Devon Dumplings v South Oxfordshire Amateurs

Thursday 03 August 2023 at Queen's College

DD: 256 for 5 dec. SOAs 257 for 6, SOA won by 4 wkts

 After all the rain on Wednesday a heron was standing guard over the small puddles on the neighbouring Brasenose ground, but Queen’s was fine. Yesterday’s game against The Frogs having fallen victim to the weather, our players were similarly under the weather having been called to the Bar. Happily two fresh tourists, Sam Read and Ben Abrahams had arrived to fortify the team. 

Peter Hensor was our debutant captain. SOAs won the toss and elected to field, so  Elliott Barnes and Harry Kandampully opened the batting.. With their umpire unexpectedly delayed until after lunch, our stand-in umpire, Derek Hardy, had only one dismissal to adjudicate on when in the 7th over Kandampully was too slow getting back from his shot and Francis Young whipped off the bails. Kandampully didn’t wait for the dreaded finger to go up. The score was 34. 
A partnership of 47 was put together by Barnes and Jeremy Tojy between plenty of dot balls, before Barnes was caught behind for 33. 
But Sam Read then came to the wicket and he upped the scoring rate. He gave a very sharp chance when on 5, but the ball was going like a rocket and the catch couldn’t be taken. He then survived a very loud LBW appeal before lunch was taken one over early due to big drops of rain falling. Read got to his 50 in the first over after lunch off 49 balls which included two 6s. He then accelerated, scoring off virtually every ball. Read & Tojy put on 113 before Tojy was caught in the deep for 44. Read needed only 21 balls to go from 50 to 100. A few balls later and after three consecutive sixes, Read retired on 115. The scoring pace slowed but after 42 overs Hensor brought the innings to a close at 2:50pm with what looked like a very generous declaration with the score on 256 for 5. 

The Dumplings started off with 5 slips in place, but when Isaac Cottrell dispatched the first ball to the boundary, one fielder immediately came out of the cordon. The opening pair were building a good platform before Harry Gribble trapped one opener LBW with the score on 73 in the 15thover. The other opener was caught off the bowling of Read 3 overs later with the score having progressed to only 75. Their number 3, 14 year-old Jordan Graham,  played a patient innings getting his 50 off 79 balls. The Dumplings were failing to stop the boundaries, and committing no ball offences – three fielders behind square leg, and a ball bouncing twice. Graham was finally out for 62 bowled by Read but he and Alex King had put on 99 in just 12 overs and taken the score to 236 - victory was within sight. However, Read got another wicket that over. Then Adam Bilston took a good boundary catch also off Read but SOAs scored the remaining 15 runs without further mishap and were worthy winners.  So it wasn’t to be our day as tends to happen on the last day of our tour and despite Read’s 115 and 4 for 28 over 10 overs.  

Thanks to all the players who came on tour, and to Tim Chapman our umpire and Lynne Whitfield our scorer, Danny & Kyle for catering for us so well, and of course to Peter Jolliffe for organising and managing the Tour. Same again next year? 

DD:    256 for 5 dec  (Sam Read 115, Jeremy Tojy 44) 

SOA:  257 for 6. (Alex King 79no, Jordon Graham 62, Isaac Cottrell 35, Junaid Aziz 34 – Sam Read 4/28) 

 WH