Ley Hill 3rds v Ley Hill Juniors on Saturday 8 September 

At last; a match on the hallowed turf at Ley Hill for the stalwarts of the 3rds! With great reluctance(!) we had to leave our Bellingdon ‘home’ for this one, although mid-way through the last match a fortnight ago somebody turned up to put the goalposts up in the middle of the outfield! How sad and abrupt the change from one season to another is when it comes to sport at grass roots level. 

We don’t have that problem of course at the Peroni Stadium, where the most energetic winter sport played is table tennis. So it was with great enthusiasm that we looked forward to our match against the ‘Juniors’ notwithstanding that most of them seem to be about 6 feet 6 inches tall!   

The first problem (as ever) was team selection, but for once, rather than hope that OMT’s or similar would eventually come up trumps with 11 players, I was in the unusual position of selecting both sides! Millions of juniors wanting to play of course, but, partly due to mysterious comings and goings at a campsite in Witney (rumoured to be the secret hideaway of former pupils of Hogwarts), I could only summon 9 of the 40/50 somethings (including youngsters Paul Green and Dave Turberville). I eventually settled for a 12 a side match with Jules and Alex Wallis and Stephen Carr happy to join the old men and do most of our fielding. 

With the exception of their elder statesmen and thoroughly sensible young man Richard Falconer, who had the dubious honour of captaining the Juniors, none of them had played at a level higher than the 3rds, so in theory we were in for a reasonably close match. (Apart from Holly Barrett of course who is on the verge of great things in the ladies’ game)! 

Not only that, but Pauline Kaye had arrived with two of the largest home made cakes you have ever seen which triggered some debate about whether we should have tea before starting. All we needed now was the forecast sunshine (which never materialised by the way). 

In time-honoured fashion the juniors batted first and were soon well on their way, with some of their giants, notably Charlie Yerrell, David Falconer and Peter and Stuart Crichton treating it like a 20:20 instead of a 40:40. But wickets kept falling at regular intervals and some of the champagne moments of the innings (being those which I can still remember) included:  

• Denis McCarthy clean-bowling son Christopher second ball (not clever!)
• A mid-wicket pile-up involving batsmen Stuart and David Falconer when they were too busy watching ‘Turbo’ diving full length in the outfield to still miss the ball (I didn’t expect both batsmen to get up)
• Terry Rothwell dropping the only two catches in the innings that were not held (ok, they were both well struck, but….
• Tim Kaye proving that after all these years perhaps he is more of a bowler than a batsman (he would have had a wicket if Terry had held on)
• Stephen Carr bowling very economically under the intense pressure of umpire ‘Dad’ standing alongside
• Ian Peplow sending the ball skywards in order to impart some vicious leg spin which bamboozled a few who are more used to up and down trundlers
• The traditional first ball after tea wicket, when Stuart tapped it straight back to Denis.
• Well taken catches for each of the Wallis brothers
• No less than three caught and bowled dismissals in the innings (should have been four Terry), for Denis, Stephen and Alex)

 

With the bowling being switched around at regular intervals a mid-innings wobble ensued, but thanks to good knocks from Ben Woodbridge and Gregory Asquith, with Richard and Holly contributing well at the end, the Juniors were eventually dismissed for 169, with a few overs to spare.  

At last the day’s highlight had arrived; Pauline’s cakes…and sandwiches, quiche, Bakewell tart, etc etc. For the one and only time this season, remarkably the Juniors listened to something I said, which was along the lines of ‘no cake until you’ve had some sandwiches’. Otherwise the elders would have had none! Fortunately there was sufficient to provide cake all round and to feed the huge appetites of the opposition’s giants and for many of them to over-indulge possibly given that they now had to go and field! 

In the event, our innings followed a similar pattern, with a clatter of wickets mid-innings following the sound start provided by Denis, Dave and Jules Wallis, who particularly struck the ball very cleanly.  

Further highlights included: 

• Dave Turberville playing on to Christopher McCarthy
• Two very well taken catches by Alex Humphrey
• Terry’s leg stump being knocked completely out of the ground by demon bowler Holly Barrett
• Plenty of good straight bowling from the likes of Ben, Gregory, Stuart, David, Holly, Christopher, Michael Morris and Anton Turberville
• Dave Mortimer reaching double figures with his old bat (perhaps it’s last ever appearance if Father Christmas gets to read this)
• Neither legendary veteran Jim Rainey nor Tim Kaye getting a duck
• As far as I can recall, the Juniors not dropping any catches

 

With our score at 90 odd for 8 (and Terry heading for home minus the letter he had requested exempting him from further painting duties owing to a wounded hand (and pride)) the odds were on a comfortable Juniors win, but birthday boy Ian Peplow together with myself were having none of that. After surviving what felt like a particularly close lbw shout from Stuart Crichton, the two Ians put 110 years of combined experience to good use to take us to within 4 runs of victory before a terrific throw from Charlie Yerrell to ‘keeper Richard was more than good enough for me. With Alex Wallis dismissed two runs later this left the crowd’s favourite and ever-popular (and surprisingly, given the circumstances, helmetless, Paul Green) striding to the wicket with one needed to tie and two to win. 

Paul did his best to give Richard a catch behind in the descending gloom but two singles were scampered and the match was won by one wicket. 

Well done everyone. The Juniors (only 2 of whom I believe were over 14) comfortably proved that they are already capable of at least third team cricket so look out all those remaining non-juniors in the other two senior sides! Your places are in danger, and there are hundreds more where they came from!