Long Marston Cricket Club

Long Marston got their season up and running on Saturday with a comfortable 9 wicket victory over Bledlow Ridge. Bledlow Ridge won the toss and much to captain Pete Tooveys delight chose to bat first on a green deck at Long Marston. Toovey lead from the front, knocking Bledlow opener Brooks off stump over with only 3 on the board. The positive start and good energy from the fielders didn’t translate to more wickets unfortunately, chances came and went as some poor fielding looked like it might allow Bledlow to post a decent score. However just when the 2nd wicket partnership was gaining some momentum, Steve Moss took his first Cherwell League wicket, helped by a stunning one handed catch from James Beesley and Bledlow were 69-2. As the Bledlow middle order came in, tight bowling by Moss and Phil Jackson helped keep the scoring rate at barely 2 an over, and this soon translated to wickets as Jackson picked up 4 middle order batsmen. Moss was perhaps unlucky not to pick more than 1 wicket up, as all of Bledlows left handed batsmen played and missed over after over of left arm swing. With the batting order collapsing, it was left for Toovey to clean up the tail as Bledlow were bowled out for 122 after 46 overs. Toovey with figures of 4-29 and Jackson 4-31 were the pick of the bowlers, with none of the bowlers going for more than 4 runs an over it was an impressive display. Despite confidence in the Long Marston camp that the runs could be chased down, LMCC got off to a nightmare start as Adam Wells was trapped in front in the first over. This was to be a minor blip in the run chase, Moss and Beesley went about attacking the very average Bledlow bowling attack and the game finished a lot sooner than anybody expected. Moss carried on his good form from the week before with 64* and Beesley notched his first half century of the season with 60*. Overall a very positive first full game of the season, tight bowling and aggressive batting mean LMCC look well set to mount a serious promotion challenge, and try to return straight back to Division 2.
Matt Storey (1st team Reporter)