Boar brought down

10 man Astons crushed by Didcot

Trimmed of a few regular players a ten man Astons‘ Wildboars team faced a strong Didcot side.

Stand-in skipper Don White missed the toss due to a sunbed appointment over running and it was left to captain of vice Jonnie O’Shea to step in and insert Didcot. Despite some early loosners Grey and O’Shea began to find their range early and it was Jonnie who produced a near perfect Yorker to trap C Moirrisson, stranded in his crease, bang in front – oh how we celebrated. This brought Jones to the wicket and he quickly upped the rate with some classy shots either side of the wicket, driving through extra cover for a couple of lovely fours and flicking anything too straight away to leg for more runs. He also brought Domain out of his shell and he began to look dangerous too.

The improving Grey struck twice to remove Domain, clean bowled to a low one, and then Fryatt with a lovely swinging delivery to trap him LBW before Jones sportingly retired for an excellent 51. Burningham and J Morrison were now at the wicket and neither showed any fear smearing Deau and Grey all over the park. Skipper Don brought himself on up the hill to bowl Burningham with one that jagged back in before holding a lovely catch at deep fine leg to end Burningham’s pacy innings, despite Wray’s delivery looking a bit head-high (O’Shea was so proud). Excellent catches from Bartie Marx brought wickets for Wray and the returning O’Shea before Jonnie effected a well taken run out after a Didcot mix-up in the closing moments. J-Bucket came on up the hill to remove Coates at the end and Moure bowled 4 cheap overs at the death to restrict Didcot to 208 from a monster 45.3 overs. It was a decent bowling effort but drops from White, Grey, O'Shea, Wray, Deau and Moure didn’t help things.

The less said about the subsequent wildboar collapse the bestter. Marx chipped in with a resilient and well struck 32 showcasing some great shots through cover point and down the ground. J-Bucket showed that class is permanent with a measured 8 and White struck a nice wristy 3. Aside from this the Astons struggled and ducks for O’Shea, Weigh, Wray, Moure and Dew were a reflection of a general lack of concentration and application.

I put this poor performance down to the embarrassment caused by O’Shea’s profanity laced outburst at the climax of the football season. That was no way to host a friendly and genial side such as Didcot ,who had tried to make a match of things before eventually shooting the boar down for a lowly 51. Shame on you Jonnie, shame on you.

It wasn’t a vintage performance but the Boar and our figurehead Jonnie "Yaya" Shea will bounce back.

awooga