Muppets and clowns see off the Frogs

OCCC 182 for 7 beat Frogs 180 by three wickets

After much frantic searching for players from the skipper during the week – not helped by a certain Jonny Gates deciding that his polo pony was a better option than an afternoon on the Lowers – an eclectic mix of OCs and Cranleigh overseas players turned up for the Frogs game.

From pretty early on, the spartan crowd could probably tell that minds were on more pressing matters over the road, a wayward opening spell from James Harrison and a more accurate one from Ed Henderson reinforced that view, with only one wicket falling in that opening spell – a wide long hop from Harrison being bunted to point.

Debutant Will Jay provided far more control and was unfortunate not to pick up a wicket in what was a promising showing, Hendo shouting his appreciation with ’10,000 more of those please’ at various points.

Mystery spinner Eds Copleston was next into the attack and provided to be the OCs secret weapon, with his one over spells providing a constant source of wickets – three in all with a horrendous missed stumping from Rob Merry to go alongside. To say he had all the time in the world to effect the dismissal would be an understatement, and unfortunately this was symptomatic of an untidy OCs performance in the field, save for a direct hit at the end from the aforementioned Merry. There was one particularly comical episode when a full seven OC players touched the ball in a single act of fielding – missfield, chase, wayward throw, dive to prevent overthrows, shy at stumps, rebound, overthrow, chase, pickup and underarm to bowler.

The Frogs were able in the end to run up a total of 181 in their 40 overs, the effort helped somewhat by the decision to go for five men in the slip cordon in order to provide for a less one-sided game and hope to keep the Aussies interested. Further wickets were taken by Ian Houston, Chris Nolan and Sam Langmead, with the Frogs’ skipper scoring a half-century to aid their cause.

A belligerent 40 from OC/Aussie Nick Walker got us to a flyer in reply, and he found an able deputy in the 6ft 6in opening bat Mike Robinson-Moltke ("Muppet") who was content to play second fiddle initially, but then take charge once Walker was dismissed, offering a few impressive strokes of his own.

This was to bring Merry once again to the action, and, despite much rubbishing from Copleston about the form he had shown in cricket week, he proceeded to caress the ball around the Lowers (alright, midwicket) before holing out at long-on for a well-made 39. Muppet had by this point made an impressive 50, and the OCs seemed to be cruising along.

However, the almost inevitable OC collapse was just around the corner, with Muppet, Copleston, Langmead and Harrison all falling (the latter three cheaply) before the finish line was reached, with a full 10 overs to spare, Houston and Ben Wakim being the not out batsmen.

A reasonable showing all round, with the major disappointment being that far too little of the Cricketer Cup action was seen by those playing. James Harrison