On a warm but windy Sunday afternoon, 11 Men of Enstone (yes, 11, you read it correctly, the skipper actually managed to get a full side!) strode out to field first for a change. Buoyed by last weeks resounding victory over Wytham and with returning heroes Bussey, Sparky, Jizza and Jordan it was a strong looking line up ready to take on a very good Isis side. Unusually Skipper Speke decided that he would open the bowling from the Charlbury road end with Ed Page-Croft taking the new ball from the Old Bell End. Enstone got off to the perfect start when Will Speke took a wicket with the 5th ball of the first over, the batsman gloving through to Keeper Taylor for 0, Spekes metronomic action continued throughout his 8 over spell, beating the outside edge regularly and claiming his 2nd wicket when he bowled the other opener for 11, finishing with impressive figures of 8-7-1-2. Croft meanwhile bowled with pace and aggression in his first spell of 4 overs but unluckily not getting the wickets he deserved. Jordan Rouse then came on to bowl and although a little loose to start with quickly found his rhythm and started to trouble the Isis batsmen who were now feeling the pressure. Unfortunately, Croft dropped the best chance off Jordan that fizzed straight in and out of his hands at mid-on. But Jordan did eventually make the breakthrough with a sharp run out, Taylor whipping off the bails with the batsman well short of his ground. A. Speke (aka Jizza), was then thrown the ball to follow on from his little brother at the Charlbury road end and could have had a wicket early on in his spell when an edge behind was dropped by the keeper, who claimed that the bowler must have lost some pace over the years as the ball died on him. A deserved wicket came in the 5th over of the spell with Budgie casually pouching a 1 handed overhead catch at mid-off, Jizza finishing with figures of 8-1-17-1. The next bowler into the fray was TP from the Old Bell End, with his first over of mainly short, slow deliveries being punished for 9 runs, this was followed by a rare maiden. Then in the 4th over of his spell he managed to get an even rarer LBW call, the ball hitting the batsman's legs directly in front of leg stump, the cross wind helping keep the ball on line, and despite protests from the batsman that he'd hit the ball, he had to walk. Meanwhile Croft had been given a change of ends, this brilliant piece of captaincy paying immediate dividends as 2 wickets fell in 2 balls, first was Isis' most dangerous batsman who, having been previously dropped by Croft, gloved one on 53 to short third man with Freddie Forder taking a solid catch. There was debate as to whether the batsmen had crossed with the big hitting No 7, on 23, taking guard for the next delivery. He then proceeded to have a swing at one outside off stump and edged through to the safe hands of Taylor behind the stumps. 7 wickets down and only 122 on the board, things were looking good for Enstone. TP took the next wicket, tossing up a full delivery taking out leg stump, it was noted however that the stumps fell forwards and were not sent cartwheeling back, finishing with an effective if rather expensive 8-2-47-2 (this could have been better if the slip fielder could actually catch, I think it was a bloke who looked like Gareth Southgate). Croft then took a further wicket, bowling out the new man in style to finish with great figures of 8-1-33-3. Rouse returned to finish the innings Bowling the last man for 11 to finish with 7.4-0-45-1 and to leave a target of 146. After a decidedly average tea Simon Sparky Parker, returning from his epic cross continental journey and having spent the majority of the last week on the beer and Skipper Speke (opening the batting as well) strode confidently to the middle. They made a solid start with both scoring boundaries at regular intervals. Speke eventually perished, bowled by a very good delivery, for a very well made 33 (Although TP did signal a leg bye which Speke claims he hit, the scorer politely refused to amend the scorebook and was called a Twat). Freddie Forder then came to the crease and struck up a great parnership with Sparky and kept the scoring well ahead of the required rate. Sparky then 'cut loose' losing 2 balls with big sixes. He eventually fell to a slow looping delivery, bowled for a lusty 67 with the score on 123. With ony 23 more runs required the Enstone middle order decided to make the game more exciting, first to go was Budgie, contraversially given LBW by guest umpire Ned, for 4. Freddie followed next, caught for a solid 22. Dan ' Fingers' Stewart was then bowled for a duck, claiming that the ball came through quicker than expected, with this advice on board, TP expertley played late down the wrong line to the very next ball and was bowled for a golden duck. Bussey had already come to the crease and watched in dismay the dismissals of Fingers and TP, and with only 9 now needed he was joined by Jizza. Thankfully these two were able to see us through, Bussey playing some classic strokes including a boundary, Jizza finishing off in style by hitting the football posts in the outfield for 4. That makes 2 wins in 2 games, bring on Bampton next week...........
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A close fought match ended in defeat for brave Enstone in thick sea fog… the Enstone captain Will Speke put Astons into bat having arrived late and having decided that he didn’t have time to put his pads on. Astons had been bolstered by the addition of three fine players from Islip. Enstone had called on the youth team to fill the ranks and were pleased to welcome Marcus Croft and Sam Eykyn both still at primary school but whom were soon to show the “old boys” like Freddy how to field! Enstone opened with Ed Croft, who took on the “attack leader” mantle and decided he would take advantage of the slope, he duly earned his right to lead by returning figures of 2 for 17 from 8 overs and may have had more were it not for some uncharacteristic drops in the slip cordon. Pete Anthony at the other end was also very tidy taking 1 for 38, figures which were slightly spoiled by a few late boundaries and a number of expletives which can’t be published. With Kev Anthony missing Tom Peterson decided to slow down his bowling to great effect for 2 wickets, including an excellent stumping. Sadly it was clear that with 92 for one of the Astons senior batsman, their score of 165 was always going to be tough. This was not before a fabulous last over from young Marcus Croft, in which managed to hurl down a maiden of the highest quality! So to the run chase, which commenced after very cheesy lunch provided by our resident Hollywood celeb “manly” Dan Stewart, whom was recovering from a long walk in the peak district. Enstone's batting lineup had a new look to it, with Adam Smith being welcomed back for his first game of the season and Alastair Eykyn (of BBC Radio 5 Live notoriety). After an early bath for Speke dismissed for 9 and a leg side strangle for Freddy for 8 runs a very nice partnership developed between the new boys. Adam Smith went on to make 19 including a sumptuous straight 6 which went into the Paddocks! His exit brought my good-self to the wicket and with promises of taking it easy to support Alastair in his innings, Paul promptly smashed his first ball to Cover and was caught for a golden duck…which was rather irritating. Alastair went on to score 40 including some very tasty boundaries, briefly joined by Tom Peterson who contributed a few lusty blows to take the team within 60 runs off the last 9 overs. “Big” Ed Croft was by this stage handing out a Churchillian speech on the boundaries about “everything being do-able…until it isn’t”. He sent out his son Marcus and his school friend Sam to do his dirty work for him and to their significant credit garnered 3 and 8 respectively. Ed Croft strode to the wicket eventually as our last hope, lever’s whirling like some giant threshing machine….sadly Freddy "the Finger" Forder was umpiring and he promptly gave him out for 1 and that was the end of that. Paul Newton
But our catching on the day let us down. Eight drops, and we were punished for it. One batsman was dropped 3 times on his way to hammering 100. Sandford ended up scoring 238. Possibly 60-80 more than they should have.
Our reply was well paced to begin with, with Will Speke scoring 62 and for a while we thought the unthinkable. But when Will lost concentration, wickets tumbled, the middle and late order couldn't keep up the pace. We ended up 9 down... which surely can't be called a loss ? |
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