THE WAIT IS OVER
06/06/05: Jon Shingles and Geoff Samuels were the heroes as the OLCC beat Jordans to record their first win of the 2005 season.
With a demoralising defeat the previous week at Moreton still fresh in the memory, OL hopes were in the balance on 143 for four with 90 more runs needed from the last 15 overs.
But the pair produced contrasting half-centuries - Shingles a measured run-a-ball knock and Samuels a brutal assault - to guide the OLs to their victory target of 233 with six wickets and 25 balls to spare.
The OLs had earlier endured a tough afternoon in the field as Jordans, having chosen to bat first, took advantage of an excellent Leighton Park pitch and a short boundary on the School House side to rack up 232 for six declared from 41 overs.
There were two early successes for the home side, both courtesy of the excellent Samuels who did not concede a run in his first four overs while clean bowling both Mitchell and Birchley.
Thereafter it was somewhat harder going: Richard Newell Price, Jon Shingles and John Crosfield were unable to make a breakthrough as Brooker and Bootsch settled in, and it was only when the latter looked set to complete a half-century that he scooped simple catch to Andrew Moss at square leg to give the impressive David Bibby a well-deserved wicket.
At 130 for three the OLs continued to harbour hopes of restricting the visitors to a total below the 200 mark but Brooker continued to dominate and deservedly completed a hard-hitting century. When tiredness finally forced a false stroke and he picked out Chris Straw in the covers off Newell Price to depart for 115, Jordans were sitting pretty on 190 for four.
The late push for runs yielded two more wickets for the OLs as Newell Price claimed his 50th catch for the club - off his own bowling - then Crosfield clung on to give the returning Shingles a scalp.
Facing a stiff target and an required run rate of more than five per over, Moss and Jason Thomas gave the hosts an excellent start, putting on 78 for the first wicket at a run a ball before Matthews bowled both men with full-ish deliveries, Thomas departing for 40 and Moss for 35.
Skipper John Acland-Hood got the innings back on track with a measured 32 in a stand of 54 with Shingles but when he and Straw (0) fell in quick succession the match was finely poised.
But Shingles' crafty 59* from 60 balls - his 17th half-century for the club - kept the OLs on course and Samuels provided a turbo-charged finish, putting the game out of sight for the visitors amid a flurry of boundaries. Nine fours came booming off the Samuels bat as he reached his second fifty in as many matches off just 28 balls before applying the finishing touch to end up unbeaten on 56.
Links: