A thirty-eighty over marathon stint from the mercurial veteran, Bob Lethaby, drove the Sunday 11 on to victory against Whiteditch on beautiful afternoon at Oakley Park yesterday.
Oakley batted first and lost Brad Compton-Bearne on the very first ball, leaving it to Bob to come in and steady the ship and halt an early collapse.
What followed could be described as an innings of dashing and audacious authority from the free flowing bat of a man emanating graceful and belligerent exuberance whilst in his physical prime.
However, that would be a lie of preposterous, even biblical proportions, because this was a display of such obdurate, turgid, misery, that the Oakley record books, dating back to 1849, will have to be re-written. This was an innings that made Chris Tavare look like Chris Gayle.
And by God how Bob loved it. Forward defensive, after forward defensive, after forward defensive, in an innings of 29 that lasted just under three hours and 38.3 overs. An innings that included no sixes, no fours and twenty-three singles before he was eventually caught and bowled just as members and supporters started preparing to hang themselves from the club-house rafters.
Front Foot Forward: Bob’s Innings Was One of Turgid Misery
However, after staying at the crease where 146 other runs were scored, notably from Matt Vickers (36) Dan Sumner (25) and Oscar Rowley (20), Bob can rightly claim to be the catalyst for the winning of the match as other players came and went after failing to get forward on a pea-shooter of a pitch.
Defending the target of 175, Oakley started quite badly, with extras and byes sending the score rocketing along past 50 despite wickets for Tom Barnes, Oscar Rowley and Will Bentley.
As the target got below 4 an over captain, Dan Sumner, turned to the experience of George Lethaby and Alex Brundle to get a grip on the game, and a cluster of wickets and maidens swung the game heavily back in favour of the Oaks, with the target quickly going back up to 10 an over.
Dan Sumner picked up another wicket and Brad Compton-Bearne, out on the first ball, made amends with a wicket on his first and third balls to polish the game off with Whiteditch 40 short of victory.
But this game was all about about Bob, with an innings that Geoff Boycott would have paid good money to see…Oakley were winners on the day, but the real winner was the game of cricket.
Up the Oaks!