2015 Season Review

PRESIDENTAL REFLECTIONS

I look back on the 2015 season with happy memories of another busy SOA cricket season completed.  It was an honour to have been your president and thank you to all who made it an enjoyable season for so many players, officials and spectators alike.

Of our 56 scheduled fixtures we recorded 14 wins, 17 losses, 7 draws and one tied match. Those of you who are quick with the maths will have already deduced that 17 matches were cancelled, despite only 7 games being lost to the weather. It proved to be a frustrating time for players, match managers and groundsmen that 7 of our scheduled fixtures were cancelled by the opposition who could not raise a side. It was very disappointing that SOA also had to cancel 3 games when we were unable to raise a side. Apologies to our friends at Tiddington, Amersham and Tiverton; I trust we will do better this year. My thanks to the match managers for all their hard work in assembling the teams only to be let down at the last minute, very frustrating for all concerned.

Sadly a few of the cancelled fixtures were with some of our longer standing opponents. The committee has taken this into consideration when reviewing fixtures for the 2016 season, some have been dropped with new opponents filling the blanks. My thanks to Colin for all his hard work.

The issue of SOA player shortages was also compounded by the introduction of the Oxfordshire 60+ side and the Oxfordshire 50 + B team. Regular names who traditionally would be first on the list or reliable people to call upon when needed were now unavailable. However, this did provide us with the opportunity to bring in new players. AJ’s new prospects list proved invaluable. It was good to see many new faces turning out and subsequently becoming new members. There are many I could mention but of the new younger players Steve Dobson and Max Mannering really impressed. I must also acknowledge the tremendous impact and commitment we received from two senior new members Marcus Charman and Phil Goodliffe. Marcus played more games than any other individual and always answered the call when we were struggling. Phil’s enthusiasm and assistance in sourcing other players was a huge help to me especially during the western tour. More about the tour later….

2015 being an Ashes year we welcomed our regular Australian touring teams Canterbury Melbourne and Melbourne XXIX Club.  Both games were held at the University College ground. This proved to be an excellent venue, SOA member Rob Eason having taken over the role of groundsman earlier in the season. Although the SOA finished on the wrong side of both games the day’s cricket and the evening BBQs were enjoyed by all. The other mid-season social event that stood out for me was our annual game at the Oxford Downs to mark the end of their cricket week. It was wonderful to see so many past Presidents in attendance.

So, to the Western Tour. It rained…………. The first week began in brilliant sunshine so it was particularly galling when we had to cancel the first fixture against Tiverton Heathcote because we only had 8 players. This was caused by several late withdrawals from the tour party for the first week. We were offered numbers from the opposition but as we had 4 ‘senior’ players potentially having to play every remaining game of the first week I made the decision to cancel. If only I knew what was to follow from the skies above for the rest of the tour, the weather forecasts being completely wrong.

We did manage a victory the next day against a weak Axminster side, Steve Green continuing where he left off last year scoring a solid hundred. The main talking point of the day being AJ’s late umpiring call of No Ball after the President lost his off stump, priceless. He always could read the game well. After that it rained and rained, we did manage a 40 over game at Sidmouth albeit we were very lucky to start. My thanks to the Sidmouth groundsman for letting us play - a league game would never have started. It was a close game with SOA making 204 and Sidmouth getting home with a couple of overs to spare in the gathering gloom, we did not see the sea all day!

Good numbers arrived for the second week but sadly it continued to rain. We only managed a T20 game at Instow late on the Monday which SOA won. Heroic efforts were made by North Devon to accommodate us for another game on the Tuesday and also on the Wednesday following an early cancellation of the Taunton game but alas our efforts were in vain.

Despite the weather those who made it to our new base in Exeter had a really good time finding things to do off the field. Even the proposed fishing trips were cancelled. One abiding memory was Beach cricket at Burgh Island. The perennial Peter Andrews batting in horizontal rain swept in on a south westerly- force six gale wearing his blazer was a sight to behold.

We returned home to dry out and to look forward to my President’s match six days later. Thankfully the sun shone on this day and for me, turned out to be the highlight of the playing year. Tony Lurcock’s XI once again provided the opposition with Sandford St Martin CC providing the venue. It was a wonderful day shared with old and new friends, the cricket was excellent with Damien Wiskin scoring an unbeaten century to win the game for the President’s XI.

The seasons climax was the Annual dinner, held at The Cherwell Boat House, Oxford. 63 guests enjoyed an excellent meal before being entertained by former Leicestershire & Warwickshire cricketer and now Test Match Special commentator Charles Dagnal. There followed the obligatory question and answer sessions mixed in between some highly entertaining story telling. I was delighted to announce during the evening that Paddy Daniel had agreed to be our President-elect for the 2017 season. 

May I thank our Scribe, Tony Lurcock, who each year assiduously puts together and edits the Annual Report and once again my thanks to all those other volunteers involved in running our great club and my good wishes to Chris Hutton as he embarks on his year as President of The South Oxfordshire Amateurs CC.

PHIL MANGER (SOA PRESIDENT 2015) 

SEASON 2015

In an overview of the season two features stand out: the large number of matches which were never started, and the number which were high-scoring and/or led to close finishes. The games one would most have wanted to see would surely include that against the Old Waynefletes, where SOA chased 284, to win by one wicket with only a few balls remaining, and against St. Edward’s Martyrs, where SOA ended 16 short of the opposition’s 304-4 dec. with nine wickets down. Another thrilling conclusion was at Bledlow where a twelve-year-old boy shared a last-wicket stand of 38, only ten runs short of a Bledlow victory. Of course, a match does not have to be high-scoring to be exciting, as the manager notes in his report of the Stowe Templars game (31). The T20 matches have certainly been an attraction for members, and, importantly, are introducing younger club cricketers to SOA cricket through the back door, as it were. 

Some of the older members perhaps feel that they missed out in their youth, when they see the tremendous opportunities for colts cricketers nowadays, but opportunities of their own are now appearing. The inter-county Over 50s competition had been around for a generation, and SOA members have represented, and indeed captained Oxfordshire at this level over the years. Much more recently Oxfordshire entered the Over 60s competition, and last year another team was launched, as the Manager of Game No. 3 writes; 

A new early season fixture for the club was the inaugural match of Oxfordshire's newly formed 50+ B team, and was seen as a useful early workout, and allowed our opposition to have a look at a few new players coming into the Over-50 squads. A rather half-hearted attempt to raise an Oxfordshire Over 70s side never quite made it into double figures, although several players of that vintage appear regularly in the reports below.

Looking at the teams for these competition games, one can recognise the names of several former SOA regulars who were presumed to have dropped out of cricket, if not out of life, and are now attracted by the hope of representational fame. More significantly, these teams are at times competing against SOA match managers for the senior players who have traditionally been the bedrock of SOA cricket. Whether or not this is a good thing for the Club is not for discussion here, but what is an undoubtedly good development is the involvement of many younger players, from top local clubs, taking a part in SOA cricket as players and managers.

‘Congenial aftermaths’

Some years ago the scribe introduced the son of a friend to SOA cricket. This young man reported to his father that it was ’terrific - they go to the pub before the match as well as after’. The report of SOA against Shipton-under-Wychwood on 26 August 1936 shows how rooted this tradition is in the Club (‘the skipper’ is Malcolm Elwin).

Most of us met at the Mitre, Oxford, whence Potts guided us at a killing pace to Shipton, while Edmonds fetched Bowtell from piscatorial retreat at Radcot. We lost 65 for 5; then the skipper had to go in in a hurry because Potts, tired after his long innings against Bedfordshire on the previous day, refused to go in. Bowtell and the skipper just doubled the score... They had 37 for 3 and 90 for 4; then the skipper took three wickets in a row, and Plum finished them off. Ten of us with Bishop [umpire, I think; not Nick] visited the Shaven Crown, after which the skipper succeeded in taking Plum home in spite of running out of petrol... This was generally voted one of the best games of the season - a beautiful summer’s day, a beautiful ground, and a congenial aftermath.

Notable this year was Nick Pykett’s management of the match against the Nomads at Tiddington. Stalwarts of the Club were invited by Nick to take a day out at Tiddington, including lunch, and it proved to be in all respects a day, and an evening, to remember. 

Bledlow

Mike Knox reports on another memorable match at this lovely ground, where SOA have played since the 1940s. This is an opportunity to reprint an extract from the 1993 Report, which not all members may have seen. Richard Allan was President, and quoted, ‘as a delightful example of the Never Say Die side of our Club’ a letter from Bryant Fell, Malcolm Elwin’s nephew.

For the match at Bledlow on the Sunday, Malcolm had a minor counties strength side at 6 o’clock on the Saturday. By 9 o’clock the following morning, he had three - himself, R H Plumtree, and a South African undergraduate whose name was Deloony (or was it Nicholson), who was a very good bat. They arrived at the ground with the three. Malcolm won the toss, and told the South African and ‘Plum’ not to get out while he went off to find eight more from the local hostelries. He came back with eight, including a man on leave from Rhodesia who had not played for some twenty years. The score was 10 for no wicket. The undergraduate scored runs while the Rhodesian, who came in after five wickets had fallen, stonewalled. Malcolm declared when the Rhodesian had made a double hundred. Then the South African, Malcolm and ‘Plum’ bowled out the opposition.