2nd XI Report 2010
2010 began with a few changes, both in leadership and in league. Following the 1st XI's success in 2009, we were now moving up to enjoy the challenge of the Bristol and Somerset division of the WEPL league, with Steve Jacobs as skipper. As expected we faced much stiffer opposition than the previous year, with teams regularly having several fringe players from their 1st XI squads, including the ever strong Bristol West Indies, Clevedon and Stapleton.
We started the season with an incredibly close victory away to Clevedon, making difficult work of chasing 170, but thankfully getting over the line with the trusty bat of Phil Thorn with 8 balls to spare. Another close game the week after unfortunately ended in the opposite result, with a loss to Lansdown at home. Midsomer Norton came next, with a run-fest on a (rare) hot summers day, with 475 runs scored in the day, and 2 centuries, one of which a match winning 100* for Dan Hayward. More runs the following week (only 469 this time) ended up with a victory over Minehead including 104* for Steve Jacobs.
The next 5 weeks brought 4 losses and a solitary victory against Bedminster, which saw the rise of new Keeper/Batsman Jonny Cumiskey (although he still claims to be a part-time keeper) who ended the season as 2nd XI Player of the year, scoring 310 runs with three 50's, taking 8 stumpings and 3 catches (sometimes to his own amazement!)
Saturday 3rd of July brought with it a Lansdown outfield reminiscent of burnt straw, and one of the most memorable games of cricket any of us present that day will ever be involved in. OBWCC managed to amass 268 off their 45 overs with Adam Henley scoring 78*. In reply Lansdown started strongly, taking advantage of one of the worst opening spells of bowling Stuart Macarthur would admit to ever being responsible for! Lansdown seemed to have the game in the bag as OBWs suffered in the blistering heat. With the game dead and buried, Lansdown needing around 30 runs off the last 7 overs with 4 wickets in hand. At this time we had run out of all options and had to resort to Stuart 'the yips' Macarthur who carried on from where he left off at the start of the innings. This was until he was 'unjustly', or at least he felt so, wided by the Lansdown skipper, resulting in newly angry Stuart destroying the Lansdown tail end with a mixture of spiteful bouncers and very quick Yorkers. With Lansdown needing 3 runs off the last 2 balls we managed a diving run out and another powerful Yorker from Macarthur to round off a stunning comeback victory.
The final 8 weeks of the season saw 3 wins, 3 losses and 2 games rained off. This included a last ball loss to Chard away, and a 9 wicket win on the last day of the season against Clevedon to finish off a solid showing in the league, ending up 5th in the table.
This year was very much a building year for OBWCC 2nd XI, including the development of a lot of youth talent, notably Jake Probert, Freddie Oldfield and Zoravar Singh, and resulting in the use of over 40 different players. Hopefully this will benefit us in 2011, where we will now be up against the challenge of a competitive league structure with independent promotion and relegation! Bring on 2011, and good luck to all........
Steve
P.S: Notable stats for the year include a total of 6 centuries for the 2's (Jacobs (2), Hayward, Cunliffe, Damone and Currell). Top Wicket taker was Philip Thorn with 35 including one 5WH, and Top Run scorer was S.Jacobs with 521.
