Five for Deery as Sunday XI lose narrowly at Oakfield

Oakfield & Rowland United v Willoughby

Oakfield & Rowland United 156 all out
Willoughby 143 all out
Oakfield & Rowland United won by 13 runs

A five wicket haul from Michael Deery was one of several useful performances for Willoughby in their narrow defeat to old friends Oakfield and Rowland United on Sunday.

The 14 year old took fine figures of 5 for 21 which all proved in vain as the visitors let slip a winning position to ultimately fall short in an entertaining game at the Sheaf & Sickle.

Batting first, the hosts were bowled out for 156, a competitive total largely made up of contributions of 44 from Daniel Pfadenhauer, 30 from Chris Goodwin and an unbeaten 28 from Oliver Vaughan lower down the order. For the Willoughby attack, Deery’s handful of wickets was backed by a pair for Callum Hanks (2 for 32) and Mark Fell (2 for 16).

In reply, the visitors recovered well from the early loss of Derek Middlemiss with Hassan Nawaz (35) and Ben Hollis (46) putting on 67 for the second wicket. O & R managed to apply the brakes on that charge however by removing Nawaz and then seeing off James Andrews for a duck and then the scalp of Ashley Rayner, dismissed LBW also without troubling the scorers (that doesn't happen often).

Jake Quinney came in at mid-order to make a disciplined innings to seemingly put the visitors on course and in sight of victory, despite the usually reliable Mark Fell playing on and heading back to the pavilion with only one to his name. Adam Whitfield came in to join Quinney however the latter’s departure for 31 then saw a collapse as Willoughby’s youthful lower order saw their last four wickets fall for 10 runs, earning the hosts victory by 13 runs.