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Result - Demijohns

Sat May 24th Match Drawn

Match report

A demijohn is a ten gallon pot with orthopaedically sympathetic glass handles designed to allow blacksmiths and farriers and farmers of old to down their sack whilst also tilling a field, shoeing a horse, updating their social profile etc. with the other hand.
How fitting therefore that a number of grannies looked slightly worn as the toss was won and we elected to bat. Eyes shifted to the floor and body language was carefully neutral as the captain asked if anyone would like to open the batting or indeed had played a game already this season. Jamie Dare murmured something cryptic about being well in the runs but made it clear that he still had some pre match routines to go through. Meanwhile, the other obvious opener Big Jim was wildly jabbering about having been put through the gauntlet of a meatfest the night before. Too polite to enquire further (the Grannies are a broad and understanding church) we eventually decided to put Big Jim in with Hugo Llewelyn as a chaperone.

Crawley and Duckett did sterling work and actually made batting look easy on a slightly dead pitch. The onlookers wondered why the outfielders stood a good 10 paces in from the rope but as shot after shot pinged out but only garnered 2, realisation dawned that anything north of 150 would be okay to defend. We were 38-1 in the 10th when Hugo departed caught and bowled - the curse of the family relations turning up to watch - and the crowd could see Jim’s hangover physically leaving his body in a black miasma to join the grey clouds above, as he unfurled a choice selection of nudges, nurdles and full blooded drives (all for 1 or 2). Jim was then bowled for 37 which brought Martin Stringer to the crease to bat with Jamie and our most enterprising section of the innings. Squash shots, down the line winners and some actual cricket shots mixed with carefully composed running brought a 61 run partnership off 13 overs, and with time marching on to the traditional 4pm teatime declaration there was time for some cameo hitting from Messrs Stevens , Scottie and Siebert junior, after the captain had unfortunately fallen golden duck to one that did an awful lot through the air and was very quick and probably should have been called a no ball to be fair.

We declared at 178-6 off 41 overs feeling confident that the score was beyond the oppo but did we have the wherewithal to bowl them out?

Things started brightly. Mortlock and Dare, which sounds like a 1970s police procedural drama, opened up for us with Dan’s metronomic medium pace frustrating the batsmen, and Jamie’s skidding leg breaks proving the fastest bowling of the match so far. It was too much for one of the openers, bowled by a ripper, and then a failure to call correctly left the 118 lookalike stranded as Harry Stevens calmly executed the run out. Harry was back in the action to take a catch off Dan’s bowling and suddenly the Demijohns were 3-2 (marginally better in Australian at 2-3) and then consternation as a moonball from Dan brought the top edge, safely pouched by Jamie, taking care not to sneeze or move too quickly.

The DJs had stacked their batting line up cagily though, and their two most experienced batsman then proceeded to nudge, leave and bludgeon expertly, without much sign of making a mistake or giving their wickets away. Spells from Harry and Gina G were seen off and by the time Jamie came back to bowl the number 3 with another one that turned and gripped he had his 50.

In between the myriad of Chinese parliaments at the end of each over to suggest ever more cunning ways to winkle a wicket out, there was time for Will S to pick up a wicket courtesy of Big Jim scooping a lovely catch off the ground at short cover, and then my champagne moment of the game, Jamie bowling a zippier ball which caught the edge and went smack into the centre of Chris Barras’s gloves as he was standing up.

Thank you to all the players, supporters and tea makers and bringers, Gina for agreeing to field and bowl at the last minute to help make us XI, Christopher Dean for umpiring this fixture and the Demijohns for hosting. Next year we might try bowling first and then aiming to chase down whatever is set.

Grannies: 178-6 off 41 overs (Streeter 34, Dare 36, Stringer 37, Stevens 22*)

Demijohns: 115-7 after 40 overs / time (Dare 3-11 off 10 overs, Mortlock 2 -11 off 11 overs, Siebert 1-25 off 6 overs).


Match info

Also played: Dan Mortlock, Chris Barras, and Gina ?

Location
St. John's College Sports Ground,
215 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.

What Three Words: trail.follow.blues