Blenheim Park Cricket Club

“It’s hot! Damn hot! Real hot! Hottest things is my shorts. I could cook things in it.” Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

The longest-standing fixture in the Blenheim Park calendar is the visit of Islip every July. Younger and more energetic this year than previously, they won the toss and opted for first dig on a day that hit ninety degrees in the shade. Goodfellow and Crawford opened up, and when the former departed to a questionable LBW decision, Black entered to play the dominant knock for his side. But Islip found partnerships hard to amass, and were bowled out for 149 in the 34th of their 40 overs. Two wickets each for Deller, Kelley, Jake and Finn Spearman (whose two came in consecutive balls). Stan and Papa Smurf Spearman nabbed one apiece.

Islip is best known as the birthplace of Edward the Confessor, who ruled England from 1042 to 1066, having succeeded Cnut the Great, a moniker suspiciously close to the nickname of a BPCC regular.

Keyes and Boardman are now the regular opening partnership, but as yet have failed to both catch fire in the same game. This time it was the newly-auburn Keyes that went early, promptly despatched LBW by juvenile umpire Jake Spearman. The departing batsman was overheard muttering that umpiring should be left Just for Men. Some members of the opposition later confessed (appropriately enough) that the ball would have missed leg stump, which unsurprisingly did little to mollify the great cnut.

Boardman took a while to find fluency, before unfurling a trio of boundaries in one over. Parker also struggled for timing, until he hoisted one to mid-off. At 42-2 in the 15th over, with the Captain striding to the wicket, the match was in the balance. But not for long.

Some may remember the fresh-faced, short-haired, clean-shaven youngish buck whose clean hitting (mostly towards mid-on) showed the pedigree of a man whose close relative may or may not have played first-class cricket in the colonies. It had been a long while since we’d seen West Biffing (not a village in Wiltshire) of such sustained brutality. All it needed were temperatures reminiscent of his Yorkshire childhood for those heady days to return. Eleven boundaries, two of them maxima, (and, wonder of all wonders, a three!) in his 66*, in a partnership of 92 that took the visitors’ chances from reasonable to (in tribute to Islip resident Kenneth Cope’s most famous character) deceased. The target was reached with five overs to spare, for the loss of only four wickets.

Thanks again to Megan for another great tea, and to Stan for securing the very welcome use of a gazebo, without which this report might have required dictating from a hospital bed.

Islip 149 (Black 62) BPCC 150-4 (West 66*)
BPCC won by six wickets

ADE

In 1755, Sir Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer founded The Hellfire Club on the banks of the Thames near Marlow, Buckinghamshire. The members, known as the Monks of Medmenham, amused themselves with obscene parodies of Franciscan rites, and with orgies of drunkenness and debauchery, in line with their motto Fay ce que voudras (Do What You Will).

Their modern-day counterparts have had their merry way with Blenheim bowling in recent years, but all that drunkenness and debauchery has apparently taken its toll, as they fell to a second defeat of the season to the fine, upstanding and downright moral denizens of the Blenheim Park Cricket Club, plus Lee Keyes.

Medmenham won the toss, and gave the home team first dig. Boardman has been in some nick recently and his partner Keyes in none, but in an obscene parody of their  own, recent form was overturned as Keyes started peppering the boundaries short and (very) long. Three sixes and five fours from the blade of the pugnacious Battenberg-fancier, before he unaccountably spooned a long-hop into the safe hands of the opposing skipper on 48. Boardman cut to slip for 15, and Lal entertained the small crowd with wildly adventurous calling and running, before being joined by Cox, which put a prompt stop to that.

Late in his career, Cox has discovered un flair Gallic, and has also discovered that fullish balls on off stump can be driven for runs, rather than just patted back to the bowler. Armed with this revelation, he set about the opposition bowling with what passes for gusto in the Cox households. He and Jake Spearman Did What They Willed in a fifty partnership that took BPCC to a creditable 196-4 off their 35 overs, with the senior man ending on 59*, his second most notable score ending in 9* for the Club.

You wait ages for a Bussell, then three come along at once; the top three Medmenham batsmen sharing that surname. A was the pick of the bunch, top-scoring with 56; H battling his way to 19 and J scoring 8. Bagwell again showed his frailty against very slow bowling from very short players; 13-year-old Luka Jordan having bowled him in the away game, 53-year-old Phil Spearman doing the same at home. But Medmenham refused to lie down. Embury clubbed some boundaries before Jake took a stinger of a c&b, George produced a magic ball to castle Yarwood, and Vish pinged a direct hit to run out Atkinson and leave the Monks 25 short of victory. Three wickets each for Spearmen pere et fils, and the winning team repaired to the Woodstock Arms for some drunkenness and debauchery of their own.

BPCC 196-4 (M Cox 59*, L Keyes 48) Medmenham 172 (J Spearman 3-31, P Spearman 3-35)

BPCC won by 24 runs

ADE

Another week, another late fixture substitution. Wantage filled the Sydenham-sized gap in the schedule, and pleasant guests they were too.

Your intrepid reporter arrived a few minutes late, so missing the entirety of the match contributions from Keyes and Skipper West. The responsibility for both dismissals lay with either:

1. The lethal playing surface (Messrs K & W), or
2. Missing straight balls (all other observers).

But these early losses did nothing to disturb the zen-like calm of Boardman at the other end. A man so relaxed he can at times be mistaken for being in a coma, he set about restoring the reputation of the Club as one whose top-order batsmen can, on occasion, keep out straight balls. In partnership with Sadiq and later with debutant Hayat, the scoreboard inched towards respectability, and then, with the arrival of the pugnacious Kerr jr (45), it exceeded adequacy. Driving sweetly and dispatching anything short, Phil reached his half-century in the 30th over, and accompanied the fielding team off the pitch after the thirty-fifth, unbeaten on 69. It had taken a breath-taking catch to dismiss Georgie (formerly known as George), when Mercer on the mid-wicket boundary dived forward full-length to snag a tracer-bullet of a shot inches off the ground, one of his three catches. Boag was the pick of the bowlers with 2-15 off 6 as the home team finished on 175-6.

Spencer and Mercer opened for Wantage, and managed to subdue the demons in the pitch (that had never actually existed). Angol, Fleming and Spearman toiled away fruitlessly, as both openers stroked their way to half-centuries, and then, in what turned out to be a monumental act of hubris, retired with the score above 100 in the 17^th over. Cunning skipper West (at least I think that’s what his underlings were calling him) had held back Hayat and Kerr jr until fourth- and fifth-change, and, implausibly, the fortunes began to shift towards the boys in maroon, gold, and whatever Lee was wearing. Wicket followed wicket in an orgy of self-destruction, as Georgie’s 4-15 and Qasim’s 3-15 meant that the visitors ended their innings twenty-eight runs short of victory.

Both teams then retired to The Punchbowl, the latest grateful recipients of BPCC custom. The lap of your (still intrepid) reporter was less grateful for the contents of the waitress’s tray.

BPCC (175-6) beat Wantage CC (148) by 27 runs.

ADE

We welcomed Hanney CC to the South Lawn for the first time, replacing the original fixture cancelled through juvenile behaviour.

For a while, it looked all too familiar. A succession of batsmen threw their wickets away; Boardman snr thumped a long-hop to midwicket, Lal ran himself out, and West (stop me if you’ve heard this before) holed out to mid-on. 44-3 after 12 overs did not look like a promising platform.

But then, the kids, the kids…

Boardman minimus, making his debut, joined Spearman minor, and the two seventeen-year-olds began to find gaps in the field with pleasing regularity. Boundaries were interspersed with quick and astute running, as the pair feasted on willing but inexperienced bowling. Eighty-nine runs had been added in fourteen overs when Ollie B departed for a well-struck 43, carefully marshalled by his umpire/father.

But that just left the stage to Jake.  He brought up his maiden half-century off fifty-four balls, refused to let the applause go to his head, and soldiered on. With first Emily Cavender and then George Kerr for company, the mini-rhino began to bat more expansively. Four followed six followed four as he imperiously stroked his way to a glorious unbeaten century in the last of the allotted 35 overs.

That George, never usually out-bludgeoned, could only contribute 14 runs to their unbroken partnership of 61 gives some idea of his dominance (and also the thoughtfulness of Kerr in allowing his colleague much of the strike).

Hanney never looked likely chase down the total. Stan picked up three of the first four wickets, Phil and Raj throttled the middle-order effectively, and Kerr snr continued his purple patch behind the timbers. And when Hanney’s top-scorer chipped Phil into what he thought was some open space at midwicket, who was there to take a sprinting, tumbling catch? Only the centurion, that’s who. He’ll have worse games.

The innings subsided gently, and the match finished at an unfeasibly early hour. It would have been earlier still without the repeated, unnecessary laps of the ground by the aged stumper.

Blenheim Park CC (216-5) beat Hanney CC (74) by 142 runs

ADE

Lost the toss and the opposition elected to bat on an interesting pitch. Tom (2-15) struck in the 1st over and then it was the Kerr show:

Rob with 4 catches (off Raj, Tom, George and Rup), and a run out – courtesy of the gazelle like Boardman!
George the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 23
Proceedings brought to a close by debutant Vish with 2 for 1 in the final over.

MS 94 All Out

The home side started well in reply and were untroubled initially. Until the opening partnership was broken – Emily (10), bowled with the score on 26. BPCC progressed to 42-2 … before a spectacular collapse to 48 for 7 (including 3 in 4 balls), aided by some dodgy umpiring from the oppo. Lee (26), bowled along with 6 others (plus 2 LBWs) – bowling straight maybe a thing!

BPCC all out for 67

Note to self – must bowl straight; must bat straight.

Raj

BPCC Entertained Ascott Under Wychwood who lasted visited the South lawn in 2007!

Malcolm (gone Bohemian) won the toss and elected to bat. Keyes perished in the first over being drawn forward with ball going through his legs to the keeper standing back who with some smart keeping (which was to become a feature of the afternoon – read on) threw down the wicket Keyes stranded out of his crease, slumped off to watch the football under the shade of the trees.

Enter Rupert Kelley to join Phil Boardman, after seeing off the openers and the odd play and miss it was clear that is probably only the variable bounce that was going to break this partnership  – Some excellent fours sizzling over the boundary ropes  Phil eventually played back and missed the ball LBW (48) Rupert accelerated past his half-century and eventually bowled for a great knock (61).

Malcolm (14) soon came and went which brought George Kerr (43) and  Alex Dellar (20) together – they managed to put on a rapid 67 runs in the final 6 overs which effectively took the game  away from the opposition posting a total of 208 – George in the process nearly taking the head off their captain who sustained an extremely sore hand (Thanks for ice pack Kate). Fielding in that heat was tough but dropping 9 catches did not help their cause.

Tea – Bl**dy marvellous!!  a cricket tea back on the menu – excellent thank you Megan. (Editor’s Note – Supplemented by the always excellent Vicky Sponge thanks to Mrs Kerr).

Walker (7/0/10) opened with usual steady line and length (and 2 maidens) and Stan the Man opened the other end. It wasn’t long before Stan had his first victim and then another !

Raj came on first change after Nigel’s economical spell their left hander was just starting to look dangerous picked a leg side double bounce ball for 4 and then Raj with his extra delivery managed that old half tracker down leg trick which said batsmen thought he had hit for six only for George Kerr to run in from the boundary to take a good catch (producing that familiar cry on the South Lawn – “well caught Kerr”!)

After that we seemed to get a little lax in the field trying to emulate Ascott with West, Dellar and aforementioned Kerr all putting down easy chances. Raj continued to weave his “magic” with a further two victims finishing on a credible 5/3/33. But by this time they were well behind the (huge) asking rate – Kerr R took a regulation catch in front of second slip given out, only for Malcolm to ask the (young) batsmen if he hit it (guess what he said?)  Malcolm withdrew the appeal and the batmen remained — not for long.

Batsmen came and went with Kerr taking a blinding stumping to dismiss their dangerous batsmen off Keyes (yes), who took a further two wickets, Dellar bowled an superb spell (7/1/11). Eventually with 9 down Phil Boardman came on and in his second over had their captain smartly stumped (second of the match) by Kerr R to wrap up the innings on 112 all out

A classic batting performance, built slowly, accelerated in the middle and then with that platform punished them in the last ¼.  

Nice opposition- we travel to their home in a month (We don’t – Ed)

(Long match report, so we must have won. Ed.)

Well firstly we arrived for a 2pm start and they had been waiting for ages for their 1pm start…

We managed to get to 10 including a Bletch U13 who had never played a men’s game before.

I lost the toss and we were put in to bat by a young and keen looking Medmenham sprinkled with experienced old hands.  Keyes and Boardman set about the task in their usual fashions against a strong opening bowling attack, especially Yarwood down the hill, his pressure contributing to Keyes perishing to the other opener.  Debutant Alex Dellar perished quickly with one that kept very low and cleaned him up, leading West to the wicket.  After seeing off the openers they started to accumulate with some good running and nice boundaries until West perished for 41 with base nicely set at around a hundred and ten overs to go. (Too many perishings. Ed)

Engel joined Boardman to keep the scoreboard ticking and then after an Engel retirement Kerr added an injection of boundaries until he too perished.  Boardman made it to a solid 50 and we started the final over of our 35.  Fleming was run out without facing a ball backing up as Boardman’s straight drive was deflected onto the stumps and then suicide running by Angol ran out a tired Boardman one ball short of carrying his bat.  The eager debutant Jordan (aged 12, in his first adult game) arrived at the wicket at the non strikers to witness Angol finish the innings with a four.  A respectable 152-6 achieved.

A grumbling Walker opened the innings up the hill to allow our young speed merchants to attack down the slope and to great effect.  Fleming, not seen in a Blenheim side for two years, has added about ten yards of pace and was swinging the ball nicely.  After a flurry of boundaries behind the wicket in the first over a rearranged field saw only three men fielding in front of the bat and the batsmen struggling.  Fleming bagged a lovely LBW before the introduction of Dellar down the hill.  Deller bowling a tad slower and just back of a length had the batsmen also struggling and bagged a catch 2^nd ball to an impeccably positioned West at mid on. (Implausible. Ed.)  Walker finished his spell nicely, 1-24 from 8 with Dellar 1-10 from 5 and Walker was replaced by Angol.

Angol started well with good control and a simple catch taken by Fleming.  Then after drinks saw the introduction of Jordan down the hill.  Considering it was his first adult match and first bowl on a full size wicket it was an amazing performance, nicely full and in the channel at a point in the game when they were looking to push on yet nervous to get out to a 12 year old. So it was a delight when last ball of his first over he bowled their dangerous skipper rocking back and misjudging the flight and pace.  The floodgates then opened and Angol started taking wickets at the other end.  First ball of Jordan’s 2^nd over also saw a clean bowled and the young man was on a hattrick…Which was very nearly taken the release hit just clearing short midwicket and not quite reaching short mid on.  Unfazed he bagged a 3^rd clean bowled in his third over as Angol ravaged the tail from the other end finishing his 4fr with a 2^nd catch by Fleming, this time sharp and low at short cover.  A fantastic bowling performance with Angol finishing with 4-17 from his 6.4 overs and Jordan 3-17 from his 4 overs.

Sometimes lady luck shines on you, the result all out for 98 looked convincing but could have been very different.  But for a first win of the season, especially after only having 8 men on Thursday evening, it was stellar. Everyone enjoyed it, always such great hosts and friendly opposition (who even offered us a spare fielder) and we look forward to their visit to the South Lawn next month.

Malc

The positives:

• First match vs. another great house
• Glorious weather
• Back-drop of the annual Blenheim jousting event & spectators admiring BPCC (I like to think!)
• Return of the teas – and Megan’s killer brownies!
• Oh!, and the cricket …

… started with Nigel running out the opposition’s dangerous looking opening batsman (Chopper was chopped, the axe fell early, etc). This set the tone for a good fielding performance – helped by two BPCC debutants – Gareth and Sandy – who also brought the team average age down by circa 10yrs. With some stunning catching (Sandy and Phil B, two apiece) and surprising bowling (yours truly, 4-23 and Stan 2-29) Chatsworth House reached 176-9 from their allocated 40 overs.

BPCC’s reply was notable for Sandy’s classy 37, and the oppo’s 5^th bowler’s hat-trick – Jake (bowled), Nick (LBW) and Allan (bowled) the unfortunate victims. This reduced BPCC to around 110-7. Seven quickly became 8 down and as the RRR climbed to 10/over, Skip (30) decided to go for broke …. and equally quickly became the 5^th victim. An unbroken last wicket partnership of 22 between Gokani (13) and Walker (7) in ~5 overs prolonged the inevitable … but a fine afternoon’s cricket played in great spirit … and 13 oppo players – not at the same time, of course.

Note to batsmen and bowlers alike, 10 of the 19 wickets to fall were LBW (2) or bowled.

Raj

We just managed to get a game in between the rain on Sunday against Sheepscombe. As usual they arrived strong and posted 197-8 from their 35 overs. Our bowling attack was both on the light side and a tad rusty although with a much better fielding performance. Spearman Senior bagged another three with two for Walker including their best bat and a couple of bunnies bagged by Parker at the end.

We were always struggling in reply with good bowling and generally tight fielding except a couple of drops. The runs were divided up between Keyes 31 and West 32 with the standout knock of 71 by Parker and a few biffed at the end by Engel. We were always behind the rate and finished up 163-4. A better performance and we roll on looking forward to the visit of Bampton.

Malc

We were soundly beaten by a Sydenham on steroids yesterday with a new punchy batting line up and one very short and one huge boundary. They won the toss and raced to 235 for 6 from their 35 overs. Pick of the bowlers was Tom with 2 for 15 everyone else took some tap.

It was pretty clear we were not going to chase that down and after all the top 4 got starts and failed to go on the fun was left to Kerr and Spearman J to carve the part timers around and both did it excellently. Getting us to 141-4 with Jake on a Cox like 49 (the not making it quite to a landmark score rather than the attacking stroke play, which was sublime) and Kerr on 27.

Malc