Oliver Records Superb Century As 1st XI Rack Up The Runs

That is exactly what it turned out to be as KCC openers Richard Walker and Andy Oliver put on an brilliant opening partnership of 106 as they dispatched the ball to all parts of the ground. After being given a life on 8 in which he was dropped in the covers, Oliver went on to play the perfect openers innings rotating the strike with Walker well and finding the boundary regularly. Andy brought his 50 up as the score moved on to 80 and Kidlington looked set for a big score when Walker got in on the act striking the ball down the ground well and finding the boundary, the 100 was brought up in the 17th over but Walker failed to reach his half century when he was out to a smart catch in the gully for 42 after a loose shot. This brought the returning Jack Desmond to the crease, yet this made no difference to the run rate as Desmond took over the scoring from Oliver and raced to 40 after being in just 6 overs, with Andy now into the 70s after some fine stroke play including a big straight 6, Desmond was out caught and bowled for 45 after middling a drive straight back to the bowler. Tom Bozman joined Oliver at the crease and was looking to find some form after some out of character low scores so far this season. Bozman looked nervous to start off with but soon found his range and played some well timed cut shots and his favoured straight drives. Meanwhile Oliver was still going nicely and was now into the nervous 90s. He moved the ball around for singles before moving to his first century of the season with a drive down the ground for four! Now KCC were well past the 200 mark and Oliver and Bozman began to cut loose, both found the boundary easily at times and Oliver was in fine form advancing down the wicket and striking another brilliant straight 6! When Oliver was finally out to a catch at midwicket, he had amassed a superb total of 141, surpassing his previous best of 138 and taking KCC towards 300! Edd Willmot joined Bozman in the middle and rotated the strike for Bozman to face as many balls as possible. Bozman passed his half century just as KCC passed the 300 mark and the innings ended with another superb Bozman straight drive as KCC finished on a huge 320/3 from their 45 overs!

After a brilliant tea at the lovely setting of Charlburys pavilion and surrounding countryside, KCC set about defending their big total on what was still a perfect wicket for batting. Dan Farrant and Steve Litten opened up the bowling and both bowled fairly well but couldn't eradicate one bad ball an over although the Charlbury batsmen missed out on finding the boundary from some of those bad balls and had some luck when Craig Woods put down a catch in Farrants first over. Another Farrant ball was edged through the slips as Litten then struck first having the opener caught in the slips by Edd Willmot. Farrant and Litten were replaced by Sam Rodway and Chris Graham who both continued the decent bowling and Graham made the breakthrough after Richard Walker took a smart catch down the leg side in his unusual role of wicketkeeper! Rodway was bowling a good length but the new batsman took a liking to his bowling and he was replaced by Steve Litten whose returning over included a 6 and two 4s but also a wicket as he sent middle stump flying out of the ground as he bowled a beautiful shape and the batsmen struggled to get him away. Edd Willmot came on for Graham after a good spell of full swing bowling and Willmot bowled his off spin well, flighting the ball with some occasional turn and was rewarded when Andy Oliver took a good catch at short midwicket! Farrant came back on for Litten and continued his theme of 5 good balls and 1 bad ball. Unbelievably it was one of his bad balls that got him his only wicket when a long hop was caught at short extra cover by John Pratt. Farrant could have had 4 for the day but another catch was put down in the slips this time after a good acrobatic effort from Sam Rodway. Farrant bowled out and Tom Bozman replaced him, he bowled one over as the bowling was shared about by Walker as Craig Woods, Andy Oliver and John Pratt all bowled an over each at the end of the innings. Oliver and Pratt were both unfortunate to pick up wickets as a looping shot just avoided Chris Graham from Oliver's bowling before Farrant put down a low sharp catch and short mid off. That wrapped the Charlbury innings up as they closed on 149/6 falling 171 runs short of KCCs total as overall Kidlington didn't bowl to badly on a hard day in the field on what was a very good batting wicket!