Comfortable win for Willoughby vs Oakfield

An unseasonably warm, sunny April day formed a pleasant backdrop to the opening game of Willoughby's Senior Campaign against an Oakfield side which included quite a few youngsters.
Having lost the toss Willoughby were put in to bat on a well prepared wicket and got off to a slow start when new batsman Keith Gibson left one outside off stump that turned off the seam and hit his stumps. Badj Rahman followed a few balls later trying to hoike a swinging ball through the onside. Willoughby were 17/2 after 4 overs when Kamesh Ganti strode out and a more cautious approach began to pay dividends in the face of some good seam bowling from Oakfield. By the time he departed LBW on 38 in the 17th over he and Sean Thornton had managed to carve out a partnership of 76 and taken the score to a more respectable 91/3. Mr Cricket himself (Ash Rayner) then picked up where they had left off and proceeded to make an almost flawless 50. Sean eventually fell for a hard earned 34 and Ryan Perry's short-lived cameo of 2 4s and a single ended when he fell victim to the infamous Willoughby low bounce. (Yes it's still there!) A ball that pitched just short of a length and (almost) rolled along the ground. But the best was yet to come as a rejuvenated Richard Foxon strode out and proceeded to knock the ball all around the park at will. Ash and Rich made a stand of 95 before Ash did the gentlemanly thing and retired on 50. Although Si Nicholls, Ian Button, Kish Parmar and John Gregson didn't trouble the scorers too much they managed to stick around long enough for Rich to make an unbeaten 70.
Willoughby's total of 233/9 was always going to be a tough score to beat but Oakfield started well despite Kish Parmar bagging their opener in the first over. After 11 overs Oakfield were up with the run rate and only 2 wickets down but steady progress was made with everyone who wanted to bowling 3 or 4 overs and grabbing a wicket; apart from Ian Button who had to be kept on for 6 overs before eventually claiming the scalp of one of Oakfield's better 12 year olds. :) Ash Rayner was almost unplayable with his booming inswingers and it was great to see Sean Thornton back in form bowling properly and not fannying about with spin. His outswingers were equally unplayable and he was well deserved of his 2 wickets for only 7 runs. But it was left to the wily old John Gregson to clean up. Putting the ball in the right place works every time and the experienced slow bowler mopped up the tail taking 3 for only 7 runs.
Oakfield's combination of youth and experience were no match for the more accomplished Willoughby side but their final total of 99 all out didn't do them justice as they played some good cricket, particularly bowling where they swung and seamed the ball very well.
All in all an enjoyable pre-season friendly match played in good spirit and a useful, encouraging practice ahead of the start of the league season next week.

Si Nicholls
Club Captain