Horspath 22 July 2021

Manager Alex Wildman

Lost by 4 Wickets

SOA 231 for 8 dec (J Aziz 77*, A Mallick 35, C Hutton 32)

Horspath 234 for 6 (A Ling 4-48)

On a very hot late July Thursday afternoon, SOA visited Horspath. The skipper's only meaningful contribution to proceedings was winning the toss and electing to bat in the 34 degree heat; his latter contributions being a selection of misfields to assist the Horspath run chase.

Messrs Hutton (35) and Mallick (39) started superbly for SOA, their driving and cutting giving a real platform before Ayyaz fell with the score on 79. This brought Junaid Aziz to the wicket and his elegant 77 not out was the mainstay of our innings as he partnered with 8 of our batsman, although in fairness a number of these partnerships were very brief. The first wicket partnership of 79 was a fond memory at 97 for 4, before contributions from Alex Ling and Sam Down enabled Junaid to marshal SOA to declaring at 232 for 8 from 42 overs.

Alex Ling's excellent opening spell saw him take 3 wickets for only 23 runs in 7 overs. He was well supported by Stuart Walter on his SOA debut and this pair held Horspath to 45 for 4 after 11 overs. When Henry Welch bowled the opposition skipper as he was starting to hit out, Horspath had been kept to 116 for 5. however an excellent display of hitting from Ades who finished on 112 not out took the game away from SOA.

Our thanks to George Honey for umpiring and Richard Grover for scoring.