Olney Town Cricket Club Olney Town CC 1st XI v Turvey CC 1st XI on Sat 05 May 2007 at
Olney Town Cricket Club Lost by 1 wkt
Olney lose out in last wicket thriller
Report by Charlie Cliché
Newly promoted Turvey were the visitors to the Rec ground on Saturday in match 2 of the Four Counties Cricket League. High flying Olney (joint league leaders) were tackling old rivals Turvey for the first time for decades indeed since Brock and the Griffen brothers played – some things don’t change. Captain Keeping won the toss and elected to bat first. Thunderous and powerful are the best adjectives for the shots which started the innings unfortunately these were delivered by the captain in the home dressing room moments before the entire team crawled out on hands and knees. Vice Captain Chaps still reeling from the Keeping bombshell lost his wicket cheaply. A steady start was regained by the partnership of industrious Hallam 48 and club stalwart Griffen 28. Warren went from golden balls to golden duck in just one week. Good runs from the “explosive “ skipper 23 and spin king Gibbo 13 allowed a middle order collapse to “wobble” the innings before old (not the oldest) Charlie once more wielded the industrious Hallam’s 21 year old bat to record a couple of maximum’s in a tail wagging 39. Keeper Paul 9* and old (actually the oldest) Brad 5 ensured the team used all the balls available whilst losing all the wickets available. The total of 188 was workmanlike and probably a tad under par requiring Olney to field like demons and take all their chances.
Unfortunately, as history will show Turvey, via an unlikely last wicket stand, won the game by one wicket on the penultimate ball. The reality of the Olney performance was the good, the bad and the ugly. Good performances from the occasionally miffed Skipper (1/41) and hamstrung Brock (2/28) was backed up by the aggressive Griffen (3/33) and spin twins (OK with a large age gap) Brown (3/44) and Gibbo (0/22). The Bad bits are probably the indifferent fielding and catching (exception granted for Souster’s glove work - one stumping and one caught between the legs). Special mention to Stuart G. who having landed two terrific pouches on the boundary unfortunately spilled the potentially match winning third. The Ugly bits are probably best glossed over except to say that VC Chaps thought opening the innings and getting a duck was bad and that things could get worse ….but they did as two chances slipped through his fingers. So from guts being dropped to Gutsy dropping an enjoyable and close fought contest that was decided by the narrowest of margins – one ball , one wicket , one (of seven) dropped catches and potentially too many delicious raspberry muffins.
Olney Town Cricket Club Olney Town CC 1st XI Batting
188 for 10
Turvey CC 1st XI Bowling
Turvey CC 1st XI Batting
189 for 9
Olney Town Cricket Club Olney Town CC 1st XI Bowling