Perfect Start to 2026 Season for Ovington Seniors
Well we’re back. The sun is (mostly) shining, The Mire is (mostly) covered in a smooth layer of grass and white clothed players are (mostly) full of enthusiasm and ready to go. Ovington Cricket Club’s senior teams began their 2026 season with an as good as it gets 3 wins from 3 under April skies to provide the perfect kick start to their summer. None of the victories came easily and heroes, new and old, needed to step up to the plate
Saturday 25th September, York 4th XI vs Ovington 2nd XI
York: 146/9 (a.o) (36.2); Singh 46; Busby 3/48
Ovington: 151/5 (35.3); Craven 51*, Armes 41; Singh 5/37
Ovington won by five wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/7351539
Following heroic promotion in 2025, Ovo 2nd Team headed to York Cricket Club for their first game in Division 3 (Galtres). Surrounded by a plethora of cricket matches to chose from, some spectators later claimed that the highest quality game of the lot came in the form of Ovo 2’s vs York 4’s. Granted, not many people and those that did make the claim later admitted that they had never watched so much of a minute of cricket before but it was still nice to get the compliment.
Ovo Captain Benjamin Busby (sponsored by the Busby Family) won the toss and opted to bowl first, not least due to the fact that his team had more broken parts than a 40 year old Transformer toy and if asked to field second they may have seized up and become less mobile than an Optimus Prime missing all his wheels and legs.
The new ball was taken by Owen Price and Brandon Bishop who bowled with excellent control but little luck. Though not taking wickets, they kept the scoreboard under great control and were backed up by some good fielding. When in did come, the first breakthrough came from the field as debutant Sam Bowden (playing his first game of cricket in 16 years) showed what the world has been missing with a swoop, throw and direct hit to affect a tight run out. Ovo had a confident appeal turned down the very next ball and Price made another breakthrough shortly afterwards with an LBW to remove the other opening bat.
For a while, wickets proved hard to find despite plenty of plays and misses and false shot. It was Captain Busby who made the next break throughs getting another LBW then bowling 2nd batsmen soon afterwards. By now, York were beginning to attack the bowling in an attempt to up the run rate and rode their luck slightly in amongst the good shots and boundaries. Busby took his third wicket of the day by bowling the top scoring York batsmen and the two Olivers (Thrift and Craven) combined to affect the 2nd run out for the day. Simon Rogerson took 2 wickets (both bowled) with the final two balls of his 9th over but was denied any opportunity for a hat trick as the final York wicket fell the subsequent over. Sam Bowden continued his good day in the (out) field with a good catch at long-on off the returning Bishop. By then, York had amassed a total of 146, below par on a decent pitch but nothing that could be chased down easily.
The Ovo reply started well as openers Bowden and Tom Armes negotiated some difficult bowling to put on a fifty plus partnership. Armes proved the aggressor with some good shots back past the bowlers and a big six over the leg side on his way to 41 runs. However, once he fell to a slightly fortuitous catch, it was time for a good old fashioned batting collapse. 62 for 0 became 76 for 5 in a blink of an eye as York slow bowler Anhad Singh (who had previously top scored for his team) took all 5 of his team’s wickets. The ship needed steadying and steadying it got in the form of Busby and young wicket-keeper Oli Craven (sponsored by S Knowles Motorcycles). A mixture of good running, bad running, good shots and watchful defence took the sting out of the potentially tricky situation and as the number of required runs began to tick downwards they looked increasingly confident. Craven began playing more shots with boundaries hit both straight and square but it appeared as if he had slightly misjudged his charge as the scores became level with Craven on 47. However, one more boundary hit out to the square leg fence guaranteed his first senior 50. Well played young man. Ovo won the game by five wickets and ensured that they had their first win under their belt. Next week sees the 2nds on the road again as they travel to play Easingwold.
Saturday 25th September, Ovington 3rd XI vs Copmanthorpe 2nd XI
Ovington: 119/9 (40); N. Metcalfe 33; Mosley 3/21
Copmanthorpe: 37/10 (24.1); N. Metcalfe 5/4, Warner 2/9
Ovington won by 82 runs
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/7351670
The thirds rallied together at the Millthorpe Bowl for the first game of the season vs Copmanthorpe.
After a promotion via default the captain was rather reluctant to get hopes too high, after a couple of fairly successful seasons this one feels like it will be more about player development rather than ticks in the win column.
Losing the toss and batting Graham Walton fell early and Aaron Moorehouse (sponsored by nutripact) departed soon after with a good catch on the boundary.
From 13/2 Ovington settled for the next 10 overs with Neil Metcalfe and Spencer Fern (sponsored by York Plant Man) calmly adding runs, both playing some great shots. Both ran well and put the bad ball away with ease as the scoreboard ticked over.
But this is 3rd team cricket and 61/2 became 61/5. From here the rebuild was needed again, Dave Warner and Luke Smith (sponsored by Deniz Best Kebab) dropped anchor and took their time. The 19th over became the 34th over with both still there chipping away. After a chat in the middle it was decided it was time to up anchor and accelerate. But Warner and Smith are idiots. In true acceleration Smith played out a maiden and Warner then missed the ball. Zero runs added, well done boys. Luckily Will Muskett, with a big 6, Gaurav Chandra and Andrew Tomlinson got the job done. 26 runs off the last 4 overs gave us a respectable score of 119.
A picnic in the sun went down a treat and out Ovington went.
Neil Metcalfe was persuaded to open the bowling, and aren’t we glad he did. His first 4 overs were near unplayable. Backed from the other end with some brilliant deliveries from Ranjan Bhattacharyya, Ovington ran riot. Cop were 16 for 6 in no time and the writing was on the wall.
Warner brought himself on as usual throwing god knows what down and Gaurav at the other end was on fire. 3 wickets between them left Cop 37/9 and Spencer took a wicket with his first delivery to leave Cop 37 all out and job done.
Ovington fielded excellently, Tomlinson behind the stumps was brave and solid as always. Muskett and Moorehouse both caught confidently. Walton rolled back the years with a catch at slip and balls chased down to save boundaries in the long grass. Smith took a catch after chesting the ball up like a prime Hiram Boetang. Metcalfe Snr took a sharp chance at slip after an assist by Tomlinson and all in all it was a great days work.
Hero of the day goes to young Toby Metcalfe (sponsored by Agility Trampoline Park) on debut. Unlucky with the bat he was quick and brave in the field. An attempted diving catch is rarely seen by someone that age and all the seniors were very impressed.
Joint man of the match goes to Neil Metcalfe and Spencer Fern. Both impressed at all 3 formats and steered Ovington towards a victory. A huge thanks to Cop who were seriously good people.
We go again next week.