Season ends with defeat on the Common

OCCC 164 lost to Cranleigh 189 for 8 (Ealham 88*, Cooper 3-24, Jolly 2-24) by 25 runs
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Will Howard pulls off a stumping

The season ended in late-summer sunshine and defeat at Cranleigh. For a time it looked as if we might finish with a win but Matt Crump’s idea of a weakened side still includes a former England allrounder at No.9 and it was not to be.

Inevitably the game did not start on time. Our captain, frazzled by a week of 11 drop-outs, arrived fashionably late, which was still earlier than Harry Watkinson who was relaxing at home, oblivious to that fact that it was actually Sunday and not, as he thought, Saturday.

Cranleigh batted first, and it was good to see them field a raft of youngsters.  One of the veterans, Jack Scriven, started in style before holing out to Jonny Gates at long-off.  Scriven’s day got markedly worse later when Mike Payne pointed at him and asked who the “old man” in the field was. Scriven is 21.  The introduction of spinners Hugh Jolly (2-24) and Tom Cooper (3-24) turned the game on its head as Cranleigh slumped to 70 for 7 but that only brought in Mark Ealham (88*) who proceeded to score with ease while Crump’s batting at the other end reminded everyone that batting is not so easy for others.

A target of 190 was stiff but not impossible, although we made it hard with a succession of rash shots, while Howard managed to run himself out when a throw by the wicketkeeper missed the stumps and trundled down the pitch, past the ambling Howard and into the wickets at the bowler’s end.  Rupert Sheldon, on loan from Wellington, kept us in the hunt with a breezy 37 but in the end we came up short even though we had overs in hand.