KCC II V CHARLBURY II

So the stiffs went into the last game of the season with nothing to play for with being secure in the middle of the table, however Charlbury had an outside hope of finishing top being 18 points behind leaders Shrivenham .

Oliver had decided that chasing would be the way to win this game and this had proved to be a winning formula for the twos this season. Oliver called incorrectly yet again and not surprisingly KCC were asked to bat.
that rain was still falling at this stage so we managed to watch the cyclists pass through before the covers came off and we started with only a few minutes delayed and no change in the overs.
Jarvis opened up for Charlbury and quickly had KCC on the back foot with his 4th ball taking off from a length and going past jeacocks nose and the following identical length ball just missed jeacocks shins to hit halfway up the stumps leaving kcc 1 for 1 from the first over,
Oliver was joined by Talmaki and they looked to get forward and rotate the strike , Talmaki unfortunately pulled out of the shot he was to play and lobbed a simple chance back to the bowler (doran) for his first of two wickets .
Oliver was now joined by Pratt and the clouds were building and rain looked like the only winner at this stage , Oliver in his head had decided that the chances of rain were so high that we were likely to be reduced to the minimum of 25 overs so attack was now what was needed , Oliver took 9 from Jarvis Snrs first over and looked to do the same to Doran hitting a boundary off the first ball but unfortunately went for one shot too many and got caught in the covers for 35.
Pratt was joined by Hewitt and pratt immediately looked to dominate the bowling hitting the ball to all parts of the park at this stage fielding had become difficult as the rain had become persistent but not heavy enough for the umpires to come off. Pratt's fifty came in style with a lovely timed 6 off the bowling of Norton. Pratt and Hewitt put on a fabulous 73 runs before Pratt was adjudged LBW from the bowling of Sinton for a fine 62,
Hewitt was now joined by young launchbury who unfortunately failed to trouble the scorers and was quickly replaced by a more senior launchbury , it was now Hewitts time to dominate and he went quickly from his 8 runs when Pratt fell to 46 in no time at all when Norton bowled a full toss that was on its way down and hit him clean in the Box and he was adjudged LBW for yet another partnership in the 70s .
Kcc were now edging closer to the final few overs and Launchbury was joined by Clark who had been waiting patiently on the side-line practicing his golf swing.
launchbury had most of the strike and did well turning twos into ones :) ... Jonah finally managed to get on strike and got off the mark with a nice shot for a single , and KCC managed to close the innings with a nicely rounded 200 .

Charlbury still looking for victory quickly put the covers on before we enjoyed a nice tea.

Olivers only directive to the team following the break was to give it all and do our best to make things hard for the opposition , Blackford and De-Silva opened up the bowling and by now all the bad weather looked to have passed so a clear chase for charlbury was on.
Blackers bowled with his usual control and immediately was asking questions of the openers ,however if was De-silva who was to make the first breakthrough having Fox caught at mid off by what can only be described as the first of 4 very important catches.
this brought young Jarvis to the crease who immediately looked to dominate hitting a boundary from his first ball, he took a liking to De-silvas bowling and hit him for 3 big clean sixes and raced to 31 in no time at all however De-silva held his nerve and stuck to bowling a good length and Jarvis skied one and the skipper was more than happy that the ball remained firmly in his grasp for the second important catch of the game.
Glass was now at the crease and we knew from the previous game that he could hang around and before you know it have a score so we looked to attack the other end. blackford took his two wickets in quick succession having Nash the opener caught at gully by jeacock and Chakrabati missing a straight one , Charlbury were 50 ish for 4 at this stage and Glass was joined by skipper Sinton who was looking to steady the collapse and chase the remaining runs down.
Sinton and Glass took the attack to KCC and again we found ourselves looking for balls that kept going over the top of the old pavilion (we lost more balls in this one game than the entire season combined)
Sinton was the main attacker and was hitting anything short or overpitched to the boundary, hwoever the partnership was about to be broken with important catch number three , De-silva had been replaced by jeacock at the pavilion end and glass looked to go on the attack he hammered a ball off his legs only for Launchbury Snr to take yet another worldly catch diving to his left. Sinton was now joined by carter and Charlbury were still needing 5 an over at this stage , Blackford was replaced by launchbury and he took the first of his two wickets where Sinton was caught at midwicket by Jeacock for important catch no4 and sinton departed for a fine captains knock of 65 .
Carter was joined by Doran and the both looked to play shots before jeacock had Doran adjudged LBW for 5 . carter was next to fall with two clear caught behind appeals with the second being given out for 13 . the tail was wagging but was still well within chasing distance .
Jarvis snr was now with Currie and looked to take all the strike himself and not run any singles which may have proved costly , Currie was jeacocks third scalp being adjudged lbw for 1.
leaving Charlbury needing 30 runs and KCC needing 1 wicket , Charlbury did there upmost to give us that wicket and we decided that now was the time we would drop a few catches .. 5 I think in total in the space of 4 overs but all tough chances and each fielder gave 120% and some of these chances stopped important boundaries and didn't result in any runs as Jarvis had decided he was the only one who could do this, he stopped running any singles and looked to club boundaries . the final over arrived with kcc still needing that one wicket and Charlbury now needing 17 form 6 balls. was Launchbury to hold his nerve
Oliver had spread the field leaving only the minimum required within the ring, first ball went flying through the on side for 4 leaving 13 from the remaining 5 balls .. Jed continued with his good length and hit the block hole for the next delivery with no runs scored , his next ball Jarvis got hold off and struck in the air toward Blackford at long off who used his experience and didn't go for the catch as if he had missed it a boundary would have been inevitable , he fielded it cleanly and again Jarvis chose not to run so another vital dot ball.. 3 to come could we do it 13 still to get .. Launchbury bowled another good Yorker length ball for yet another dot .. now leaving an impossible task providing two legal deliveries were bowled .... another two great balls followed with another two dots leaving Norton on 1 not out and Jarvis on 28 not out and KCC with there 2nd Giant killing in two weeks :) :) :)

a special mention needs to go to the fielders in this game who gave there all and took the important catches at the vital times but a special mention needs to go to Jonah , Jacob and Jon who alone saved over 20 runs which as you can tell by the margin of victory were crucial.
what a way to end the season its been a real pleasure, we have had 33 different members grace the stiffs year and I can honestly say its been an honour to lead (well I tried anyway) you this season we have some real talent coming through the ranks of youth and some exceptional experience that put themselves out there each week.. thanks so much and hope to see you all at the end of season knees up

Andy