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 April, Ovington 1st XI vs Malton and Old Malton 2nd XI
Ovington: 191/8 (45); Cookson 76, Garner Steel 35; Hornby 5/42
Malton and Old Malton: 169/10 (40.2): Lock 34; Wright 3/20, Everard 3/35
Ovington won by 22 runs
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/7351273
Ovington 1st XI started their 2026 season at the Knavesmire with a new look side as a number of youngsters (including 5 under 18s) stepped up to cover the absences of several old hands. Matthew Wright (Sponsored by York’s Hidden History) made his captaincy debut for the 1st XI and drew first blood, winning the toss and electing to bat on a warm, sunny day which promised to make for an enjoyable first league match of the year.
Opener, and player of the match, Tom Cookson (Sponsored by The Phoenix Club Bolton) settled in quickly, showcasing his bullish hard hitting to punish overpitched bowling, hitting through the covers and down the ground consistently. When Tom Irwin fell for a duck, Ash Garner Steel (Sponsored by York and Selby Tutors) joined Cookson and the pair enjoyed a productive partnership as they put on 104 together. Garner Steel played the steady hand, trusting his defence and giving Cookson the freedom to play positively at the other end, before gradually expanding his repertoire, unveiling some pleasing cover drives and dumping a straight six to show off his hitting capabilities.
Cookson had some good fortune, getting dropped twice, but continued to play fluently, peppering the boundary with eight fours and two sixes, pulling the ball halfway up the bank to the pavilion, on his way to 76 off 96 balls. Soon after bringing up their century partnership, Cookson and Garner Steel fell in quick succession, leaving Ovington 133/3 with some work to do to finish the innings well. Will Hampel, playing just his second 1st XI game, partnered with Lucas Moore (Sponsored by Good Food Shop) to keep the innings steady, before Wright entered and hit a lively 20 off 11 balls, including three fours in a row to finish the penultimate over.
A wild final over of the innings stymied Ovington’s hopes of reaching 200 as four wickets fell to Matthew Hornby, seeing the over start at 187/4 and finish 191/8. Hornby walked off with a well-earned five-wicket haul, having restricted Ovington’s scoring in the latter overs to good effect.
Ovington took to the field with only ten players, as Cookson was struggling after taking a nasty blow to his foot whilst batting. Within two overs, ten became nine when wicket-keeper Moore was struck just above the eye, receiving a painful cut. Oliver Dodson gamefully stepped up and took the gloves for the home side, as Wright had to get creative with his fields to minimise the damage of limited numbers.
Malton struggled to take full advantage, but still made a steady start to their chase, putting on 48 for the first wicket, with captain Neil Lock in particular looking dangerous as he swung Dom Kitching (sponsored by the Everard Family) off his pads for six. Jack Eckersley-Wilson (sponsored by Twocan Mentor) found good rhythm from the other end and induced an edge onto the stumps from Lock for 34, giving Ovington an opening to work with. When Oliver Stabler then took on a non-existent single to Wright at mid-on and was run out, the game was poised more evenly at 51/2.
The game progressed steadily through the middle overs, with neither side quite taking the game by the scruff of the neck. Wright took out remaining opener Neil Johnson, before Harry
Eckersley-Wilson (Sponsored by Good Food Shop) got a ball to shoot low from a length to remove Charlie Revis a few overs later, leaving Malton 98/4. Another short recovery was halted when Dom Everard was introduced and drew an edge outside off stump, Dodson making a good diving catch low to his right. Shortly after, Everard made further inroads, removing the well-set Thomas Fairburn for 25, caught at mid-on by Kitching, followed a couple of overs later by bowling Will Upton, breaking one of Ovington’s brand new bails in the process.
At 124/7, it felt like Ovington’s game, but a 34-run partnership between Thomas Gormley and Andrew Prowse started to threaten to take the game to the wire. Dropped catches added to the frustration as Ovington made hard work of closing out the game, with Prowse hitting cleanly down the ground to keep the scoreboard moving.
The partnership was ended when Wright reintroduced himself, bowling Prowse via an inside edge and pad to squeeze the ball through. Harry Eckersley-Wilson was also brought back and dislodged Gormley, before Wright wrapped up the innings with his third wicket of the game. Winning after spending 15 overs with only nine players on the field made for a pleasing start to the season for Ovington, who would be hopeful that future wins would not come at quite the same cost of limb.
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 from getting away from them 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 a 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 of 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 in the subsequent over. Sam Bowden continued his good day in the (out) field with a confident 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 the blink of an eye as York slow bowler Anhad Singh (who had previously top scored in the first innings) 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 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 in the division 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 lift the 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.
Match reports by Matthew Wright, Simon Rogerson and David Warner