Christmas at Horspath Cricket Club
Please join us for Christmas drinks at the club on Sunday lunchtime 21st December – the shortest day (and longest lunchtime!) of the year. Bring a plate of Christmas snacks if you can. All welcome.

I am pleased to report receipt of the ECB Clubmark Seal carrying our unique registration number 1199. The seal will be incorporated into all club publications.

We are pleased to report that the Village Sports Association plan for the development of sports facilities at Horspath is picking up momentum. The diagram below (with thanks to Mr Martin Harris of Horspath Parish Council) shows the overall project layout. The cricket club has permission from the Parish Council and the Village Sports Association to commence work on the new square as soon as we raise the necessary funding. At present we anticipate some preliminary work in January (weather permitting.) Watch the website for further news. Click on the diagram to enlarge

Notice to all members
The 2008 AGM will take place at Horspath Village Hall at 8pm on Sunday 30th November. A Players Meeting will take place in the clubroom at 6.30p.m on the same evening.
We look forward to seeing you there.

I am pleased to report that the club was presented with the prestigious Clubmark award at the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership Awards on Friday evening.

Clubmark is a national Sport England quality standard administered for cricket by the ECB and indicates that we maintain high standards and are a safe and well-organised club for young people to learn and play the game.

Syd Shepherd
We are very sad to report the death on Saturday evening of Syd Shepherd. Syd was a Life Member and elder statesman of the club having played, umpired and served on the committee for very many years and he will be sadly missed. Syd helped to build the club that we have today. Our thoughts and sympathy are with Win and Ken and the family.
The funeral will be at 12.00 on the 5th November at the Oxford Crematorium followed by a gathering at the Cricket Club. All are welcome.

There are only a few places left for the night of the year at the sign of the prancing pony! £27.50 for a night of celebration with a three course dinner, presentations and our special guest, sports jounalist and broadcaster Pat Murphy. Contact Ed Murray on ed.murray@horspathcricketclub.co.uk or 01865 873041, or Hammy or Lianne - only 8 tickets left!
Menu: Leek and Potato Soup or Warm Goat's cheese salad, Roast Lamb (or Veggie option), Profiteroles and cream, coffee, mints.

Take down day has now been moved to Sunday 12th October following the bad weather on Sunday. We hope to see you there from 10.00 onwards with the bar open afterwards. Tasks include dismantling the net extension, removing and storing nets, storing the boundary rope, putting the sight screens into winter positions and taking down, washing and storing the awning.
We hope to see you there!

Please join us on Sunday morning 5th October to put the outdoor equipment into winter hibernation. Nets, sight screens and awning all need to put into winter storage. All welcome!

Don't be square be there! It’s the event of the year at the sign of the prancing pony! – 3 course dinner, coffee and chocs, cricketing awards and booby prizes, dancing, bar, high jinks. And this year we are delighted to have acclaimed sports journalist, author and Radio Five Live broadcaster Pat Murphy joining us to share his thoughts.

Only 90 tickets available at £27.50 per person. It’s time to celebrate the season. To book your places please email ed.murray@horspathcricketclub.co.uk or speak to any member of the committee. All tickets must be paid in full at least one week before the dinner.

Please support the development of the new cricket pitch by sponsoring a square metre of the new square for £10. You can choose your track and exact square metre on the the diagram (click on image below). Simply choose your square reference (eg Track 2, square 54) and either send it or give it to any commitee member with a cheque. A master diagram can be seen on the clubhouse notice board. You can sponsor a whole track if you like! Any money raised for the new square will be ring fenced for the development of the new pitch and associated facilities and will not be used as general club funds.

We are pleased to report that the Village Hall Management Committee has approved the Cricket Club's proposal to develop a second cricket pitch at Horspath. Also the preliminary results of the village survey show overwhelming support for the development of the area to the west of the Village Hall for sport, including a new cricket pitch. This is important as it will add strength to future applications for public and lottery funding. The most urgent issue for the cricket club is work on the new square because of the lead time between laying it and playing. The centre of the new square is now marked with a wooden stake and over the next few weeks we will be taking expert advice and carrying out some preliminary work. Depending on the specification and number of tracks (we would like eight), we think the cost of the new square, including drainage and water supply might be as much as £10,000 if we do the work ourselves. The club will be engaging in fund raising activity over the winter to support the development of the square. This includes an appeal for sponsorship where each square metre of the square can be sponsored for £10 (see news item above).
If possible the club will carry out some work this autumn depending on the availability of funds.

The Shepherds Match will be played on Sunday 14th starting at approx 2.00 pm and the historic Feast Match on Monday 15th, starting whenever everyone is ready - usually by 11.30 or so. The bar is well stocked and even the weather forecast is looking up!

We hope to see you there.

All members are invited to Youth Presentation Evening which will take place in the Village Hall on Friday evening 12th September at 7.30pm. Paul and Max will give a review of the season followed by the presentation of youth player awards.

We hope to see you there.

The club entered the final Saturday of the competitive season with hopes of the 2nd’s gaining promotion with a win at Bledlow Ridge. It was not to be as the 1st’s home game against Bicester and North Oxford and the 2nd’s game were abandoned before the start. Surprisingly, the council pitch at Horspath Rd was playable and the 3rd’s were put in to bat by Morris Motors and achieved a respectable 191 for 6 off 46 overs including an impressive 70 from Carl Thompson. Persistent heavy rain came in during tea and the game was abandoned without the Morris men facing a ball.

So we end the season with three out of four objectives achieved i.e. reaching the Village Cup Final and staying in Divs 1 and 7. We can only wonder if the weather prevented the 2nd’s from achieving promotion (as it certainly did in 2007) and can look forward to starting the 2009 season in the same Divisions as 2008 but wiser for the experience.

But the match of the day turned out to be the “Boat Race” coxless fives on Saturday evening when a “golden oldies” team of Max, Julian, Big Hammy, Big Creedy and Messy saw off the young pretenders from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams with Julian as lead man putting in an especially fine performance with a pint of Brakspeares.

A big thank you to everyone who provided food for the impromptu party on Saturday evening. Here’s hoping for a spell of fine weather next weekend.

“The Black Cat”

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”

Welcome

Welcome to the new Horspath Cricket Club website. The new website has been under development now for several months, and I'm pleased to say this is the current product. The majority of the content that was found on the previous HCC website can also be found here, although this website is still under development, so new areas will open up over the next couple of weeks.

Currently available

- Clubmark
- Fixtures
- Honours

Coming soon

- Photo Albums
- Player Profiles!
- Results
- Sponsorship Page

Feedback

Although the website is still under development, any feedback or constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.