Bledlow Village 30 July 2020

Manager Adrian Manger

Lost by 6 Wickets

SOA 180-7 (40 overs, R Eason 76*, D Watts 36, A Haines 29)

Bledlow 182-4 (O Woodward 54, J Cummings 7-1-41-2)

Bledlow fielded a stronger and younger side than normal in this long-standing fixture and secured a comfortable victory in this contest of 40 overs per side.

Batting first, SOA were restricted by some tight bowling and fielding on a slow pitch.

With some strong drives, Derek Watts made 36, while Andy Haines struck some lusty blows on the small ground. The backbone of the innings was provided by Robbie Eason, who loves batting on this ground, having scored successive centuries on this ground in the past. This time he made 76 not out with two sixes and five fours as SOA reached 180-7 off their 40 overs.

This seemed to be below par and so it proved. SOA kept up their recent tradition of opening their bowling with a father and son combination. Following in the footsteps of Paul and Jake Humphrys were Andy and Josh Cummings, son and grandson respectively of former SOA President Dai Cummings.

Young Josh gave SOA hope with a wicket in his first over. But that only brought in the big-hitting Adam Mould, who soon established the momentum of the innings with a rapid 40. His innings was ended by a smart caught and bowled by Josh, who finished with a respectable 2-41 from seven overs.

With Andy Haines and Brad Rose each picking up a wicket, SOA had hopes of pulling this match out of the fire. These were soon doused by Bledlow's fifth-wicket pair, who smacked 50 runs from four overs to see the hosts home with 13.1 overs to spare.

All the players seemed happy to get to the bar sooner than they might have expected

SOA skipper Adrian Manger admitted afterwards that it might have been closer if it had been a time game.