Wootton and Boars Hill (A) – Cherwell League Div 5c (WLD)

With last week’s attempts to change our sequence of win at home, lose away, by only getting a winning draw, it was time to see if we could do any better than losing away… So off we plodded to the always wet Wootton and Boars Hill. Would it be dry this time? Would it heck, with reports of heavy rain on the A34 on the way over there spreading quickly. Luckily, just after the rain subsided the grounds team turned up and put the covers on. When they were taken off again however,…continue reading →

Radley (A) – Cherwell League Div 5c

Bouyed by a win against the league leaders last week, we arrived at Chalgrove in a confident mood. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze; it was a day for thinking outside the box, creative shot play and resourceful fielding. Skip was already thinking outside the box or rather the carpark as he preferred to leave his car in a local allotment amongst the cabbages. Skip lost the all-important win - draw - loss toss and we were asked to bat first. Probably not what Skip would have chosen but on…continue reading →

East Oxford (H) – Cherwell League Div 5c

Our final win/lose game of this part of the season was against league leaders, East Oxford, and following a fairly dismal performance the previous week against Challow a much improved effort was needed by Wantage. Matters started poorly as skip continued his form as a dreadful tosser (5 tosses, 5 losses) and East Oxford unsurprisingly chose to bat, so we took to the field with the regular guns of Mabbett and Harvey looking to get us under-way with an excellent start. And what a start it was! Following a tight maiden to open…continue reading →

Challow (A) – Cherwell League Div 5c

With a glorious breakfast of cinnamon rolls and a steaming coffee, the day promised to be a good one, as the first leg of the local grudge match had arrived. The sun was shining, with patches of moody looking clouds charging across the sky with a slight breeze and the views looking as beautiful as ever from the top of Challow hill. We set about warming up with Skip running us through our paces…after what felt like an hour of sprints up and down, 800 lunges on each leg, sidesteps to London and…continue reading →

Dorchester (H) – Cherwell League Div 5c

21st May 2022 The home of (Wantage) cricket welcomed Dorchester for the third league game of the year, a team we’ve played frequently and with varying levels of success. Wantage showed their keen-ness with some pre-game fielding warm ups only slightly delayed by Spenny losing his keys, having a mild panic, and then finding them in his bag earning a pig’s nomination very early in the day. As usual when we do fielding warm-ups, skip lost the toss and Dorch (perhaps with their 36 all out from the end of year still fresh…continue reading →

Wolvercote 1s (A) – Cherwell League Div 5c

A second successive sunny Saturday saw stand-in skipper successfully shout the spinning silver (sublime use of alliteration there!) WGCC to bat first. With confidence brewing and displaying casual fluidity, Mercer stroked the ball to the boundary 4 times in the first over, rather setting high the expectations of the awaiting batters for a high team score. Rob found it tougher going, and despite showing moments of quality, was bowled in the 11th over. Cue the internal debate he had with himself for the next 30 overs about whether to order that deliveroo or…continue reading →

Horspath 4s (H) – Cherwell League Div 5c

A glorious Saturday saw a strong start to the season with WGCC running out convincing winners against Horspath 4s by 7 wickets. Losing the toss, and with many of the opposition players still arriving, Wantage were sent out into the heat to field. Will H and Mabbs were given the new ball and built pressure with the latter picking up the first wicket of the season, LBW, in the 4th over making it 6-1. The first change brought Fulton and Willbury (Willbo Baggins) into the attack. Some tight bowling restricted the opposition, however…continue reading →

The return of Dorchester (H) – Cherwell League Div 6C

With this hotly anticipated return fixture looming, there were quiet murmurings about how many points we needed, and was it even possible for a 26-0 points swing. Equally, the rumours that Dorch were without some of their players only heightened the excitement.   In the background of all of this, Harvester: silver fox, The Tron, Harvey and Mabbs: Moobalicious, Green Giant, Mabbett were both tied on wickets for the bowling award. Both were smiling when skip won the toss and chose to bowl, but the rivalry was there for all to see.   Mabbs started off by dismissing Rudling for…continue reading →

The IC-eman Cometh – Cherwell League Div 6C – Thame Town III (A)

A big Saturday dawned for Wantage which saw us travel to promotion rivals Thame Town III knowing it was a ‘winner goes up’ affair, with the possible outside chance of a league winners play-off for us if Dorchester’s result at home to Aston Rowant went our way. An early start was the order of the day, with one of our longer trips of the year, and giving ourselves plenty of time was, in the end, necessary, as confusion reigned over where we were supposed to park. Spenny, IC and Chief had a scenic…continue reading →

Marcham (H) – Cherwell League Div 6C

There was not a lot of optimism of getting a game in when arriving at the ground. Anyone who had looked at a weather app the day before would have seen 6 hours of 100% rain from 12:00 onwards. However overnight that prognosis had changed, and we expected some rain about 13:00 and then fairly clear after that. Marcham won the toss and WGCC were inserted, it immediately decided to rain, so the players all retreated into the clubhouse to watch the early kick-off in the Premier League. Liverpool Vs Burnley was showing…continue reading →