Oakley had a comfortable journey into the next round of the 20/20 Guy Jewell Plate tonight but not without an early scare in a good natured contest.
Batting first, the Oaks had a calamitous start losing Dan Sumner (0) N Warner (3) and Michael Wood (6) in the first couple of Overs but Brad Compton-Bearne came in and let loose, smashing 60 off around 30 balls as others batted around him, with decent supporting cameos coming from Clive Welsman, George Lethaby, Mike Tiley and notably, a late blast of 30 from Alex Brundle as well as a pair of well crafted ducks for Tom Barnes and Ian Bennett.
Oakley compiled 147 off the allocated 18 overs, which looked pretty formidable with a strong fielding and bowling line up.
This was almost always the case but to be fair to Stratfield, they did administer some lusty blows as they tried to turn the game into a good contest but in truth, they never really looked like finding the fluency and the gaps in the Oakley field they required.
Then, with 50 needed off the last Over and Stratfield needing just six sixes including a further two sixes off no balls, captain for the evening, Dan Sumner, demonstrated maturity beyond his years by calling on death bowler, Ian Bennett, who was still in tatters after his short stay at the crease.
It could have been a disaster, wrecking any ambitions Dan might have had to be a future captain of The Oaks. However, it proved to be a tactical masterstroke, with Ian conceding just 3 wides and 8 runs in a measured moment of personal glory.
So a 39 run victory on a day when the case with Ian was very much ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’.