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2024 Tour to Oxford

On June 14th to 16th a Ferring touring party spent the weekend in Oxford for a very civilised couple of days of cricket. The Friday saw the team enjoy some team bonding at several establishments around Oxford, enjoying the first night of Euro 2024 and some live music. 

With everyone feeling really fresh on the Saturday we headed to Cassington for a match against Far From The MCC in a rematch from last year. Batting first, captain for the day Ewan Maclean-Brown ("Ews"), put in a bid for a more permanent position as opening bat scoring his first ever 50 for the club before retiring not out. Not to be outdone the normal Saturday captain, Cameron Baldock (who may now forever be known as Jamie Tartt), went 1 better, scoring an unbeaten 51, with support from Iain Wardley with his usual resolute batting getting 45 not out as Ferring posted a monster 190 for 2 off 35 overs. In reply Far From the MCC got off to a bad start when Alex Williams got A Darley out for a golden duck with a wide loosener that he proceeded to hit to the safe hands of Ews. It was a moment marked by the batsmen then finding the middle of his bat as he connected well with his helmet, sadly neither the bat or the helmet survived. Some resolute batting from Far from the MCC happened, with opener R Turner getting 35 before J Harris hit 56 not out. However, Dilshan (2 for 12 off 5) and Alex Williams (5 for 8 off 7) were too strong and it was just left for Jamie Tartt's likely only over of the season to wrap things up getting the 9th wicket as Far From the MCC were left on 155 for 9 from their 35 overs. However, it was a cracking game, played in the right way with everyone getting involved, the opening bat apologising many times for his actions and we look forward to hopefully playing for his broken helmet next year! It was quite rightly followed by a beer after before we hurried back to Oxford for a curry.

Sunday, and a few fresher heads and more achy bodies, started with a group breakfast in Oxford (except Jim Watkiss who had known better and booked into a hotel with a pool and spa) before a wander round the university grounds. But it was soon off to Woodcote for the second (and final) game of the weekend a 30 over a side match to allow us tourists to get back for the England game. Another lovely ground, and early advantage was Woodcote's given the professional set up with covers and professional photographer John Douglass who took some fantastic photos of the day. However, fresh from his spa treatment captain Jim Watkiss decided he would continue to take it easy and bat first letting Joe Binns and David Thompson do the hard work as openers. To be fair they did a great job with an opening stand of 70, but as they say one brings two and both were out with the score on 70. This brought George Burgess to the crease for the first time in the weekend, and having witnessed Ews knock the previous day (and maybe heard a little bit about it) felt the need to go one better and retire on 51 not out (again i think a first 50 in adult cricket for George). A few more wickets fell, a few lusty hits and a final ball 4 from Ews off his first ball left Ferring 189 for 7 off 30. We'll leave it up to the reader to decide if George 51 not out or Ews 50 not out and 4 not out had the better weekend! In reply Woodcote showed they had some quality batters in their side and at 62 for 1 and 134-3 they looked very much in control. However, a couple of great catches (Jim off Ews) and Dilshan with a caught and bowled turned the tide before Joe Binns cemented the strong position with 3 for 23 off 6. It was just left to Jim to use his freshness at the end to bowl the penultimate over, taking the final wicket with his first ball for Woodcote to finish on 157 all out. To be honest, they were very unlucky, the top order batted well and without two great catches were well ahead of the required rate, but very enjoyable game all round, and a quick drink at the end before the long journey home to watch England.

Well done to all involved, was a terrific weekend, I’ve not mentioned them above, but this year two of the under 13s joined us for the tour and did themselves proud on and off the pitch. They were great company, played some great cricket both batting and bowling well, Thomas Watkiss getting a couple of wickets and Caiden a lovely knock of 13 before a slightly kamikaze run out and a hard fought 10 when opening the batting on Saturday. I think every player had something to be proud of over the weekend, and also massive thank you to Liam Day for scoring both games and Jess Francis for her support, stepping into score when Liam decided he wanted to field, and her photograph skills.