v Hounslow Leisure - 12th August 2008

Date: 12th August

Versus: Hounslow Leisure

Venue: Ruxley Lane

Result: Draw

Report:

OC’s hosted relatively “new” rivals, Houslow Leisure for another game of 20 Twenty at Ruxley.

OC’s won the toss and elected to bat. In the build up to the game, Collett issued an update on the batting & bowling averages, Parker (Yes M’lady) running away with the batting title and a suspiciously absent Beeks running (have you ever seen him run?!?) away with the bowling trophy, maybe to sell it on ebay.

Back to the batting trophy, Knox and James were neck and neck and put in to open by skipper Bisson, two games were on, the game against Hounslow and the game between these two.

Knoxy & DJ opened well at a steady rate putting on about 40 for the first wicket at about 5 or 6 an over before James was the first to fall at 16. Sparky came on and barely reached double figures before falling at 10. Ben fared little better on 2 before Test Match Trev steadied the ship while Knoxy anchored the innings. TC’s lack of mobility caught him out as he fell LBW for 18 while the tail end provided little resistance with Nate (0) and Dan (6) providing little resistance. Fortunately a fine 57 not out from Knox saw the OC’s to 113 off their 20.

Regular opening pair Dan and Manuwar opened the bowling and provided a mixed bunch, Dan being relatively economical taking 1 for 20 off 4 while Manuwar had an off day taking no wickets for 32. With a lack of variety from Beeks and Mahesh, the OC’s were short of bowling and needed performances from those left. Bisson brought Ben and JB on to try and get the key things of dot balls and wickets. It was a case of like father, almost like son as Ben took 1 for 19 off his 4 while JB, struggling for form earlier in the season showed a great return to form with 4 for 16 off his! Bisson, who according to Trevor was doing a good impression of the new Lynx advert by keeping one eye on the no strikers wicket, then brought his left arm to the party and took 3 wickets for 24 off his 4.

And for the result, there’s something unsatisfactory about not noticing the scoreboard shows “runs required” as opposed to “runs scored”, more unsatisfactory if you don’t ask the scorer to confirm. The match ended in a draw, and it should have been won by either side if attention was paid to detail, never mind, the rivalry continues.

Man of the match – Knoxy for a fine carrying of the bat.

Champagne Moment – It’s been three weeks, do you expect me to remember!