Radley College  8 May 2025

Manager Patrick Knightley

Lost by 3 Wickets

SOA 193 for all out (Steve Green 74*, Patrick Knightley 44)

Radley College 194 for 7 (Leigh Tomlinson 3 for 44)

The trip to Radley is always a highlight of the SOA season, just a tremendous day out all round. This year was no different.

Last years fixture required a lot of "match management" with Radley turning out a 3rd XI to face us on the 2nd XI pitch (which seems to be our new home for the fixture sadly). For this years fixture we now had the Radley 2nd XI playing against us which would offer a sterner test.

A week out from the fixture availability was looking a little dicey, however, I leant on some of my 1st XI players at Cumnor CC and saw a perfect opportunity to introduce some new blood to the SOA. We welcomed Nawaz Ali, Sameer Hashimi and the much-heralded Rory Nicholson (more about that later). I also somehow convinced SOA and now Cumnor stalwart Matt Launchbury to keep wicket.

The SOA came out on the right side of an arranged toss and chose to bat. A quickfire start from Arsalan Khattak got us to 31 before the first wicket fell. Carrying a bit of a niggle and with plenty of bowling in the side, I thought maybe a little dart at 3 could be in order. I walked out with every intention to bat "properly" but after cover driving my first ball for 4, I couldn't help myself and was back in the pavilion 31 balls later with a score of 44 and the SOA sitting comfortably on 98-3.

Matt Launchbury then fell cheaply before Stephen Green swash buckled his way to a brilliant 74 off 60 balls before honourably retiring from the fray - perhaps we should have kept him out there....

A flurry of wickets brought Rory "the Mountain" Nicholson to the crease at number 8, I had spent much of the afternoon waxing lyrical about his all-round capabilities and it was only inevitable that a 10-ball duck would follow! Two more ducks and the SOA were bowled out for a competitive 193 from 34.1 overs.

The pick of the bowlers for Radley was young Harry Fullalove who was also full of wickets and dot balls.

Tea would be served in the circle pavilion and it did not disappoint.

We had a wonderful choice of delicately displayed wraps with Chicken Ceaser being the most popular flavour just ahead of the Ham hock. The cake offering was equally delightful with Victoria sponge and lemon drizzle the headline acts.

With multiple fixtures occurring there was multiple tables of food set up with each fixture in mind. Towards the end of dessert, Matt Launchbury noticed that one of the other fixtures had left quite the surplus of lamb koftas and rocky road brownies on the service table...

If one thing is important to the SOA, it's that food does not go to waste.

We did our part and made sure it was all eaten, perhaps not the best idea before taking the field! 

The second half soon began and it became quite apparent that the Radley team have had ample coaching when it comes to batting and they set about the task diligently. Rory Nicholson bowled a superb but unlucky opening spell conceding 27 from his 7 overs picking up 1 wicket. 

With Radley rattling along, pace off seemed the best option and Leigh Tomlinson and Azlan Sharif picked up 5 wickets between them but were also not able to completely stifle the Radlians who continued to score at a rate.

It looked like they would cruise to the total 3 or 4 down but a flurry of wickets gave the SOA a sniff before Radley closed out the game 7 down to condemn us to a 3 wicket loss.

Once again the star for Radley was Harry Fullalove who alongside being full of wickets was also full of runs as he top scored with 53*.

Radley as ever were tremendous hosts and invited us over to the main pavilion for pizza and beers. A Great end to a wonderful day.