Match Reports 2014

Bartlemas/East Oxford v RTCC at Lincoln College, Oxford

We bid farewell to Hugh, AndyC and Shaun but were bolstered by the arrival of Barrie, Martin, Alan and Natalie - the latter taking the role of official photographer after declining an invite to play. Lunch was taken in The Rusty Bicycle. Disappointingly no one made a single chain pub gag. Raj spied a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire board game on the shelf next to him and entertained us during our ridiculously long wait for food by taking the role of Chris Tarrant. Many useless facts were slowly learnt and quickly forgotten.

Onto the game and a first for us at Lincoln College against the Bartlemas invitational 8 (we lent them 2 fielders) for a T20 20 20 20. The wicket looked tired and screamed 'low bounce'. Bartlemas batted first and found scoring difficult. Raj soon won an lbw. In fact I think he won 2 of them.

With about 5 overs left the score was only about 50. The number 3 was joined by Ali and they managed a few profitable overs before Barrie took 2 in 2 balls (a stumping for Chris and another lbw). Our first innings then followed a similar pattern. The number 3 bat and Ali proved a tasty opening pair. Barrie was bowled round his legs. Think Raj was lbw. Martin counter-attacked but perished in the covers. It was left to Chris and Alan to strike some late boundaries aided by several wides to achieve parity off the last ball.

Bartlemas' second innings proved remarkably similar. A slow start followed by a late flurry. The chap who was lbw first ball in the first innings was lbw again. The number 3 was bowled round his legs. The other opener was run out. The young lad retired hurt after taking a blow on the finger. Alas this bought Ali to the wicket to join Anton and he smashed a rapid 50. Not for the first time this season my bowling had to be retrieved from the neighbouring pitch. 118 to win, then.

Out strode Simon and AndyP. However, Ali on this wicket was a somewhat different proposition from the day before. He quickly bowled them both with Simon taking possession of the duck cap. Matthias and I added a few before he got a ball from Ali that nearly defied physics. A borderline leg side wide somehow turned left after pitching to hit leg stump. Martin then struck some fine lusty blows before being bowled giving himself some room by one that kept low.

Stuart joined me with about 60 needed at a shade under 6 an over. Bartlemas employed an in / out field - in for Stuart, out for me - but we kept finding boundaries and singles. Stuart had an almost uncanny knack for finding the gaps in a tight ring and even when the ball went to a fielder we ran anyway. We did enjoy 2 slices of luck - the double lbw guy was bowling a testing spell out of the sun but he had to be taken off after hurting his shoulder.

Then the sun went behind a cloud so we could actually see the ball rather than a dark blur coming towards us. We made it count and got over the line with an over or two to spare. Oxford 1 RTCC 2. There was time for a quick beer and a team photo on the pavilion steps featuring obligatory jazz hands before an assortment of weary limbs headed back down the M40.

Thanks Oxford, see you next year.

DT