Thame Cricket: Weekly Roundup – 3rd XI win big while rain frustrates again

This past weekend was another frustrating one; rain again sweeping the nation and causing the 4th XI league match and Women‘s Super 8s match to be called off before they started. Our 2nd XI match at home to Stokenchurch was a go, before more rain disappointingly forced an abandonment – at the time, Luke Hayes‘ brilliant opening spell of 3-17 had the visitors under pressure at 35-3 chasing 164. However, our 1st, 3rd and Cup 4th XI matches did go ahead in what has been a season where so far some other teams in the league are yet to play at all!

The 1st XI travelled to Henley having themselves suffered an abandonment the previous week. In a rain affected match, The Meadowmen struggled to 126 all out – opener Ollie Ebsworth-Burland top-scoring with 31. Henley quickly chased down the revised equation of 119 from 39 overs, for the loss of just the 1 wicket.

The only storm at the 3rd XI match came in the form of Thame’s seam attack, at home to Marcham. ‘Pistol’ Pete Higson (5-11), Nick Humphries (3-12) and Zach Harris (1-9) blitzed through a line up that saw only the number 11 reach double figures. Chasing just 38 to win, Justin Avery (38*) led the way to give Thame an emphatic victory after only 7.2 overs.

On Sunday, the 4th XI hosted Chesterton in the Osberton Radiators Cup – one of several knockout cups brought about by the Cherwell League merge with the OCA. After the loss of early wickets, Stu Gray‘s middle order 50 helped Thame up to 168-9 off 40 overs. In a tight chase, all bowlers contributed a wicket each, but couldn’t stop Chesterton reaching the target with 5 balls and 3 wickets left.