Oxenford have traditionally been one of our toughest and most enjoyable rivalries. From the electronic records prior to this match the score stood at 6-5 in Oxenfords favour so history weighed heavily on our shoulders. As with last year Oxenford started badly by only having 7 players and losing the toss to new Captain Fantastic Jason Wenderoth, who promptly set the tone with a modification of his favourite Steve Waugh line 'yoouse c***s can bowl'. It didn't really matter since Oxenford found it entertaining that we were willing to bat on a track that was as damp and unpredictable as an English summer. Jason set the tone with an inspirational prematch lecture on LBW decisions if he was batting, before sending out Mike and Matt to open with the unusual orders of not to score any runs. Matt obeyed quickly, and so did Watto, who is now so used to not scoring runs that he doesn't even get angry anymore. With a true aussie grimace on his face captain fantastic righted the listing OUCCC ship with a dogged partnership with Mike which saw the score advance to 21/2 off 15 overs against 8 fielders. I still can't believe that my proposed fine for boring cricket was rejected at the pub afterwards. Mike managed an astounding 9 runs off his first 48 balls! To give due credit they did pick up the scoring rate from then on to carry the score to 98/2 off 28 overs before Jason was dismissed for 47 to a freak catch in the slips. That brought a serious of more aggressive batsmen to the crease: first myself, then Deb, then Ollie and finally Wiesner who all managed to prove that the wicket looked a whole lot better if you were prepared to smack the ball to the fence. Ollie finished the innings with a four to bring up the 200 and end up on 40 not out.
As any captain Fantastic rightly knows the best way to get to the pub quickly is to bowl myself and Wiesner as soon as possible. Following this prescription we had them 45/5 after 10 overs before Tom and Martin shared the remaining three wickets to finish the game at 6:30pm with the opposition dismissed at 66/8. Jason was right all along when he said 130 would be more than enough.
SD
Fines recorded at the pub reflected the completeness of our performance:
Protecting the Whites : Julian and Deb
Not giving Julian a bowl (who took a five wicket bag in the last match): Jason Wenderoth.