It was a busy weekend at the club but because of weather more common in November than May, not as busy as it should have been.
On Saturday, we had an inter-club selection game that was reasonably well supported considering the weather and the fact it was a Bank Holiday weekend, with Alex Brundle and Darrell Dimond sorting out the two sides.
Batting was difficult on a sticky pitch in gloomy conditions but there many lessons learnt with bat and ball with Paddy Saines showing good form with a carefully constructed 58 before retiring.
There was also some entertaining stuff from Ben Peart, Alex Brundle and Brad Compton-Bearne and Dan Sumner, Steve Savage, James Bright and George Lethaby hung around long enough to learn some lessons about batting on sticking wicket.
Bob Lethaby also staked his claim for his place in the side by doing a homing pigeon impression involving going out, flapping around for fifteen minutes and coming back in. He also excelled with the ball, providing a series of long hops for batsmen to gratefully slam in to the farmer’s field.
The Oaks played out an inter-club game in gloomy conditions
A special mention must go to colts players, Perry and Brett King, who helped us bolster the numbers to make the game 9-a side, with Brett, an under 13, hitting an enormous six.
Everyone came in to the warmth of the bar after and utilised our facilities and Pete Holcroft, still celebrating taking the scalp of Gerry Dique, provided his culinary expertise with a BBQ where everything was devoured. Well done to all for spending your money in the bar.
Unfortunately, yesterday was a disaster, as after all the hard work getting a fixture sorted out with Lyndhurst and Ashurst CC, we had to cancel the game after our futile attempts to cover the pitch failed, pretty much miserably.
Although the weather was not great, if we had been able to utilise decent covers, the game would have gone ahead. Not only is this disappointing for the players of both sides but it is approximately £200.00 in lost revenue, emphasising the fact that we must make funding for covers a priority.
Next Saturday sees the start of the 2015 season so please all come down to training on Wednesday so we can begin our selection process.
Up the Oaks.