Cumnor Vs Horspath 30th August 2008

There is always something highly competitive, entertaining yet slightly repetitive about matches between Cumnor and Horspath. In three competitive games this season (two league matches and a Village Cup final) 1474 runs have been scored with all three matches won by Cumnor batting second and gaining the runs in the last moments of the game. For this encounter the conditions were dry, hot and sunny for the first time since July, and rather humid.

The game had a quiet start with Cumnor winning the toss (again) and inserting Horspath. Robbie Eason and Matt O’Connor opened, moving along nicely until Matt was given out LBW to Carl Thompson with the score on 34. Ollie Robinson and Ned Murray at three and four were dismissed for one run, run out and caught in the slips respectively. Will Eason went in at five and the score stayed on 34 for five overs as Robbie and Will steadied the ship. And then the action started. Between the 15th and 51st over Robbie and Will put on an almost chanceless partnership of 210, each scoring a century in the process before Will was caught by Thompson for 106. The innings was finished off by Ben Cook, who launched a characteristic six into the woods off the last ball. The final score for the innings was 257 for 5 with Robbie on 116 not out. Robbie hit three sixes and 10 fours in his three hour innings. Will hit four sixes and thirteen fours.

Was it enough? Cumnor started quite slowly losing their ex-‘pathian opener Shabaz Alam caught brilliantly by Will Eason from Lee Mason with the score on 25. Wickets fell at 72, 120 and two at 136 and it looked like Horspath were in with a shout when Cooky caught and bowled opener Dan Gaunt on 71 with the score on 137 for 5 off 33 overs. Ali Morteza batting at five had other ideas however and knocked a remarkably quick 92 runs including eight sixes to bring Cumnor back into contention until he was caught in the deep by Cooky from Mark Skelton (bowling spin!) With only 22 required off the last four overs but eight wickets down the game was looking interesting again but Cumnor achieved the total with one over to spare. Without a doubt it was Morteza’s quickfire 92 that gave Cumnor the edge in this game.

Horspath played well and the crowd were treated to 516 runs and 13 wickets but Cumnor just managed to edge it yet again. The Path’s 13 points should secure our place in Div 1 next season but we will have to spend the winter plotting our tactics against Cumnor.

“The Black Cat”

Saturday 30th August

1st XI - Cherwell League Div 1

Horspath 257-5 Robbie Eason 116no, Will Eason 106
Cumnor 259-8
Match Lost

2nd X1 - Cherwell League Div 6

Thame II 186-5
Horspath II 187-8 Chris Gray 59, Steven Green 34, Stuart Berry 32
Match Won

3rd XI - Cherwell League Div 7

Sandford St Martin II 219-8 Matty Herman 4-64
Horspath III 174 Matty Herman 42
Match Lost

Latest League Tables

At last Saturday dawned dry after a day and a half without rain. The 1st’s headed up to Banbury in good spirits having not played since the 26th July. Banbury won the toss and put Horspath in.

Horspath opened with 1st team debutant Matt O’Connor and Chris Penner moving along nicely until Chris played on from Freeman in the 6th over with the score on 17. Robbie took to the crease for a second wicket partnership of 121 when Matt O’Connor was caught by Sabin in the 40th over for 52 with the score on 138. Enter Ned Murray at 4 and the third wicket partnership achieved 67 when Ned was dismissed LBW in the 50th over for 32 runs with the score on 206. Will Eason was caught in the deep going for a big one and Mark Skelton finished the innings off with Robbie with a final score of 214 from 52 overs for the loss of four wickets, Robbie carrying his bat for an almost chanceless 109.

Lee Mason and Will Eason opened the bowling with five overs each restricting Banbury to 19 runs from the first ten then Lee changed ends and Dean Creed came on at the clubhouse end. Creedy’s first wicket came in his third over when Sabin was smartly caught behind by Joey Todd. Dean occupied the clubhouse end for the rest of the match taking five wickets. Lee worked away methodically at the other end for a total of 18 overs for only 40 runs to be replaced by Ben Cook for the last 9 overs. Banbury tried to keep in touch with the run rate until Sam Ryan was brilliantly run out with a direct hit from Matt O’Connor for 49 in the 35th over. Hazel batting at 5 put on a good effort with 35 until caught in the deep by O’Connor from Cook with the score on 129 for 5 from 40 overs. And there the score stayed for 5 maiden overs as Banbury tried to shut up shop eventually finishing on 142 for 8 off 53 overs. Cooky recorded a remarkable 8 runs for 2 wickets from 9 overs inc 6 maidens.

Altogether an impressive performance from the boys after a three week lay off. This was a day when winning the toss would have meant winning the game.

"The Black Cat"

Horspath U-17 slipped to their first defeat of the season going down to a 5 run defeat in a high scoring game at Didcot.

On a good wicket and fast outfield, the Didcot batsman found the Horspath seamers to their liking and compiled a massive 169 - 2. Only Stephen Green and Joe Todd escaped with respectable figures, and things were not helped by a below par fielding performance.

The batting performance was much better with openers Joe Todd and Ben Henderson giving Horspath a good foundation. When they fell Stephen Green and Hamza Hussain carried on the chase and put Horspath up with the rate. Critically they were both out to rash shots and despite the efforts of Ceri Holmes and Ben Frost the target was just beyond them as Horspath closed on 164 - 6.

U-17 games now revert to Sunday mornings with Horspath at home to Dorchester this week.

Former England skipper Alec Stewart will be attending club nets on Thursday 17th July. He will be overseeing the net session and running a Q&A with both youth team players and senior players on the night.
Youths 6pm-7pm Mens 7:15pm-8:30pm

Former Kent captain David Fulton has released a video to show how he was almost blinded as a warning to batsmen about how dangerous using a bowling machine can be.
Click here to see the video

A group of volunteers spent Friday afternoon concreting in post supports for an extension to the netting on the practice nets. The extension will provide a 3M high net on the pitch side to protect users from balls hit from the main square during a match, and a 2.4M high net dividing the two lanes to prevent balls crossing from one net to another.


At the same time, a 2M high back net has been fitted to prevent balls running away and provide better protection for spectators. The whole assembly can be dismantled and removed for winter storage.

HCC Welcome South Western Australia U17s

Horspath will play the South Western Australia U-17 team in a 20/20 match at the Rec on Thursday July 3rd 2008.

The South Western Australia side are touring England and will be doing a training session at the Horspath Ground during the afternoon. They were delighted to accept Horspath's 20/20 challenge, and the match will follow starting at approximately 5:30pm.

Village Cup Final

Horspath vs Cumnor
Around 300 people attended the Village Cup Final at the Rec on Sunday expecting to see a good game of cricket. They were treated to one of the finest, most competitive and entertaining displays of cricket we have seen in recent years. The game had more twists and turns than the road through Horspath with both sides seemingly having the upper hand at different times. Horspath lost by the narrowest of margins and it could so easily have gone the other way. The umpire told me after the match that a ball in Will Eason’s penultimate over was actually deflected for four byes from the side of the stump without dislodging the bails!

The game had everything – lightning fielding, brilliant catches, stumps flying, big hits, drama, and was played in the highest spirit and set a standard of behaviour that some other teams might learn from. While Pathian’s will be disappointed with the result we should take heart from the strength of our performance and take it into the league. And we will only get better as time goes on.

Congratulations to Cumnor and well done to both sides for producing such a wonderful game – even the Oxford Mail were running out of superlatives to describe the action – “thriller”, “fantastic”, “superb” to choose a few.

“The Black Cat”

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