They say miracles do happen and, finally, yes, the Captain won a toss and elected to bat. The opposition would have put us in anyway, which is always a good sign.
We lost Alex Ling early but a very good 48 from Frankie Crouch coming back from injury was a joy to watch and Wes Bartlett who managed to get to 96, (yes without a runner!), had a seriously good knock aided by a very good 37 not out from Ben Ling.
ODCC were well set 231-5 from their 51 overs, Horley had 45 overs to get the runs and with Stevie Roberts bowling a tight spell and Gus taking a wicket, followed by 2 from Alex Ling, 3 from Meardon, 1 from Soppet, a run out and an amazing outfield catch from Crouch were highlights. We did drop their number 10 with about 7 overs to go, but they held on to finish 182-8 – a great result especially as Horley had a chance to be promoted depending on the result of this game.
The story can be shown by the difference in the number of boundaries struck, we hit 32 and they only hit 16 in reply. Clearly a game plan with some defensive field settings seems to work when you have runs on the board.
Steve Roberts completed his season without taking his 400th Cherwell league wicket due to the captain dropping a catch, but we would like to wish him all the best for his knee op this week.