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Oscar's Weekend

 


An interesting weekend full of landmark performances and season's-best efforts from a number of players resulted in a familiar feeling - Offley lost twice and lurched a step nearer to a second successive double relegation campaign.

On the grounds that there's as much chance of us fulfilling the final fixture at Godmanchester as there is of Luke Munt buying a Luton Town season ticket (not to mention as much chance of us winning it as of Luke Munt renouncing sausage rolls), we are already effectively doomed to relegation from the Bedfordshire League.

The hithero uncharted depths of Division Six await - nice one JB.

On Friday night Offley pulled off one of the best wins of the season by routing (sort of) a strong Ickwell side featuring a number of 1st & 2nd XI players.

Of course everyone who turns out for Offley is a 1st XI player (sometimes a 1st VIII or 1st IX player) so perhaps it wasn't such an upset.

Oscar Welch became the youngest player in club history to claim five wickets in an innings as he took 5-8 from three overs.

To put that into some context 22 of the 33 bowlers used by Offley this year have yet to take five wickets in the season.

Most of them won't.

Oscar has now bowled the grand total of 45 overs for the club in his career.

He's 13.

Ben Wiles became the first batsman to pass 200 runs for the season while Scott Boatwright also achieved a first (probably) by smashing three boundaries in a single over as they shared a match-winning partnership.

On Saturday Marc Ward's ten men nearly pulled off a shock victory at Berkhamstead before slipping to a two-wicket defeat.

Dan Goord joined Wiles in the 200-run club, Kaiz Ul Haq doubled and then tripled his wicket tally for the year with a devastating two-wicket burst, Darren Lunney hammered his highest score of the season (15) and Bradley Lyons matched his season-high score (7).

Jamie Cummins became the first Offley bowler to take 20 wickets in 2024 while Steve Denton produced a fantastic all-round performance as he matched his season's best bowling performance (2-16) and also ripped off his highest score of the year; he made 2. 

Denton has been on fire with the ball over the past three matches, taking six wickets to confirm he is not only back to his best but will also be back for another season in 2025.

Denton seemed set for a big score before falling victim to the infamous "parachute delivery" that ripped past his throat at great velocity before descending gently on to the top of middle stump.

Additionally Ward held on to three catches behind the stumps.

Berkhamstead also awarded us three LBW decisions (surely a record), none of which appeared to have a huge amount going for them.

Sunday witnessed more milestones during a jolly, spirited Corinthian battle with Ickwell - similar to the Corinthian War of 395-387 BC which saw thousands killed.

Welch backed up his bowling performance on Friday night by becoming the youngest Offley player to record a half-century as he survived numerous appeals and concerted attempts by Kaiz to run him out, to make 52.

Oscar has now batted 10 times for Offley.

He's 13.

At this rate Mark Tattersall's record as Offley's youngest ever centurion could soon be under threat.


Young Tattersall

Kaiz also recorded a season's best with the bat (41) while James Barker (4-31) and Lunney (3-21) also produced their best performances this year with the ball.

Kaiz joined the 200-run club while Lunney and Cummins are now tied for the lead with 21 wickets apiece - although Jamie would like to point out that he should have 22 on account of the batsman punching the ball to cover (or something like that) and being given not out.

Jamie also became the first Offley bowler to concede over 500 runs this year. 

While he has a chance to beat last year's career-best tally of 28 wickets, the self-annointed, self-appointed MVP is poised to obliterate his record of conceding 662 runs. 

No wonder he refused to take the new ball against Godmanchester!

Oh yes, one more thing. 

Marc Ward still hasn't won a game as captain, defeat at Berkhamstead dropping his record to 0-8 for the season. 

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