BATSMEN'S PARADISE
17/07/05: The Old Leightonians enjoyed a sun-baked Cricket Week as nearly 1,200 runs were scored in two days.
A combination of the beautiful weather, a superb pitch and a short boundary on the Shinfield Road side of the main square at Leighton Park made for a batting paradise and two exciting matches that resulted in a defeat and a draw for the home side.
The OLs' first visitors on Thursday were Kingsclere, a long-standing fixture now being played with the Good Doctor's Award trophy at stake in memory of David Pollard, a stalwart of both clubs.
Winning the toss and opting to bat first, the OLCC made a bright start and were 31 for no wicket after six overs when players, officials and spectators paused to hold a two-minute silence for the victims of the terrorist attacks on London a week previously.
On the resumption, Tom Gillmor continued to find the gaps before offering a return catch to Andrews and departed for 30, and after Dayalan Doraisamy fell for a steady 20 a mini-collapse ensued.
Tom Carter (6) and Tom Aylward (8) both holed out to the deep midwicket boundary and with Dominic Beer scooping a catch to short fine leg the OLs were in real trouble at 127 for five.
But Andrew Moss and Tom Scrase were happy to take the invitation to bat the home side back into the match on a flat pitch, putting on a marvellous stand of 136. Moss made 64 and Scrase 57 before both they and Richard Newell Price (0) were shot out in the space of six balls, and after a brief flurry from Graham Carter and Simon Best the OL innings came to an end on 286.
Newell Price it was who struck an early blow by having Frith caught behind (the first of a record-equalling five wicket-keeper dismissals for Tom Gillmor) but first Hardy (before he fell lbw to Doraisamy) then Lawrence and Gundry put the visitors firmly on course for victory.
Lawrence reached 100 before Tom Scrase made a vital double breakthrough, having the centurion stumped by Gillmor then picking up O'Leary when he drove to Chris Straw at extra cover.
Simon Best's guile then proved too much for Gundry, Gillmor gratefully pouching a simple catch, and when the Scrase-Gillmor partnership accounted for Hartley it left the visitors 229 for six with 12 overs to go.
Still the runs came though, and with the seventh-wicket stand taking Kingsclere to 273 for six the game looked up. But Andrews trod on his stumps in dispatching Scrase to midwicket, Enters holed out to Straw to give Doraisamy his second wicket and Gillmor picked up a second stumping off Scrase to dismiss Green and with the scoreboard showing 279 for nine, all four results remained possible.
Ultimately a boundary from Randall and four leg-byes settled it, but both teams were commended for the effort and performances shown when Kingsclere captain Nigel Gundry accepted the Good Doctor's Award from David's wife Sarah at the presentation.
Friday's match saw the OLs invited to field first in equally warm conditions, and it would prove to be a morning and afternoon of toil as opponents Incogniti rattled up 318 for four declared in 48 overs.
The OL celebrations were few and far between but worthy of note was a well-earned wicket for debutant Rob Lean, a coolly-taken catch by Richard Newell Price to dismiss Wood off Dayalan Doraisamy, another Best-Gillmor combination to account for Gardiner, and a catch for captain Tom Carter off brother Ed's bowling that deprived Furness (97) of a deserved century.
In reply, the OLCC lost Andrew Moss (12) and Chris Straw (4) early on but a fabulous stand of 189 - the third highest partnership for any wicket for the OLs - between Tom Carter (139) and Doraisamy (51) turned the tables spectacularly.
Carter's innings was particularly destructive, coming off 80 balls and featuring 17 fours and eight sixes, and it ended only when he tried to dispatch Scantlebury for a third successive maximum and was superbly caught by Furness at deep square leg.
That dismissal then prompted a devastating collapse in which six wickets fell for 22 runs, leaving the OLs' hopes of victory in tatters at 229 for eight. Doraisamy, Tom Gillmor (1), Peter Straw (0), Ed Carter (11) and Richard Newell Price (0) were all fired out in the space of 44 deliveries.
The game may have looked dead at that stage but Phil Samuels and Simon Best had clearly not read the script as they embarked on a ninth-wicket partnership characterised by the former's fearless attacking and the latter's utterly resolute defence.
Best had scored eight of the 60 runs the pair added before being run out by a distance, but there was still time for Samuels to complete a daredevil half-century and finish up 57 not out, with Lean making sure of the draw at the other end.
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