OL's Cricket Club

OL's is not just a rugby club, the facilities are used for a wide variety of sports including soccer and cricket.

The OL's cricket side consists of a large number of rugby club members supplemented by some keen fair weather sportsmen.

The Seasons Stats can be seen here
(someone really does have too much time on his hands)

 OL's B 87-4, Exiles 88-2

Exiles won by 8 Wickets

 In true Tuesday night spirit, when Fenley Fields proved to be unplayable, all agreed to switch to the Harris to get a game. A full strength Exiles side beat an OL's side missing key players, by basically being better, and showing why they top the league, and are reigning champs. OL's won the toss and batted, with openers Big Wal, 36 and Simon, 18, putting on 40+ for the first wicket, but after they went, OL's failed to score another boundary. All Exiles bowlers were good, Adam Ursell had the best figures of 2-16, but young James Martin was the best of the bunch. Pete Rigg and Melv ran well to score 11 and 7, but the run rate started to slow, as the lush outfield stopped good shots going to the fence.

In reply James Burnett score an unbeaten 50, aided by Will Mortimer 15, with some big blows, though what is that pink bat handle?? Brownie aided them home with some time to spare, OL's bowling was put to the sword, with only Pikey and Fossy taking a wicket each, special mention to Melv in the field, and Ted for a catch of the season candidate.

OL's B questioned their ethos of everybody contributing, and it was universally agreed that we would rather lose, with everybody playing a part, than allow one or two key players to dominate the game.

Waspes 109-5, OLs B 110-9 - OLs B win by one wicket

On a night that will go down in the annuls of cricketing folk law as Alwyngate, OLs B held their nerve to win by one wicket with a ball to spare. OLs B remain unbeaten and Waspes are still looking for their first win. At the death OLs B crept over the line, as a ball swapping incident threatened to mar the good spirit of the game, in reality in did OLs no favours. They were cruising at that stage, but lost 4 wickets for 2 runs, and only a tenth wicket partnership of 8, as Stish 5no, joined Marcus 42no, to guide us home.

Thorney won the toss, and decided to continue the trend of chasing a target, Waspes have lapsed into a team who allow some players to do everything, as their four bowlers batted 1, 3, 4, 6. At least three guys only got to field, though to be fair one of them took a couple of good catches.

Our main strike bowlers are still on holiday, but again the stand-ins did admirably well, as the wide ball and “oh my god what was that” count is being reduced each week. The fielding was a mix of the good, the bad, and the downright ugly, with some excellent catches, some dolly drops and excellent use of the feet by Stish to run out the ever miserable, but dangerous Geoff, 16. Other notable scores were the over enthusiastic Simon, 24, Bhav 20 and Aled 26no. Stish was best bowler with 2-37 off 5 overs, with Ted and Foxy getting one a piece, with only Skinners going wicketless, though trying to use his wedding tackle rather than his hands for a catch off his own bowling, was never going to work.

In reply Big Wal made 14, Thorney 10, before he hit one a mile in the air, and was well caught, with Simon, Peter, and Dommy all getting in and out. Unfortunately this was better than Rhys, Foxy, and Ted, who both just got out, to ensure OLs had the ubiquitous ducks. The main stay of the innings was Marcus, who batted to the end for 42no, and his experience proved vital, only non attendance at the fines session prevented him being exempted, and that honour went to Stish for his all round performance.

DD 80/6, OLs B 81/3, OLs B win by 7 wickets.

On a pleasant evening at Featherbed Lane, once something resembling a cricket pitch was located, a friendly game of cricket saw OLs stroll to victory.  Several runs were continued, as Thorney lost the toss, OLs B won, and Willow got another golden duck, but more of that later.

It was agreed by all, that the pitch was frankly shocking, as there was no noticeable difference to the rest of the square, and hardly any thing to distinguish it from the whole rec.  DD batted first and struggled with the variable bounce, the ball moving feet, rather than inches, and the occasional one that took off.

Good knocks by Hunty 21 and Baz 30 no, as all the bowlers struggled to control the conditions, helped to rattle up 80-6 of their 20 overs. This would have been many more, but for Leigh 'Billy' Fisher suddenly turning into the worlds best fielder.   Wickets for Fozzie 2-20, Jamie 2-4, Ted 2-28, meant nobody hogged the limelight and all were duly fined for falling short of the stringent finemasters preset performance levels.

In reply Simon and Marcus opened; Simon smacked a glorious boundary, and then gets one of the unplayable balls. Marcus showed he can really play, so why is he playing or us? as he carried his bay for 31 no.

Pete carried on his fine form with 8. His demise saw big Willow stride out to the wicket. Another shocking ball which pitched short, and climbed to at least 2 inches off the ground, hit the back leg, and it was the plumbest of plumb LBWs in cricketing history. Billy helped OLs home, with an array of shots, some of which were recognisable to hit 14no. [But he does own his own bat].