Sun Jul 19th The Grannies lost by 6 wickets
Match report
Once again a slightly frazzled match manager faced far too much competition from The Lords Test Match and The Open golf to be able to pull together a Grannies team and so it was once again Hartley Wintney Cricket Club, a few mates and a few mates of mates who took to the field against the Demijohns. Following an unfortunate injury to Hodgson while bowling, at the end 3 "Grannies" could boast a combined age of 33! That two of those players (aggregate age 24) accounted for all the wickets taken by the Grannies was indicative of past failings in selection policy and contradicts the generally received wisdom on the failings of youth.
Glorious sunshine meant the St John's college ground presented as pretty a setting for urban cricket as you could wish for. The travails of driving in Oxford meant a late arrival for many of the Grannies, including the skipper, and so the toss and decision-making were performed by Yarker who performed this task remarkably well, calling correctly and deciding on batting. With only 5 Grannies in attendance at this point that was a shrewd move.
A terribly British approach to the batting order resulted in a lot of "after you", "no, no, after you", meaning that, at one stage, fully 5 individuals were padded up and ready to go. Given none of those individuals were Grannies, it is clearly the case that news of Grannies batting collapses has travelled further than we realised.
In the end Whiteman and Puddifant started us off, cautiously at first and with growing assured ness until Puddifant was unable to resist any further the gentle in-swingers of the opening bowler and played all round one. At the other end, after a long break from cricket, Whiteman was starting to spot the bad ball, as evidenced by the fact that his first 6 scoring shots crossed the boundary, one particularly juicy inside edge speeding away through midwicket to the consternation of all of us with half an eye on fielding later.
Puddifant was replaced by Ely but he soon departed to be followed by a sad succession of Grannies batsmen who could have gone on after reasonable starts. Williams, Moss and Hodgson came and went and among them Whiteman ended on 58 and suddenly, albeit amidst little panic, Grannies slumped to 128-6, then 135-7 with the departure of Gregory Snr. Things looked rather serious.
However Philpott and Yarker came together and steered the Grannies to some form of respectability, declaring, perhaps generously, on 216-7 off 43 overs with Philpott 47 no and Yarker undefeated on 20. The over rate was such (43 overs in nearly 3 hours) that the declaration came at just after 5pm giving Demijohns probably 33-35 overs to achieve the target.
Then came the really encouraging part of the day when following early spells from Ely Snr and Hodgson that had failed to penetrate, the skipper went for youth, tossing the ball to Ely Jnr. And with the first ball of a spell which yielded 3-68 in 8 overs, the breakthrough was made with genuine turn. Indeed there was something approaching a masterclass in leg spin bowling from young Ely whose use of flight and spin belied his years.
At the other end the ball soon found its way to Gregory Jnr who started drifting the ball away on the breeze and then turning it back into the right handlers. He earned his wicket by deceiving the Demijohns no 5, who chopped on, and finished with highly creditable figures of 1-27 from 5 overs.
Two spinners, bowling in tandem, producing genuine movement in both directions off the pitch and through the air, aged 11 and 13. As far as the skipper was concerned it was joyous and they well deserved their success. Indeed, as noted above, the aggregate age of our wicket takers was 24. The aggregate age of all those bowlers who failed to take a wicket was conservatively estimated to be 250. No wonder old men are grumpy.
Plaudits should also go to 9 year old Ben Williams who gamely commuted from end to end as a specialist Fine Leg and proved an able substitute for the stricken Hodgson.
In truth we didn't quite have enough runs but the Demijohns reached their target with just 15 balls to spare so overall the game worked well and the Demijohns were convivial hosts who played the game the right way and made it a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.
Match info
Match Managers: J E Philpott & D Ely
Location
St John's College Sports Ground,
Woodstock Rd,
Oxford,
OX2 7AD
How to get there
Travelling north on the Woodstock Rd in Oxford the turning is on the left after Frenchay Road but before Lathbury Road on the right. It is difficult to spot as it runs between two new (as of 2014) pillars and there is no sign.