It was delightful to welcome back many OBs, players and spectators, for this year’s annual Cricket Festival which was held at school on Sunday 9th and Monday 10th July. We were hugely grateful to Tom Gurney (Wn 07-12) for captaining the team.
On Sunday there was an excellent double header. On Main Field, the OB XI had an excellent 8-wicket win over Oxford Downs CC. Some excellent bowling from Rymer (11-2-27-3) and Wilkinson (12-1-49-3) restricted the Downs to 185. In the chase, James and Wiggy Gurney both hit fifties following a quickfire 56 from Scott de Weymarn. The OBs won by eight wickets.
Over at Park Close, in a T20 format, the OBs made 134 with Ian Turton, David Best and Sam Manning all retiring at 30 against the Elephant & Castle XI. In reply the Elephant & Castle made steady progress with the pick of our bowlers being young Freddie (son of Matt Palmer) with figures of 4-0-12-2. Our opponents needed two runs to win off the last over to be bowled by Bill Deeley who only conceded a single resulting in a dramatic tie.
The Festival ended in thrilling fashion on the Monday with a fixture against the South Oxfordshire Amateurs. It was a nail biting finish as our last pair – Callum Horne and Andrew Smith – hung on to earn a draw with SOA, who had posted a total of 235-8 declared (Kieran Coyne 89). The OBs got to 188-9, with captain Tom Gurney hitting a superb 75.