Watkinson, Weddings and happy Foresters

OCCC 247 for 7 (Ross 80, Chase 63) lost to Free Foresters 249 for 3 by seven wickets
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An inelegant moment from the usually elegant Nathan Ross

The Free Foresters came into our cricket week on the Thursday to replace the long standing Old Carthusians fixture. They have an impressive fixture list and were already runing another game on the same day so the fact they put out such a strong side was a credit to them as a club. Whether in fact they were that strong or whether they simply had an Australian grade cricketer who bowled 20 overs of good legspin and then smashed a very quick century we will never know.

Henry Watkinson's last match as a bachelor found him preoccupied with seating plans and speeches (he has promised all who attend the wedding a 45-minute gem of a speech from him) but he concentrated enough to get the gist of what was happening in the middle.  OC's batted first and did not find scoring easy before lunch. The 53-year-old Mike Chase - late as ever - proved he can still bat and scored a much needed 63. At lunch we were 120 for 4 and somewhat below par. Nathan 'Random' Ross then took centre stage and composed a beautiful 80 assisted by some intelligent hitting by Karthik Suresh to enable Watkinson to look up and declare on 247 for 7.

The Foresters put on a hundred for the first wicket although how one of the openers was still there at tea is one of the great mysteries. He played and missed 31 times to Ed Henderson (this observation from the writer of this report, E Henderson) who had him dropped twice for good measure. At the other end Karthik Suresh was rattling up official warnings (beamers, running on pitch etc) but cleverly not offending three times in any one category.

George Thomas and Watkinson bowled well but the Foresters ultimately chased our target three wickets down with three overs to spare.