So another working week of sunny dry weather concluded by precipitation at the weekend – Flaming June indeed!
The Originals travelled to table-topping Witney in good spirits after a couple of wins against Faringdon and Chipping Norton and the withdrawal of Garsington had moved Marsh to within 11 points of top spot.
Garsington’s exit has now reduced the league to only 8 teams and that automatically puts extra pressure on each game. It is a shame that historic clubs like Garsington lose their identity as a village side as they seek honours through imported players who have no affinity to the club, and as soon as it gets tough (or they lose interest) the imports seek the next (daft) outfit that will be stupid enough to accept them. I hope Garsington can keep going in Division 5 with local players who care for their club……any way back to The Mighty Gibbon, who fielded 8 players who were born in Marsh or live there (and the others are long served members too!) No imports here, well, except for our UKIP candidate of course!
Arriving at Witney it was obvious that the weather was much better than at Marsh and play would be able to start to schedule with the venerable Lord Treweeke standing in judgement. On his return to the team skipper TimDog had an important task – to win the toss : Fail! So we were inserted on a dampish track with uncertain weather ahead.
Now, bear in mind that the last visit to Witney had started badly – in fact, the worst ever, when we were one run for four wickets! A good start was important for moral and out strode Josephine and Satty. Witney opened with the redoubtable Godwin who proceeded to bamboozle Joe with leg side sh1t. With poise and grace he kicked one away for a single and kept the bowling (Error). On came Saunders for the 2nd over and off came Joe – Triggered by Treweeke. Not quite the solid start we were looking for.
Farmer tried to exert some authority over Godwin and an unfortunate top edged sweep found the fielder – Marsh 10 for 2. (Better than last time!) A resurgence followed as Satty – all effort and Big Dave – watchful, dug in and moved the score along at 3 an over with Stu scoring the Originals’ first half century of the season eventually going for 58 made of concentration and restraint and Satty battling hard to 34.
Anthea and Crouch connected with a few scoring 19 and 12 respectively, and The Crab with memoirs of last year (when he and Tom got us to respectability) contributed 10 at the death, supported by the charging cavalier Honour.
Marsh closed on 156-9 from 45 overs with the rain starting in the last over…..
The innings had been delayed when Dave crashed an extra cover drive at head height straight through the hands of Godwin into his forehead. Enough to fell any normal mortal, but after a short respite he was back, Bandaged and Butcher-esque!
The rain pee-sisted and pee-sisted throughout tea. Treweeke paced and paroused searching for an opportunity to return to the field. Covers were lifted and peered under as both sides were keen to reconvene as the game was evenly poised. Thankfully the Witney scorer has the Duckworth Lewis system tattooed to his chest and was able to work out the revised rate to several decimal places! Highly qualified though he was, the computations were not required as the weather won the day. No more play was possible and the game was abandoned – to the Snooker Club where England’s unlikely victory over the Kiwis was washed down with lager, hot dogs and chips. (Whilst Godwin bled on!)
Next, The Originals entertain East & West Hendred at The Rec. Stay Tuned!