Shiplake College 14 May 2025

Manager Craig Foster

Lost by 1 Wicket

SOA 187 for 7 dec (Bharat Ramanathan 63, Kazim Nawaz 56, Arsalan Khattak 35)

Shiplake College 189 for 9 (Ben Jefferis 6-0-40-3, Richard Pye 2-0-19-2)

It was a lovely sunny day at Shiplake, whose head of cricket insisted SOA batted first. We opened with the old and new combination of Patrick Arnold and Arsalan Khattak, who got us off to a good start. The incoming pair of Bharat Ramanathan and Kazim Nawaz got down to work and produced a century partnership. The next four batters scored six runs between them before the declaration at 187-7.

We enjoyed a lovely meal of a green Thai chicken curry and rice before heading out to the field. Shiplake opener McConkey had a nice innings of 59 before being bowled and the only other contributor was O'Boyle with 29. Ben Jefferis did not start too well but the skipper decided to give him an extra over - a move that brought him three wickets, while Richard Pye had two wickets in his two overs.

Shiplake were nine wickets down with five overs to go but No 10 Perkins batted nicely for 31 to guide them to a narrow victory.