The Baldons Cricket Club Season Review 

Thank you to everyone who has supported and played for The Baldons Cricket Club this year. Given the circumstances, we’ve enjoyed a short but successful season with 42 players representing The Baldons across 5 matches.  

We kicked off the season on the 1st August with an internal village friendly which threatened to be anything but friendly, with Toby Winn drawing blood from Graham Bruce early on with a quick bouncer. A helmet was quickly summoned from the pavilion and the game thankfully continued in good spirits. A fifty from Cosmo Taylor and some windscreen-threatening sixes from Jonathan Campion gave the Rob Cook XI a decent total, which they defended comfortably with some accurate bowling.  

Next up were The Astons CC; heavy rain forced the game to be moved to Aston Tirrold but The Baldons were unfazed and produced probably their best bowling display of the season against a strong batting line-up. A father and son C. Taylor opening partnership was promising, concerning scorers and opposition alike, but The Baldons soon collapsed and finished 34 runs short.  

Mark Denning led the way in our next match at home against Oxenford, scoring 46 in tricky batting conditions. The Baldons posted a total of 125 off 33 overs, which seemed well below par as Oxenford looked to be cruising to victory, 85-2 after 10 overs. However, Jasper Taylor and Jake Ball swung the match back in our favour and The Baldons eventually clinched victory by the barest of margins, bowling Oxenford out for 124.  

Buoyed by that result, The Baldons were full of confidence against our next visitors, Great Milton, but a good bowling attack skittled an exuberant Baldons batting line-up, all out for 52. For a moment, it looked like The Baldons might pull off another unlikely victory but some lusty blows from the Great Milton middle-order saw them home in good time.  

Our final match of the season was another internal friendly. Mark Denning’s XI posted a decent total of 158 off 30 overs, courtesy of unbeaten fifties from Mark and Charles Taylor. Johnny Collett’s XI responded in alarming fashion, losing 3 wickets in the first 3 overs. Ed Berridge led the comeback with an impressive fifty, setting the game up for another tight finish. Zac Petrou and Robin Timms combined well to take the game down to the last ball. With 3 runs needed to win, the batsmen could only manage a single and the Denning XI had won by 1 run.  

It was a fitting end to the season and we are looking forward to a full fixture list next year. In the meantime, many thanks to everyone who has played, scored and helped get the pavilion and pitch back into shape. Please email Cosmo Taylor at baldonscc@gmail.com if you would like to get involved.