Match Report

Offley Stopsley CC Vs Southgate Adelaide

OSCC Won by 9 wkts

The true British spirit of talking about, moaning about and ultimatley ignoring the weather came to the fore on Saturday at the Offley Recreation Ground.

With foul weather forecast Offley captain Steve Bexfield won the toss and put what visitors had arrived into bat. So the game started with a middle aged batsman and what appeared to be his very young son/nephew opening the batting. And they coped quite well with the initial flurry from Mathew Freeman. OSCC's tearaway fast bowler appeared to be intimidated by the innocence of youth on this occasion. Jordan made the breakthrough in the fourth over - just as the rest of the visitors turned up.

It was much more of a game now that their openers had arrived and so for the first time in a few weeks theOSCC had to bowl at batsmen prepared to attack. Shame about the rain !

With the score on 87 - 4 and 22 overs to go, the rain came down. Alot of it fell down! OSCC knew a win was an absolute must, so the prayer mats were out for a break in the torrent. To their credit Southgate Adelaide were just as keen to see the game through to a completion, so after a two hour tea play resumed. The Southgate Adelaide innings was reduced to 40 overs with OSCC having to accept 34 overs in which to chase any total down.

Colin Keeley and Gareth Mathewson bowled these 8 overs in atrocious underfoot conditions and kept the inevitable bangs and crashes from the desperate batsmen to a minumum. Mathewson eventually taking 3 wickets in the very final over. OSCC left to chase 129 in 34 overs.

Nathan Brodie and Mohammed Chaudry set of carefully, knowing early wickets would cause panic, however there was no drama at all. Brodie playing with a calm and maturity beyond his tender years played himself back in to form to score an admiral 50 odd. Mo Chaudry mixed his customary big shots with good running to notch another 50 too only to get himself out with 5 required to win. This was achieved by a rather peeved Cerasale in about two balls. Still at the top !