Cokethorpe School 30 April 2025

Manager Alex Wildman

Lost by 3 Wickets

SOA 217 for 7 (Mark Robey 100*, Bharat  Ramanathan 40)

Cokethorpe 213 for 3 (Dan Hartley 2 for 26) 

Cokethorpe School welcomed SOA on a hot and dry Wednesday, the first time in recent years that 2 sweaters were not required. After losing the toss and being politely asked to bat in a 40 over game, Mark Robey and Paddy Daniel opened for the visitors. Mark lost both Paddy and Matt Launchbury as partners before Bharat joined him for an excellent partnership of 87. Bharat was bowled by the opposition skipper Dan Westmoreland just before Mark completed a superb century. He then retired giving Alex Wildman the chance to be caught behind for a second ball duck. A brisk 15 run cameo from the President and a 22 run  partnership from Nick Bishop and Dan Hartley took SOA to what felt like a respectable 212-7 off 40 overs. 

The school had not won this fixture for some years and needing more than 5 an over felt like a challenge after strong opening spells from the Two Dans, Hartley and Dawson. Their combined 16 overs yielded a wicket and conceded only 40 runs. However Hugo Du Plessis and Archie Ricks both scored big 50’s for the school which took the game away from the visitors, Cokethorpe winning by 3 wickets with 5  balls to spare. 

Our thanks to the school for its excellent hospitality and to Gary Panons and Russell Hayes, umpiring and scoring for us respectively.