Over 70s County Champions!
But it’s a shared title with Kent after a rain wrecked final ends in stalemate
The joint Oxs/Berks Over 70s XI were crowned County Champions this week alongside their
play-off final opponents Kent when their Championship game at Cheshunt CC fell victim to
the weather after just 28 overs of the first innings.
The game only went ahead after an 8.00 am pitch inspection and when the captains went
out to make the toss just before midday both were praying the coin would come down in their
favour as there was little by way of a decision to make.
It was a case of win the toss, field first and use the conditions to restrict the batting side to a
low score or indeed bowl them out, to leave a nice easy chase in better batting conditions
later in the day in during the second innings. And it was Kent who looked to hold all the aces when they won the toss and ask the joint Oxs/Berks XI to bat.
With the ball unsurprisingly nipping around off the pitch, the visitors’ openers Derek Watts
and Ian Stuart were in no hurry and initially looked to see off the Kent opening attack of
Derek Towe and Terry Edwards.
Survival and risk free accumulation looked to be the name of the game but Watts refused to
be tied down as he struck four boundaries during his half hour stay at the crease.
Stuart meanwhile was battling away and keeping the scoreboard ticking over nicely and the
pair had taken the score on to 31 in the 8 th over before Towe managed to sneak one through
the defences of Watts to bowl him for 18 off 24 deliveries.
New batsman Charlie Anderson dug in beside Stuart but both found run scoring difficult and
the pair only added a single in the next two overs before Stuart was trapped lbw for nine off
28 balls again by Towe.
New batsman Ian Harvey fought gamely but could only manage three in 23 balls before he
was trapped in front by first change bowler Stephen Simonini when the score was on 44, and
a further three was all that was added before the obdurate Anderson was removed for nine
off 31 balls when he was caught by Chris Swadkin, again off the bowling of Simonini.
Skipper Adrian Manger (12 not out) and Pete Burrowns (two not out) then steadied the ship
somewhat as they added 16 priceless runs for the fifth wicket before the umpires called a
halt to proceedings at the end of the 28th over.
No further play was possible and given the fixture had already been postponed from the
previous week – reluctantly both sides had to accept the inevitability of a shared title.
After the game a frustrated but resigned Ox/Berks skipper Adrian Manger said: “Nobody
wants to see a long hard season of competitive cricket left undecided in this manner but we
can’t fix the weather.
“Winning the toss was vital and it was soon very clear that batting was never going to be
easy, but we were hanging in there and were just starting to turn things around when the rain
came.
“Had we been able to bat on and maybe post 140 or 150 it would have taken some getting
and we would definitely have been in with a shout if we’d picked up one or two early wickets.
Sadly we’ll never know what might have been.
“Its been a great season and its been a privilege to captain a squad that, despite only
coming together in 2024, this year truly lived up to its full potential by only losing one game
to eventually go all the way to this final round, where they battled hard in extreme conditions
to remain in the tie with a shot at winning before the game was washed out.”
Match Report by R.Clapp