Nick Jeacock and Sam Rodway’s 147 Partnership Leads Kidlington to Third Win on The Bounce

By Jonah Clarke

A nice day for cricket, Kidlington lost the toss but were put into bat anyway. Openers were Jack Launchbury and Razwan Dogar. Launchbury got off the mark well with a nice shot, hooked finely off his pads for four and it wasn’t long before Razwan started to tee off. In the fourth over, however, Launchbury was bowled and on came Nick Jeacock. Jeacock started slowly but ran some nice singles and doubles to get off the mark. He and Dogar began to find the boundaries nicely and the scoreboard started ticking over, until Dogar was eventually bowled by Eykyn on 31. On came Sam Rodway, who quickly began to find the boundary as he and Jeacock began their prolific partnership of 26 overs. In that time they amassed a combined total of 147 runs and when Jeacock was stumped on 92 after 39 overs, the scoreboard read 192 to Kidlington. But more was yet to come as Sam Rodway was joined at the crease by Tim Rodway, and the father/son duo added 30 runs in 3 overs to take Kidlington onto 227 with 2 and a half overs remaining when Tim was stumped for 13. With little over 12 balls remaining, Jonathan Pratt came on and he made a remarkable 25 off just 11 balls with Sam adding one to his total, leaving Kidlington with a total score of 253 with Sam Rodway and JP on 84* and 25* respectively.
Swinbrook went one better than Kidlington’s Rodway father/son batting partnership as they opened with the Grandfather/Grandson partnership of Andrew and Joshua Wingfield Digby. Tony Launchbury and Ben Crawford opened the bowling and were both very economical with four maidens between them, but both failed to get a wicket. Eventually, after drinks, Jacob Oliver found the breakthrough, as Andrew Wingfield Digby was caught by Tony Launchbury very near to the ground with a diving catch at short mid on. On came Eykyn who looked dangerous with the bat, Jonah Clarke and Sam Rodway both were inches away from direct hits in the field, and Clarke mentioned in frustration to Tony that he’d had about 10 run out opportunities miss by inches this season and that he was due one to hit. Well, sure enough, in the next over, Josh Wingfield Digby hit a shot to Clarke at midwicket and called for a single which was probably on, Clarke fielded and hurled the ball to the wicket keeper’s end and took the bales off with a direct hit. Eykyn was sent back to the pavilion. From here, Swinbrook began to collapse, as Jacob Oliver took the scalp of the young opener Wingfield Digby and Jed Launchbury bowled Pothecary and Callum Dadge. With plenty of runs to play with Tony brought on Jack Launchbury who bowled pretty tightly, and Jonah Clarke, who did not. Jack bowled well and got a wicket as he bowled Parker. Clarke’s first over started off well with two dot balls, he was then hit for six off the third ball, but as the field called for a good response, he duly delivered, bowling Read middle stump. * Two more dot balls followed. So, apart from the six, a solid wicket maiden. The next over can only be described as the worst over in Kidlington CC history. Balls bouncing three times, balls sailing over the wicket keepers outstretched arm, wides and a couple of singles in there too. Only went for 7 runs though, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Anyway, Tony had seen enough and kindly thanked Clarke for his ‘great spell’ and let experienced bowlers Ben Crawford and Sam Rodway take over. A late flurry from Ryan Dadge who hit a few good boundaries was soon put to bed as Ben bowled him with the first ball in his second spell. Sam Rodway then came along and finished the Swinbrook batting off with two mercilessly fast balls, bowling Kaaber and Jenkinson. In the end, Swinbrook finished on a respectable 131 but ultimately Kidlington’s batting firepower saw them win by 122 runs which sees them move up to 5th in the table.
*the ball kept low and bounced twice before eventually reaching middle stump, but middle stump nonetheless