The Third XI entered the Oakley record books yesterday by becoming, quite possibly, the first team in our history to have a 100% dropped catch rate.
On an afternoon where heavy showers were somehow avoided, skipper for the day, Bob Lethaby, led from the front by attempting to catch the Tichbournd opener on hist chest. It was a bizarre attempt that may have worked had he been in possession of 34G breasts. Fortunately, it didn’t matter too much as the opening batsman only made a further 55 runs.
Comedy Catches
Inspired by this colossus of ineptitude, the rest of the Oakley fielders joined the dropping party. Nine more comedy chances went down as the Tichbourne batsmen seized on their good fortune to amass 216. It’s hard to remember which drop was the most comical, such was the eclectic array of catastrophes. However, perhaps the coup de grace was, fittingly, the final catching chance going down on the last ball of the innings.
There were, remarkably, some wickets, with Rav Kancharla (3) and Harry Tucknott (2) getting reward for what was a good all round bowling display. However, if you drop 10 catches, you are generally up against it. Ben Robinson, coming down from the Two’s, had a look of bewildered disbelief that didn’t really leave his face for the remainder of this cricketing anti-Christ.
Solid Batting
To be fair, The Oaks batted well in reply to a big target on a cross country track and even had brief moments where an unlikely victory looked possible. Jeff Triner (33) Jeff Williams (28) and Nick Green (33) all threatened to make big scores. Sadly, Tichbourne decided that catching was indeed, part of the game. Two boundary catches from big Nick Green and Harry Tucknott strikes were well taken, underling the blatantly obvious and somewhat tedious theory that catches win matches.
There was still time for an entertaining late flurry from Rav Kancharla (25) and James Middleton (21) that got us annoyingly close to the target, finishing on a commendable 197. If we had taken half the catches, we may well have won. In fact one catch or two would have helped the cause immensely but we were not to be denied our 0% record.
Always Improving
Still, everyone gave it their all and stand in skipper, Bob Lethaby, couldn’t have asked for more (a bit of a lie, but you get the sentiment). By leading from the front with a dropped catch and a two-ball duck, Bob has given Kris Tucknott the inspiration to move his own level up another gear when he returns next week. Kris will meet this challenge head on and achieve it by simply getting out of bed and turning up. That’s the philosophy here at Oakley; we are always demanding more, pushing each other to new heights.
We move buoyantly forward as cricketing advert for Specsavers.
*As a footnote, Tichbourne CC were a friendly bunch of guys in a match played in a great spirit throughout.