Happily the end of the World Cup has brought a return to something like normality for Islip’s cricketers. Less happily, we have to report that the emphasis remains on performances rather than results, with three defeats in the month.
For our annual trip to Blenheim the teamsheet was complete in record time with competition for places rivalling that for tickets for Ed Sheeran’s recent concert series, in intensity if not in scale. On a pleasant but cloudy day, Blenheim batted first and things got off to a promising start when Ludo Bennett-Jones clean bowled one of their openers with his second ball. It was however something of a false dawn and perhaps a mistake to bring their number three batsman to the crease. The next wicket fell with the score on 98, and the third on 198 of which Blenheim’s number 3 made 139. The best bowling figures came from veteran Nigel Mason with 3-72 as Blenheim posted 311. In reply, Davids Johnson and Goodfellow showed aggressive intent and Islip were on 58 when their first wicket fell. Once David Johnson went for 44, wickets fell quickly, but a 31 run cameo from Josh Swadling took the Islip score to 199, a total which would be more than enough to win many an Islip game.
At the end of July, one of those errors that happen in the slickest of administrations saw FFTMCC ask to move our match from Islip to an inadvertently booked Brasenose College ground. The move proved to be academic (as it were) as the weather intervened and the game was cancelled.
August opened with an away game at Dorchester. There, the home side won the toss and posted 242-8 with Harry Brock taking 3 wickets. Despite the return to the side of Ed Stevenson, cruelly run out after an absence of getting on for 10 years, a fine innings of 66 from Andy Epton and 32 from Neil Brock, Islip’s reply fell short at 187-8, again a winning score on another day.
Back at home to Isis, in a game only made possible by the new wicket covers (to which a comment in Isis’ scorebook bore witness) the visitors made 199-5 against a ten man Islip side. Bowling for the first time in many years, skipper Ollie Black took a wicket – this a real collector’s item - but later was less successful with the bat. The Islip reply started badly and despite 41 from teenager Ben Crawford and 36 from Ludo Bennett-Jones, finished well short on 123 – again a respectable total – with this season’s youngest player William Goodfellow finishing on 1 not out, significantly more than Ollie Black was able to contribute. The Isis game proved to be the last of the cricket in this report. With both sides struggling to raise a side the following week, the game against Bartlemas was cancelled.
If the new covers have yet to fully address Islip’s batting collapse problems, they are allowing games to go ahead that would otherwise be cancelled and at least they have now been paid for, with arrangements made that have kept the cost to the club down to a little over £100. As the season draws to a close, attention will turn to the other work we need to do on the club’s facilities, and in particular raising funds for the much-needed refurbishment of the changing rooms. Please support us if you can. Donations should be made to the Village Hall (Barclays Bank, sort code 20-06-75, account number 23123383, with the reference Cricket Club). Every little helps.
The season seems to have flown by and suddenly (at the time of writing) we have just four games left, all at home. Do come along to some of the games and join the club’s supporters on the terrace for the last of the British summer and doubtless some frank assessments of the club’s performance.

Islip Cricket - Match Days – September 2018

Bletchington at Islip (Saturdays, 1pm start)
1st September Kimble

Islip fixtures (all on Sundays)
2nd September Oxenford CC Home (1.30 pm)
9th September Kempsford CC Home (1.30 pm)
16th September Wolvercote CC Home (1.00 pm)

This season’s fixtures and results are on the club site at www.pitchero.com/clubs/islipcricketclub.