Winning In The Rain

Oakley batted through the rain to make it four wins out of five in the league against Fleet yesterday. Oakley had to make several changes due to injuries and other commitments, and had the Rowley family to thank for donating George, Oscar, and eight year old Alfie to the cause, with all three performing brilliantly.


Oakley come off in the rain after another win

Oakley put Fleet in to bat, but started badly with unusually expensive bowling from the normally reliable Lethaby and Worthington. This wasn't helped by Matt Vickers deputising for Brad Coates struggling behind the wickets with an injured hand, and some sloppy fielding all round. However as so often happens this season, this gave the opportunity for others to shine, and up stepped James Lancaster (3-16) and 10 year old Oscar Rowley (2-15) with two great spells of bowling to reduce Fleet to 94 off 20 overs.

In response Oakley had a shaky start losing the openers early, but George Lethaby came in at three and hit a match winning 31 retired which was backed up by fine innings of 17 by Alex Gray who was a bit unlucky to be out LBW when going well. With Lethaby having to retire and the quick loss of Worthington (6) and Vickers (4), Oakley looked vulnerable, but Oscar (6no) and George Rowley (9no) calmly saw Oakley to victory with 6n.o and 9n.o respectively.

On current form Oakley are beginning to look genuine challengers, but the wides and sloppy fielding need to be addressed against stronger teams before this can happen.

Bowling
Worthington 4-0-18-1
Lancaster 4-0-16-3
Lethaby 3-0-24-0
O Rowley 3-0-15-2
Bambridge 2-0-8-1
Gray 1-0-2-0
Clarke 1-0-2-0
G Rowley 1-0-3-0
A Rowley 1-0-4-0

Batting
Bambridge bowled 2
Lancaster bowled 0
Lethaby Retired 31
Vickers bowled 4
Gray LBW 17
Worthington bowled 6
G Rowley Not Out 9
O Rowley Not Out 6

M.O.M George Lethaby 31 Retired