Cokethorpe School 3 June 2026

Manager Alex Wildman

Lost by 4 Wickets

SOA 139 for 7 (Bharat  Ramanathan 34*)

Cokethorpe 141 for 6 (C Foster 2 for 25, E Owens 2 for 27) 

The rain threatened to washout this year's game at Cokethorpe School but ended up influencing rather than cancelling an enjoyable game. 

A successful trawl of pubs between Witney and Faringdon produced both of 2025's Cokethorpe openers and the 2026 school cricket captain's father who were all drafted into the SOA side at relatively short notice. Ed Harris and Dan Westmoreland dutifully opened for SOA against their old school team which included each of their brothers. Relatively drama free progress was made over the first 10 overs as SOA reached 26 for no loss. The rain then arrived and a timed game was reduced to 28 overs a side. 

Ironically, the principle schoolboy error of the afternoon was made by the SOA skipper during the rain interval by agreeing to a maximum of 6 overs per bowler, despite only having 3 recognised bowlers in his side. 

Play resumed with 18 overs available to SOA, a suitable discussion concerning a measured and risk free increase of tempo was followed in short order by a number of rash shots and the fall of 3 quick wickets ahead of an excellent 46 run partnership between Max Wyman and Shiraz Husain. 34 runs from Bharat took the SOA total to 139 for 7 from our allotted 28 overs.

The score felt light after the rain resumption and so it proved with Theo Antoniou the pick of the school's batters with an excellent 42 not out. The President and Ed Owens both bowled well for 2 wickets apiece but the school kept ahead of the run rate and were worthy winners by 4 wickets with 16 balls to spare.

Our thanks to Cokethorpe for hosting, particularly Simon Hole who spent an hour with fork and blower to get the square playable after the rain, and to Mike Knox for umpiring.