What a great weekend for Oakley Cricket Club, with the young lads yet again doing us proud in our victory over White Waltham to make it two wins in two days for the Oaks!
Waltham had a really good batting line up and Oakley had to battle really hard to remove their opening six batsmen but two wickets apiece for George Lethaby, Jack Brundle and one apiece from Dan Sumner and the excellent Lofty Worth was backed up by some great fielding and an amazing flying catch from Jack Ballard. This reduced White Waltham to 180 off 40 overs.
Oakley got off to a good start in reply with Dan Sumner and Gordon Scott looking comfortable until Gordy was cleaned bowled. Dan went after a disastrous run out for 16 and Micheal Wood really pushed things along before getting caught after a quickfire 22.
Bob Lethaby (9) then went caught behind followed by Jack Brundle (3) and a collapse looked on the cards with Callum Van Dyk carefully building an innings at one end with deteriorating support.
George Lethaby then entered the fray at number seven with the game apparently lost, but he carried different ideas as he set about the White Waltham bowlers with a blistering assault that was backed by Van Dyk at the other end who was only too happy to pick off singles and provide support.
The stunning surroundings of White Waltham Cricket Club
George went on to amass an unbeaten 59 (A first senior half century) including two huge sixes and the game was turned on its head. It was a brilliant performance, but it wouldn’t have happened without Van Dyk providing support at the other end, so credit must go to him as well as he remained unbeaten on 40.
Special credit must also go to White Waltham who invited us to their beautiful ground that had quintessential England written all over it. They provided us with a great tea and generous hospitality and it is a match that we look forward to being a regular fixture on our summer calendar. They were a great bunch of blokes and showed great humility despite a defeat that appeared unlikely.
Taking Bob and Gordy out of the equation, the oldest player in this team was 24 and the youngest was 14.
The future is bright, the future is Oakley CC.
Well done boys!
Up the Oaks