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Match Reports:
1st XI v Harvel
After a fantastic performance the week before the team travelled to Harvel feeling confident of continuing a strong start the season. Captain Wandy unusually won the toss and stuck Harvel in to bat on a damp outfield and sketchy afternoon rain forecast.
Nick and Chris once again took the new ball, however Harvel took the attack to the opening pair who couldn’t start as well as last week. Boundaries galore got Harvel going at 10s for the first 4 overs. A combination of short boundaries, missed lengths and great striking had ODs under pressure and win toss bowl looking village. However, Nick and Chris pulled it back with a flurry of consecutive wickets and Harvel finished the powerplay 48-3. All in all a good start for ODs. Dan Webster and Wandy joined the party, both picking up wickets in quick succession. Harvel now 73-5 and win toss bowl looking like a good call. Dan continued to pick up wickets, even removing off stump (loosened by his brother Chris earlier). Weast replaced Wandy and removed the Harvel tail, including a no ball for having too many on the leg side (6 fielders) which the umpires missed. Happy days all round, Harvel all out for 125. The boys knew this would be a tough chase but the mood in the camp was good.
The good mood didn’t last long, Koot was removed caught behind after a tidy spell from Harvel’s two seamers. The wicket was clearly tough to bat on, moving off the seam and some fairly slow and inconsistent bounce. OJ batted long and was watchful for his 16, eventually being removed by one that spat off a length. Dan Webster was caught behind off the seamer, leaving Joe and Chris a tough task of chasing against the spinners. Here is where the damage was done, the leg spinner and left arm orthodox bowler caused mayhem to the right handed ODs batting line up. With sharp turd and a dodgy wicket, chasing 125 suddenly looked a tall order. Chris was bowled around his legs by the leg spinner, Joe was caught at silly point, Mike was caught turning his bat face against the spin, and ill East the same attempt and the same result. Leaving Wandy and Nick in a spot of bother. Wandy was watchful, putting away the bad ball but eventually fell for 18 trying to put a short ball away. Nick batted brilliantly with Parkey putting ODs within 10 of the target. Unfortunately Parkey and Baylis fell in quick succession leaving Nick stranded.
A tough day at the office for the boys, particularly as we bowled so well as a team.
Match report by Andrew Ainger
2nd XI v Bexleyheath
A particularly damp outfield meant we weren’t too bothered by losing the toss and being asked to field. The skipper called upon Davison and East to open the bowling and keep it tight. With the cobwebs blown away against Orpington the week before Alex was immediately on the money and after a few mighty swipes their opener was cleaned up. Not longer after the number 3 had a hack at a wide ball from East which ended in the hands of Liam at cover. Not long after he replaced East for a 9 over stint at the pavilion end accompanied by cries of “Poulet” and “chicken”. This no doubt thoroughly confused the batsmen as they appeared like rabbits in the headlights and were completely tied down. Every so often they’d have a swipe and get out. Cameron took one of his trademark “worldy” catches but he was to go one better later in the innings.
To make matters worse for the oppo Ash came on at the top end to make it beguiling spin at both ends. He picked up 1 wicket in this spell, a trademark grab by Richard Loader and then thoroughly tormented the number 6 who batted about an hour and a half for 13 and must have missed over half the balls he faced. He was eventually prised out by Kieran who came on for a quick blast. In a Flintoff-like over he passed the bat 4 times and on the 5th ball nicked behind, safely pouched by Louis.
With Liam finishing 9-0-24-3 East returned at the pavilion for a steady 4 over spell that was enlivened by a final ball that was sailing for a straight 6 until Cameron charged round and snaffled the ball as it was passing the boundary rope turning figures of 1-33 into 2-27. Alex returned to complete his allocation for a very tidy 8-3-17-1, which just left Ash to clean up the tail, very helpfully playing no shots to off-spinning balls.
Whilst we felt very confident of chasing down 95 to win, Bexleyheath started with some very tidy opening bowlers. Gaz and Richard looked secure as they negotiated the opening few overs until Gaz was unexpected yorked. Like many of our batters Gary looked comfortable but then played a loose shot skying one for the keeper to nab. At 14-2 there was no need for panic. Richard accumulated steadily and Oscar looked fully in control. And then he was out! Bowled by what looked from the boundary to be an innocuous ball. Cam lasted only 2 balls and at 30-4 things were looking shaky. At this point Kieran came in and played an absolute gem of an innings. Whilst we all enjoyed his thunderous drives for 4 and 6 the highlight was a dismissive clip off his legs for 4. He shared a 28 run stand with Richard who eventually fell for 23 to a very good ball from Bexleyheath's young left arm spinner. Richard’s innings held the innings together and showed all his many years of experience. He’s seen it all before.
A stand of 35 between Louis and Kieran took us to the brink of victory until Kieran and Louis contrived to get out with 2 runs to win. However no dramas as Liam and Ash wrapped up victory - well ok maybe one drama as Ash seemed dead keen on a quick single but Liam hadn’t got the message. So a victory by 3 wickets. Excellent bowling and fielding but could do better on the batting - notable exceptions Kieran and Richard.
Match report by Robin East
3rd XI v Bexleyheath
No Match Report
4th XI v Hayes
So on a surprisingly sunny day, our wonderful skipper kept up his record on winning the toss and to the dismay of John McCarthy chose to bowl, apparently he wanted to watch his son bat and go home, as it turned out he could have left when ever he wanted.
We started well thanks to Henley and Smith who kept it tight and started to put pressure on the batsmen, this was added to when the skipper rested Henley and replaced him with Ansar.
Unfortunately that’s when he made his first mistake, he replaced Smith with Brown who had an off day to say the least, but in his wisdom he bought himself on, he then proceeded to try and copy the baseball style bowling that Brown had so expertly displayed, so whilst feeding the option from one end and offering the batsman as many chances and they required, Ansar and Henley kept things tight at the other however the scoreboard was on fire thanks to the skipper.
Eventually T. Fox decided his hangover had dissipated enough to mention that he may be able to bowl, 3 wickets in 2.2 overs, this really improved the skippers mood .
So having been set 198 for the win, we sent out Harding and Rouse to set the platform for the chase, not the greatest of starts with Harding edging in the first over to the keeper.
No need to panic we thought as the aforementioned Jack Mcarthy strode to the wicket and then decided to try and pull a straight on to get pinned LBW, this say the departure of John, which meant the POB updates went with him, much to the relief of everyone else as we really only had 2 batsman that applied themselves Ansar and Posamolla, once one had run the other out we decided that it wasn’t worth trying to compete and capitulated to 107 all out, not even securing 1 batting point.
Match report by Mark Coles
Under 17s v Bromley Common
A lovely evening for cricket, away at Bromley Common for our first proper match of the season, following weeks of rain or opposition pulling out. We realised how lucky we are with adult support. Howard Smith umpired and Ian Walker and I did the scoring while Bromley Common had no adult support and one of their U17 players umpired.
Alex won the toss and fancied bowling first. Bromley Common had 2 very good batters who clearly enjoyed the chance they were given. Though the number 1 was bowled for 10 by Hugo, number 2 scored 66 and number 3 scored 73. One was eventually bowled by the impressive Ollie Arratoon (1-23 off 4) and the other caught by Rohan on the boundary, trying to hit Hugo (3-27 off 4) for 6, but the damage had been done. Once these 2 were gone, the wickets fell quickly for few runs, Max getting a run-out, then a wicket caught by Marshall and Hugo bowled another. In all our 6 bowlers took a bit of a beating with Bromley Common scoring 180-6. There were a few missed catches and some sloppy fielding plus a few no balls, so work for the training session.
Rohan and Charlie Neil opened our reply. Rohan scored a brisk 27 before holing out to the tallest fielder with a one-handed overhead catch at mid-off. Charlie was also looking good, hitting four 4’s, until caught on 24. Hugo scored 15 before getting run out. Tom, Marshall and Luca fell in quick succession, all for ducks. Our bright and positive start had melted away. Max 20, Alex 2. Ollie 6, Rahul 6 and Charlie Pickup 10 were all overshadowed by extras 26, and we were all out in the 19th over for 136.
At least we finally had a game and we scored 5 batting points and 3 bowling points.
Match report by Bob Bridges
Picture of the Week
Fantasy Cricket
Welcome to the 2024 edition of OD CUACO CC Fantasy Cricket!
Here you are able to make the decisions and choices that you want to make. Who are your big hitters going to be? Who are you going to trust to be your team's captain? Will you make the correct choice when selecting your all important all rounder? The answers will soon be clear in the coming weeks.
Every single adult match played on a Saturday will count towards the points tally so use your talent spotting to select their best possible 11 from a budget of £55 million.
Cost of entry per team is just £6, payment must be made via this website when you set your team up. You can enter as many sides as you like. There will be prize money available (details TBC).
Good luck and thanks for playing!
200 Club
The 200 club is a monthly raffle that occurs throughout the season giving members the opportunity to win up to £200. Entry is just £20 per ticket for the year.
Its not long until the first draw for the season, so if you would like to join, details can be found here along with the payment link.
Ball and Match Sponsorship
We are still looking for ball and match sponsorships for our games this year. These come at just at £25. This is a very important way for us to raise funds for various projects at the club, not covered in our normal budget. The link for this is below.
Training times
The following times are designated for club training sessions. Nets will be available to use for club members outside of these times, and if there is no game on the main square.
Group | Day | Time |
Senior Nets | Wednesday | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm |
Additional 1st XI nets | Tuesday | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm |
U15-U17 | Tuesday | 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm |
Under 11 and below | Sunday | 10:00 am - 11:15 am |
Under 12s - U13s | Sunday | 11:15 am - 12:30 pm |
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