Gloucester Gipsies 17 July 2019

Manager Frankie Crouch

Captain Alex Wildman

Match Drawn

Gloucester Gipsies 250 for 7 dec

SOA 216 for 8 (Alex Wildman 38*, J Aziz 34, Colin Allen 31)

The long running summer term robbed SOA of the president elect who had curated an enthusiastic SOA team to face Gloucester Gipsies at Shipton Under Wychwood.

Stand-in skipper Alex Wildman duly lost the toss and under a blue sky SOA were put in the field. Calum Taylor and Ben Madden bowled tight opening spells, well supported by Colin Allen and later on Olly Burney, each bowler taking a wicket, Colin two. Sathya Vadivale bowled 12 overs of spin in an excellent spell yielding 2 wickets. His first 2 overs going for 29; the next 10 for 34. The Gipsies number 3 , Gamage, an overseas player from Sri Lanka played superbly before Sathya had him LBW on 99, the first time he had tried to nudge a single in an innings of brutal drives and cuts. His knock was the anchor of the Gipsies' 250-7 in 43 overs This declaration looked to be spot on with around 50 overs available to SOA to try to win against a young Gipsies bowling attack who were to prove miserly in the field.

SOA started well with both Sam Cross and Toby Collins looking very in before they were out. Calum Taylor then cruised to 24 before playing on and Junaid Aziz batted fluently for 34. Once Junaid was trapped LBW by the senior cricket correspondent for the Daily Telegraph Scyld Berry, SOA were looking like they would struggle to make the runs, despite some hitting out from Colin Allen and Alex Wildman. Colin's departure led to a shutting up of the SOA shop, Phil Goodliffe seeing off the last over with a minimum of fuss.

Our thanks to Russ and Sue Hayes for a wonderful day at Shipton and as ever to the Gipsies for an excellent match.