press on to be the first Ovington player to run 100m in under 10 seconds #projectsmith.
Man of the match goes to Mellows. He bowled very well but the captain was proud to see the young man field every ball like the opposition they were 10/3 and not 189/2. And in doing this he set a very high standard for others to follow and certainly impressed plenty of onlookers as he swept the leg side boundary like a young Ben Stokes.
We go again next week.
Match reports by Simon Rogerson, Spencer Fern and Dave Warner. Photo by Liam Herringshaw