DEMIJOHNS C.C.
MATCH REPORTS

2019

Salix

St John’s College, Sunday 2 June 2019

Demijohns 231 for 5 dec (Bachelor 78, Adams 48)
Salix 130 for 7 (Ritter 5-1-19-3, Lucas 6-0-42-2)

Match drawn.

Phene Philanderers

St John’s College, Saturday 1 June 2019

Demijohns 215 for 8 dec (Dyson 64, Darling 62)
Phene Philanderers 163 for 7 (Golec 10-2-45-5)

Match drawn.

St John’s College

St John’s College, Saturday 4 May 2019

St John’s 350 for 8
Demijohns 246 all out

Demijohns lost by 114 runs.

Demijohns blow hot and cold in 45 overs per side season opener

The sight of steamy breath coming out of your mouth in the morning tends not to be a good omen for anyone wanting a glorious day of Spring sunshine whilst hearing the gentle tap of leather on willow as the cricket season finally commences. So it proved last Saturday as the Demijohns season got off to a start in conditions far more suited to the SJC Women’s Rugby cuppers match that had taken place earlier that morning.

As happens far too frequently, I was late for the advertised start time of 12pm, however this was in my defense due to an inordinate amount of bank holiday traffic on the M25, M40 and country lanes surrounding High Wycombe. It was left to Mark Dyson to toss up, which he duly lost, and the current college side elected to bat in this the inaugural Karle Simpson Cup match between the DJs and SJC.

We opened up with Golec and Balijaa, both eager to get us off to a good start, sadly Jonny’s first three balls of the 2019 season went for 4! However, after this brief aberration both he and Roshan settled into a good rhythm, teasing and probing the SJC opening pair of Fowler and Clinch. Runs were coming a little too quickly for my liking, however, with the score stood at 28-0 off the first 5 overs. Roshan had been the tighter of the two openers and it was he who struck first in the 6th over, trapping Clinch LBW for 9. I am reliably informed by Rob Hortle that said Clinch had proclaimed during a ‘session’ in the college bar over the winter that he would get a ton on debut for SJCCC… as they say about Messi ‘but can he do it on a cold, wet day in Oxford?’

Sadly, this wicket did little to slow the run rate down as SJC continued to accumulate runs at around 5.5 an over. This was despite Roshan going on to claim a further two wickets of batsman no.3 Reddish and the dangerous looking no.1 Fowler for 43. An excellent spell of 7-0-31-3, this would later turn out to be the pick of the bowling by quite some distance!

Jonny had a wicketless opening spell and I decided to freshen things up by bringing on Heaton and McGahan. Heaton was brought on mere moments after he and Darling were ready to play. Their late arrival to the ground was understandable due to the aforementioned traffic… the subsequent 30 minutes after their arrival spent changing, chatting, using the facilities, perhaps freshening up together in the shower… was a bit more bemusing. When they did finally come on we said goodbye to Adam of Phene fame who kindly agreed to swap sides and play for SJC as they were short a player and a wicketkeeper.

Anyway, both Jeremy and Rog bowled pretty well for a season opener, though Rog came in for some punishment from both the newly arrived Rob Hortle at the crease, as well as a very dangerous looking no.5 batsman – Saarang Narayan. Rog eventually took his revenge after being launched over his head twice in successive overs, beating Saarang all ends up for his first wicket of the season.

This brought Adam to the crease and it was here that the wheels started coming off for the DJs. With Hortle providing the anchor role, Adam very quickly proceeded to knock 50 off 41 balls and, by the time Jeremy managed to claim the wicket of Adam (after I had shamefully dropped him in the covers the over before), the score was a foreboding 170-5 off 26 overs.

I kept Jeremy on to complete a straight 9 over spell which was a testament to his stamina, but also the quality and control of his bowling, ending with, in the context of the game, tidy figures of 9-0-52-1. During this spell Darling came on to replace the tiring Heaton and I must say he bowled exceedingly well which was good to see both in this game and promising going forward this season. He went on to claim two wickets in a period of relative calm before the literal and metaphorical storm and ended also with tidy figures of 5-1-31-2.

Unfortunately this is when the wheels that had been creaking were now fully blown off the cart. To be fair to Tommy and Vigor, Rob Hortle was now well set on 58 by the time Tom Ritter joined him at the crease. What followed was, in short, carnage. Hortle and Ritter spent the next 45 minutes or so dispatching the ball to all four corners of the ground, and perhaps the globe, taking the SJC score from 195-7 off 31 overs to 318-8 off 41 overs. Whilst it was a tough time for the DJs, I must say it was very nice and, indeed, very fitting to see Rob score his maiden century on the day of the inaugural Karle Simpson Cup match at the home of both SJC and the Demijohns. He very graciously retired for 100* (or perhaps foolishly as everyone saw through this very transparent ‘average protection’ ploy), to bring Dan Mead in to join Tom Ritter. Ritter also managed to bring up a maiden half century, finishing on 73*, as they continued to send the ball all over the park for the last four overs.

A returning Golec managing to stem the tide a little, but the college side finished on an absolutely mammoth 350-8 off 45 overs.

Tea was a phenomenal event as ever with Tara outdoing herself and reminding us all of what we’d really come for as we gorged ourselves with sandwiches, scones, chicken goujons, bruschetta and whatever else we could get our hands on.

We opened up with Dyson and D. Jones, with instructions to bat sensibly, keep wickets in hand but to be aware of the required rate of nearly 8 an over! Unfortunately we lost Mark in the third over, Dan followed in the sixth and Tommy in the 10th to leave the DJs staring down the barrel at 34-3. We were well behind the rate and, with Duckworth Lewis being a genuine consideration due to the veritable storm of hail and howling wind that had decided to greet the opening of the DJs innings, wickets remaining were also a cause for concern.

Never one to hang about, I took a look at the bowling then decided we needed to score some runs so started having some swings. Myself and Roshan shared a brief but glorious four over partnership for 34 runs, however Roshan had gotten tied down with 3 dot balls at the beginning of the 14th over and, as he later admitted rashly, tried to force a straight ball on a length into a boundary over midwicket and was castled for a very fluent-looking 28.

Rog came and went very swiftly, both he and I were unsure what had beaten his bat but the bails were entirely unapologetic in flying through the air as he opened his batting season with a duck, 85-5.

Adam came to join me at the crease and, at this point, the DJs started to mount something of a recovery with both of us managing to connect with some big clean hits. Sadly, disaster then struck as Rob Hortle decided to have a trundle, fresh from his batting heroics, to dismiss Adam for a very tidy 28, and a 90 run partnership with myself. Rob was thankfully bowling slightly less than his usual express pace, which meant the ball came onto the bat nicely as I was able to bring up my ton with a pull for 6. Despite this, Vigor and Dav came and went at the other end, falling victim to Ho-Chung and Hortle respectively, to leave the DJs in all sorts of trouble on 204-8. I then proceeded to finally hole out after one swing too many; 208-9, just Golec and McGahan needing an improbable 143 run 10th wicket stand for victory. Jonny took no notice of that particular equation and decided it was time to have some fun. It was glorious to watch as he rapidly carted 5 4s and a 6 before also meeting his end caught, but it was indeed a very heroic failure. The DJs finished on 236 all out and a 114 run defeat.

Many congratulations to SJC on an excellent batting performance in particular and plenty for the DJs to work on going forward this season. We rounded off the day with the Karle Simpson Cup trophy presentation to Guy Fowler, SJC skipper for the day, coupled with some very thoughtful and eloquent words from Ian Davies, DJs president, both about Karle and the meaning, value and enjoyment of DJs cricket. From there it was time to feast on another astounding post-game curry from Tara and the festivities went on long into the night.

Photos of the shot roulette played later on have made it onto a whatsapp group and I think this is where they should stay... ‘spillage est lickage’ is not a pleasant sight!

OA

2018

Farleigh Wallop

Farleigh Wallop, Sunday 29 April 2018

Cancelled, due to a wet pitch.

Fleet Street Strollers

Pinkey’s Green, Sunday 06 May 2018

Cancelled, due to our inability to raise a side.

St John’s College

St John’s College, Saturday 26 May 2018

Cancelled, due to a waterlogged pitch.

Royal Household

St John’s College, Sunday 27 May 2018

Cancelled, due to a waterlogged pitch.

Further Friars

Urchfont CC, Saturday 02 June 2018

Cancelled, due to both clubs being unable to raise a side.

Eclectics

Eastbourne College, Sunday 10 June 2018

Cancelled, due to our inability to raise a side.

Phene Philanderers

St John’s College, Sunday 17 June 2018

Demijohns 198-5 dec off 34 overs (Haines 66*, Darling 42)
Phene 201-4 off 31.5 overs (Golec 10-1-45-2)

Demijohns lost by 6 wickets

Following a very respectable and solid batting performance by the Demijohns, with the highlight being a swiftly bludgeoned unbeaten 66 from skipper Ross Haines, he then went for an aggressive early declaration at 198-5 in an effort to force a result during this timed game. Unfortunately it went against us, predominantly due to an excellent chase by the Phene.

Mermaids

St John's College, Saturday 23 June 2018

Demijohns 263-7 dec. 48.4 overs (Bachelor 78, Balijaa 59, Earle 51)
Mermaids 143 all out 34.2 overs (Golec 6-0-22-2, Earle 5.2-0-18-2, Hibbs 4-0-18-2)

Demijohns win by 120 runs

The Demijohns entered this game off the back of finally getting the season started the weekend before, eager to record their first win of the season. Readers may recall the high scoring cricketing bonanza that this fixture gave last year so hopes were high for a similar carnival of cricket.

The Mermaids skipper won the toss and decided to have a bowl first, perhaps favouring the strength of his batting line-up and wanting to give them something to chase later on. We opened up with Dan Jones and Roshan and things were tight to begin with, with the first run for the DJs not coming until the 14th ball of our innings. However, once we got going Dan and Roshan proceeded to give us a solid and fairly swift opening partnership of 43, before Dan succumbed to Stocks for a respectable 21 in the 10th over.

This brought our half-day specialist - run scoring machine from the 2017 season - Stuart Bachelor to the crease (due to leave at 3pm owing to a school function later that evening). It was a very watchful and successful partnership between these two, with Stuart playing the anchor role and Roshan providing no shortage of delightful flair, technique and touch shots at the other end, indeed I was watching from the nets and used some of Roshan’s technique as a visual aid for our DJs (and cricketing) debutant Pete Griffiths during a last-minute coaching session! After a cautious start Roshan essentially raced to 50 before departing, perhaps prematurely when he must have felt a ton was on, for an excellent 59 to leave us 100-odd for 2. Next to the crease was Pete Griffiths; who had decided to take up cricket during a drunken conversation in the middle of last Winter and had been intensely coached by myself and Earle in the nets a few weekends ago. Both of us watched the fruits of our labour nervously as he and Bachelor survived til lunch without too much cause for alarm.

After lunch Stuart was clearly invigorated by Tara’s delicious cooking, amazing as ever, and decided to go on the attack, sending the Mermaids’ bowling to all corners of the ground in a fantastic display of clean hitting, racing to his 50 much like Roshan had earlier. During this time Pete also decided to get in on the act, using all four of the shots myself and Earle had taught him to supreme effect, the highlight being a magnificent 6 over mid-on, to the delight of his travelling fan base (wife, two sisters-in-law, brother-in-law) before being beaten all ends up for an entertaining and extremely impressive 15 on debut – more to come from him I think! In came Johnny Crockett after this, also a relative cricketing novice, looking to improve on his top score of 17, sadly this wasn’t to be and he departed for a 9-ball duck, baffled by Tom Parsons’ leg spin, to bring yours truly to the crease with the DJs healthily positioned on 176-4 after 37 overs.

Evidently Stuart didn’t like the idea of batting with me, my dodgy knee and the lack of quick running between the wickets it would bring, and so was trapped leg before the very next over by Jeffrey (in the middle of a real shift as he began his 11th of 17 overs!) for a top score of the innings of 78. Earle came to join me at the crease and it was at this point that the DJs really went on the offensive to turn the screw on the Mermaids’ bowling attack. Sadly I also departed slightly prematurely to Parsons’ expertly placed deep mid-wicket for a frustrating 18 and so Darling came into replace me with the DJs on around 220-6 off 43 overs (I can’t say this with certainty as our scorebook is a little hazy around this area!)

At this point in the day we had been already been treated to an excellent display of batting by Roshan and Stuart before James also decided to join the party with a series of strokes launched towards the long-on and mid-wicket boundary with impunity. I swiftly de-padded to join Earle and Darling in the middle as an umpire to give some instructions regarding our declaration aims – 3.30pm to give us half an hour at the Mermaids with a minimum score of 250 – and they both responded magnificently with some invaluable quick scoring to take us beyond this mark. Earle brought up his well-deserved 50 in our penultimate over before perhaps getting a little over-eager in his hitting and getting bowled for 51 and the DJs on an uncharacteristically professional looking score of 263-7 off 48.4 overs, at which point I decided to call time on our innings and have a crack at the Mermaids’ batting line up before tea.

The hour before tea, both for our batting performance and the bowling session that followed, turned out to be the crucial point in this match. Opening up with Golec and Roshan (fresh from his batting heroics), we proceeded to tear through the Mermaids top order with devastating precision. Golec providing spark and unpredictability at one end and Roshan relentless accuracy at the other with both giving an excellent display of how to bowl with the new ball. Such was the bowling masterclass these two provided that I ended up leaving no-one in the covers with a very un-DJs like field of 3 slips and a gully! It was Roshan who struck first, taking the prize and enormous wicket of Tom Parsons. This was a joy to watch from behind the stumps (yes, you did read that right, I was ‘keeping owing to the departure of one Stuart Bachelor, replaced by Ant at pretty much the exact time we declared… apologies Ant but many thanks for filling the gap!), as Roshan had got the ball prior to Tom’s dismissal to nip away from him off the seam drawing a play and a miss, followed by the wicket ball; a delicious in-swinger to bowl Tom through the gate. At the other end Golec was menacing and the ball was hitting my gloves extremely hard, producing jaffa after jaffa before finally getting one to come back in off the pitch and clip the top of off, again bowled through the gate and, frankly, a thing of beauty to watch for all DJs in the field! Roshan was extremely unlucky not to take another wicket when Earle put down a regulation chance at 2nd slip, but continued to bowl very tightly, and Golec proceeded to take a well-deserved 2nd wicket in almost identical fashion to his first one. This left the Mermaids in trouble with 3 down before tea was taken at around 20-3 off 6-ish overs.

As per lunch, tea was also a magnificent affair, many thanks again to Tara for this! Tea may have contributed to a little bit of a lull post tea as Roshan and Golec continued for another couple of overs and the DJs now seeming slightly bloated and lackadaisical in the field! This was a period of relative stability for the Mermaids and, not wanting to undo our earlier hard work, I felt it was time to freshen things up with changes at both ends to bring on Jeremy and Jonathan. Both bowled well with the occasional loose ball but no real scoring pressure from the Mermaids batsmen to concern myself with needing to go on the defensive and it was Jonathan who struck first with a trademark dipping delivery that beat the Mermaids no.3 all ends up to leave the stumps in tatters. Not to be left out, Jeremy then proceeded to claim a wicket of his own with a nick through to Roshan, now standing at slip, after a piece of *inspired captaincy from myself as this was the first ball after I’d moved Roshan there!

I then brought on Earle and Hibbs to further tighten our grip on the game, both bowling extremely well and taking two wickets a piece, including a delightful genuine thin edge and caught behind by yours truly off Hibbs, great cricket all round! In the end we cantered to a comfortable victory with the final wicket being taken, inevitably, by James. I suspect it would have been LBW anyway, but the amusement of watching James appealing frantically whilst the ball casually went up off the batsman’s toe, backspun off the creaseline and trickled into the stumps summed up a day of cricket when practically everything went right for the DJs and it was as solid an all-round performance as I can remember playing in/skippering. Very well done to all involved and many thanks to the Mermaids for an excellent day’s cricket, I’m sure you’ll get us back next year! Also, as ever, amazing hosting, hard work, cookery, ground preparation from Ian and Tara… the celebrations went on long after the game had finished as we sat around the pavilion, enjoyed the evening sunshine and no shortage of beverages!

*For ‘inspired’ read ‘fortunate’

OA

Salix

St John's College, Sunday 24 June 2018

Demijohns 189 all out 35.4 overs (Earle 57, Darling 45)
Salix 184-8 34.2 overs (Golec 9.1-0-38-2, Earle 7-0-40-2)

Match drawn

Many of the Demijohns awoke with something of a ‘morning after the night before’ feeling on Sunday 24th June 2018. Whether this was from the excesses of the night before or because of creaking limbs from a victorious all-day game against the Mermaids is harder to say! No doubt looking to build on this momentum from the previous game, plenty arrived to the ground early in glorious sunshine…only to immediately proceed inside the pavilion and to darkness in order to watch England’s win-or-bust tantalizing World Cup fixture against Panama (it’s coming home…). During this time there was a hastily agreed, and indeed very sensible, decision between myself and the Salix hierarchy that we would bat 1st and start the game at the end of the 1st half of the football.

A strapping pair of young men in the form of Dan Jones and Malcolm Begg made their way to the crease safe in the knowledge that England had bested the mighty Panama (it’s coming home…). We got off to a bit of a slow start with both watchful and looking to see off the new ball, though there were a few nice strokes from both of them along the way. Disaster struck for Malcolm in the 7th over just as he was beginning to free his arms as he was caught for 14, this brought Ant to the crease. Sadly Ant didn’t manage to get off the mark and went in the next over for a 2nd duck of the season (of two innings) and he was understandably frustrated by this, I hope to see him back amongst the runs soon as his textbook batting technique and flair really does merit. 29-2 off 7-ish overs and Tommy came in to deliver a few hefty blows along with Dan, picking up the scoring rate briefly however we then proceeded to lose Dan, followed swiftly by Tommy, both bamboozled by Salix skipper Dillon’s devilish leg spin.

So, 53-4, yours truly and Pete-2nd game of his career-Griffiths at the crease. Both of us struggled to score off spin at both ends with salix 1st and 2nd change bowlers Kaushak and Dillan bowling with good control and no small amount of turn! Indeed, Pete was unable to apply the four shots he’d learnt with myself and James to any great effect on this occasion… so something to work on there. He stuck at it admirably for a while whilst I flayed wildly at the other end, looking to hit my way into form; with the field already spread far and wide in anticipation of me connecting with one, this was done with absolutely no success! Pete was the first to depart in our somewhat tortuous partnership, finally spooning one up to a fielder off Dillan, which had looked inevitable, and I soon followed with one too many wanders down the wicket to be stumped for an aggravating 7. I must apologise to the Demijohns faithful at this point for showing my frustration by throwing my bat to the ground as I departed for the pavilion, and I did so later to the Salix team as well; very uncouth, vulgar and frankly I should have been fined my non-existent match fee and probably had an ICC disciplinary hearing.

Thankfully, this brought together Earle and Darling; two players who had both shown excellent form against the Mermaids and showed no sign of suffering from their exploits on and off the pitch the day before. At 62-6 off 18 overs the Demijohns were in dire straits both in terms of run rate and likely total to be scored, thankfully they responded magnificently with some glorious stroke play, sending the ball all over the park with blow after blow. I’ve written previously that James needs to bat more as he’s actually rather good at it. Whilst I always take pleasure in being proven right, this was a particularly excellent moment to be proven right as he brought up his second 50 of the weekend; a magnificent 57 off 46 balls before he departed, having shared a precisely 100 run partnership with Adam. Adam himself scored 45 off 43 balls so was very much part of the party and, in the context of our earlier toils against the spin twins of Salix, both James and Adam’s batting was nothing short of spectacular and absolutely saved the game for the Demijohns so well done to both of them!

Our scoring slowed a little after the departure of James, but Jeremy admirably held up an end and nudged a few more runs for 8 not out whilst Adam had his last few hurrahs before cruelly being run out during a classic DJs mix-up. Golec came and went immediately, which brought semi-retired, fully-retired, part-time batsman, full-time prankster Ian Madden to the crease. It was a joy to see him back out in the middle and we all have to continue to work on convincing him to play more often. With only a few balls left before declaration Ian decided to casually swat his first two balls for four with impunity and then pop one up to get caught for 8 off 3, presumably protecting his strike rate for the season! So, the Demijohns closed on 189 all out off 35.4 overs – an extremely respectable score given the situation of being 62-6 only 17 overs earlier! A special mention to the Salix skipper who took a fantastic 6-56 off 10 overs with some absolutely enormous turn leg spin, I looked on with envy from the boundary and dreamt of times long gone by!

Tea was almost too good from Tara this week as we all hastily scoffed chicken goujons, nacho bites, sandwiches, scones, cakes and frankly anything else we could see on the table down our gullets before heading out to field. I discussed with the Salix team regarding what we would do with the extra two balls left over from our innings and it was agreed that we would give them precisely 34.2 overs to bat on the assumption that this would be absolutely irrelevant later in the day…

We opened up with Golec and Hibbs, fresh from their own excellent performances with the ball against the Mermaids. They both bowled well, Ant having a slightly difficult first over but both him and Golec taking early wickets in their 2nd overs and Jonny following up with another in his 3rd to leave Salix in a similarly precarious position to ourselves of 28-3 off 5 overs. However, we then toiled a little as the Salix number 4 took command of the situation with some excellent strokeplay, bringing up his 50 in an extremely and alarmingly rapid rate. I changed things up by bringing on Jeremy and James however this did little to stem the tide, despite some decent bowling at both ends and we did manage to pick up another wicket to have the game delicately poised at 87-4 off 12 overs. The problem we had was that there was a very concerning scoreboard pressure on us as Salix were well over the required rate and frankly if their number 4 stayed in then the game was as good as done.

We had a hasty tactics discussion at drinks and made the decision to try and alter things by enforcing some run scoring pressure on Salix with the slightly negative ‘spread the field far and wide’ tactic and try to keep their no.6 batsman on strike. I’m pleased to say that the plan worked, both Jeremy and James bowled excellently as we slowly reeled Salix in from their earlier run-scoring frenzy. In the end this pressure told on Salix and we finally claimed the prize wicket of their well set no.4 for 67. He tried to make room for himself to exploit the slightly more exposed off side boundary however Earle was wise to this and slipped through a skidding quicker ball to beat him all ends up, a fantastic piece of bowling and some very savvy cricketing from the Demijohns! Earle then took another wicket in the over and at this point the DJs smelt blood in the water; 120-6 with 12.2 overs left to play, 70 runs to win, all three results possible!

On came Hodgson and Darling at this point looking to remove the now defensive Salix batsmen, perhaps looking to consolidate before launching an assault on the DJs bowling in the last few overs. Thankfully Hodgson and Darling bowled very well and didn’t allow this assault to materialise, both taking a wicket a piece (congratulations to Tommy on his first ever ‘1st class’ wicket!). With just a few overs left I decided to bring back strike bowler Jonny Golec to try and finish things off, the score at 173-8 off 32 overs – 17 to win off 14 balls, 2 wickets needed, all three results still possible! Unfortunately we didn’t quite manage to bring this one home despite the most aggressive of DJs fields, both Dean and Fletcher were stoic in their defence and refused to be beaten. Salix ended up on 184-8 off their 34.2 overs; 6 short of the win for them and 2 wickets short of the win for us.

This was a great game to be a part of and, overall, an excellent weekend’s cricket for the Demijohns. Well done to all involved, we move on to our next fixture against the Village next weekend with optimism and huge hunger and desire to improve on our 1-1-1 record for the season to date!

OA

Village

St John's College, Saturday 30 June 2018

Demijohns 210-6 dec 39 overs (Adams 104*, Hortle 52*)
Village 103 all out 25.2 overs (circa 10 left to bat) (Darling 2-0-9-3, Hortle 3.2-0-1-2)

Demijohns win by 107 runs

Clear skies and glorious sunshine greeted the DJs for this Saturday fixture against the Village, looking to build on an impressive win-draw double header weekend last time out.

With Ian looking like he’d prepared an absolute road for us to play on, there was only one option as I won the toss and chose to bat first.

We opened up with White and Balijaa to face the Village pair of Thompson and Hussain. They did very well in the opening overs with Thompson in particular moving the ball round corners, up alleyways, over fences etc etc. weathering an early storm to reach 12-0 off the 1st six overs. Alan then unfortunately failed to notice a canny field placement alteration from the Village skipper and played a delightful clip off his hip straight into the hands of the eager leg slip who snaffled the chance expertly – 16-1.

This wicket prompted something of a mini-collapse from the Demijohns as Dan Jones sadly came and went, followed swiftly by Roshan and then by Bachelor, all to Thompson in the space of 5 overs, to leave the Demijohns in something of a hole at 46-4 off 12. In came yours truly and Roger Close at 5 & 6 to frantically re-erect the barricades and stop this game becoming a rout. Perhaps a little bit of chunter from behind the stumps regarding the decision to bat first may have prompted this, but I say ‘barricades’ with some degree of inaccuracy when reviewing the scorebook as my first 5 balls faced read ‘2 4 4 4 4,’ not exactly the required approach given the situation we were in but Roger and I both then proceeded to settle down a bit! Anyway, before I get into the rest of our innings and at risk of this becoming a match report about the Village’s opening bowler, Thompson proceeded to bowl a 13 over spell which was frankly unplayable at times, his control of both swing and seam movement – moving both ways – would have been absolutely joyous to watch had we not been at the crease/fighting for survival, so hats off to him both for his skill and stamina!

The Village skipper (Cressie) changed things up by bringing himself on to join Thompson with some tight off spin bowling and really turn the screw. This was a war of attrition at this stage with myself and Roger knowing further wickets at this stage would be catastrophic. After the initial flurry of runs we ground it out and brought the 100 up without any further loss of wicket. Roger finally fell to Cressie for 10 in his 5th over after a 57 run partnership with myself – 103-5 off 28 – and Hewitt to the crease. Obviously the attritional element of this partnership meant that, with tea now imminent, the Demijohns also had scoreboard pressure to try and make this a declaration where all three results were possible.

With that in mind, Dom was coming in at a perfect time, however I may have slightly over-egged the need to push for runs as he came and went with a 4 and out! Next came Hortle, SJC captain of yesteryear, again needing both runs and not to collapse at this stage. Thankfully, in this crucial period of the game, both myself and Rob managed to push on before tea, really upping the rate as Thompson was finally - and perhaps blessedly for both the DJs and himself! – withdrawn from the attack. We launched blow after blow with some swashbuckling hitting at both ends and the DJs score rocketed from 116-6 off 29 to 210-6 off 39 overs and tea. This was an absolutely essential 10 over spell of DJs dominance which, in all likelihood, decided the match. It’s difficult to praise yourself when writing a match report for your own innings, but I was very relieved and delighted to bring up my 100 with a leading edge whilst attempting a glance into the leg side that was weighted perfectly to land just between the bowler and the despairing lunge of mid-off. Scoring aberrations have since revealed that I’d already brought up the ton the over before… but this seemed a more fitting way to do it. Looking back on our stats, this was also my first score over 50 since 2015, so for a batsman who can barely bowl it was probably long overdue! Special mention must also go to Rob who was far more fluent and elegant than myself and scored 52* off 35 balls with some devastating strokes, well done to him. What that meant in real terms was that the Demijohns were able to declare at tea to have a proper crack at the Village batting line up with enough runs on the board to say that the game could go either way.

Tara and Ian were off on a jolly trip to London by this point however the ‘here’s one I made earlier’ tea was still, as ever, absolutely top drawer and precisely what the Demijohns needed to get fire in their bellies for the afternoon. We opened up with Hewitt and Balijaa, unfortunately I don’t have the full bowling analysis in the scorebook so can’t give accurate timings as to when the wickets were taken. What I can say is that both of them bowled magnificently, Dom providing the fire and Roshan the ice as both complemented eachother superbly. I hadn’t actually realized I bowled them as much as I did but both completed 9 over spells before coming off with Dom 1-29 and Roshan 2-30. The details of their wickets escape me beyond what’s in the book but, as above, I do recall them being not only tidy but also extremely threatening.

They both also managed to provide fielding expertise with a run out a piece. Dom’s was a smart pick up and throw, although the decision to give him out (Village umpire I might add) caused no shortage of consternation/anger from the Village opener. A bat was seen flying through the air at one stage on his way to the boundary, clearly there’s something about the SJC ground that just brings that out of people… I do think it was a tight call and would have been 3rd umpire territory had it been available, but many thanks to the Village player for the bravery to give it out. I hope no lasting damage has been done to relations, friendships, himself or the opener’s bat in the course of all this! Roshan’s run out was extremely unfortunate for the Village; the classic straight drive, clip off the bowler’s finger, onto the stumps and run out the backing-up batsman at the non-striker’s end. Rumour has it that the Village no.3 had flown from New Zealand for this game, which speaks volumes for our banter/cricketing ability/most probably Tara’s tea, so we did all feel a touch sorry for him in the manner of the dismissal.

When all that kerfuffle was over, the match was there for the taking for the Demijohns with the Village on 69-5 off around 18 overs. I decided to mix things up at this stage, bringing on Darling and Hortle, fresh from his virtuoso batting performance, to tighten the noose. There followed a frankly extraordinary collapse from the Village, no doubt due to the sheer terror of facing Adam with his tail up and smelling blood in the water. Adam proceeded to take three wickets off two overs for nine runs, making cricket and bowling seem like a very simple game for him…however will be fined heavily at the end of the season for jug avoidance by failing to secure a hat-trick. Having suddenly realized that I was going to have to refund Tommy Hodgson his match fee, I swiftly took Adam off so that Tommy could have a bowl. I must apologise to Adam, who must be feeling very hard done by having not gotten a bat despite averaging 41 for the season, and then getting taken off having taken a wicket every 4 balls! Rob ‘I want all the glory’ Hortle then decided that he wasn’t going to let Tommy have more than two overs, polishing off the tail with his own remarkable spell of bowling, taking two wickets for one run off 3.2 overs. This gave the Demijohns a fantastic and frankly wildly improbable 107 run victory with the Village all out for 103.

There were many stand out performances over the course of the game but I’d like to focus more generally on the word ‘bouncebackability.’ This is very much not something you would have associated with the Demijohns over the years, with a few memorable exceptions, however I must say that this season we have been excellent at turning the tide when things have been going against us. It’s been a joy to watch and skipper so far this season, I hope to see us continue to prosper with this new-found resilience this year and beyond! Well done to all involved, excellent win.

OA

Monte Carlo CC

Entrecasteaux, Saturday 07 July 2018

Monte Carlo CC 271-5 30 overs (Haines 6-1-24-1)
Demijohns 124-7 (all out) 25.1 overs (Bachelor 46)

Demijohns lost by 147 runs

Entrecasteaux

Entrecasteaux, Sunday 08 July 2018

Entrecasteaux 207-3 35 overs (Adams 7-0-77-2)
Demijohns 208-4 32.4 overs (Haines 115*, Darling 34)

Demijohns won by 6 wickets

Grannies

Christ Church Sports Ground, Saturday 14 July 2018

Demijohns 176-5 off 41 overs (Adams 85, Hortle 38*)
Grannies 180-3 off 29 overs (Hortle 8-0-45-2)

Demijohns lost by 7 wickets

The endless heatwave of 2018 continued unabated as the Demijohns arrived at the Christ Church College ground, played there to give Ian a long overdue holiday this Summer! Owing to the aforementioned heatwave, the outfield wouldn’t have looked out of place in the African savannah and there were, of course, more than a few wild beasts lining up to play for the DJs. Availability had been a bit of an issue for this one so we ended up with ten, including getting by with a little bit of help from our friends from the Phene.

A slightly tardy arrival from the Grannies meant we started late at 2pm, I won the toss and chose to bat first in the baking Sun, mainly thinking that we’d give our bowlers more chance to be fresh and at their best with a big total on the board and a cooler evening. We started solidly but scored at a glacial pace; the Grannies were a very tight and tidy bowling outfit and openers Gareth and Siva really struggled to get them away. Coupled to some tight fielding we toiled in the opening overs, not giving many chances away however unable to take advantage of any loose balls. It’s difficult to describe any particular highlights or moments from the first 15 overs because, to be honest, time simply passed. Balls were bowled, they were either hit or they weren’t, Siva and Gareth didn’t look in danger of getting out but we weren’t picking up the runs we needed to get the game moving. To highlight this, the Grannies’ opening bowler (Olly Sykes, who I believe was around the age of 14 but didn’t ask at the end of the game) was immense, especially given his tender age, and bowled four straight maidens for his first spell!

At drinks we were 30-0 off 15 overs, though in the context of being 6-0 off 7 I suppose the rate had improved marginally. I had a chat to the two of them whilst we drank some squash and it was agreed it was probably time to have a swing otherwise we’d be batting til 6pm! Siva duly unfortunately holed out the first ball after drinks to bring Stuart to the crease. He also struggled but looked to chivvy runs along with some quick running between the wickets and try to build a bit of scoreboard pressure for the Grannies. Unfortunately Stuart then departed, also caught and Gareth soon followed and, such was the unexpected flurry of activity, that I was still trying to locate my pads/box/gloves/bat. On my arrival to the crease I was greeted by cricketing novice Pete Griffiths, now playing his third game of the season. We had talked a big game on the boundary about getting his eye in for an over and then launching the bowling to all four corners of the ground like he had for his glorious ‘6’ in his opening innings against the Mermaids. What we hadn’t reckoned on was that there was a very wily off spinner (Davis) bowling at Pete and, after he connected firmly with some drives along the ground straight to fielders, Davis then bowled a big turner and Pete was castled for the first duck of his career!

This brought Rob Hortle in and, once again, the DJs were in a world of bother at 48-4 off 23 overs. Readers of the Village match report (which I wrote this morning!) will recall that the last time the Adams/Hortle train came to town there were some serious fireworks. I’m pleased to say, both for the health of the game as a whole and for the DJs, that we managed to repeat the feat! I must say it wasn’t easy going and completely understand how we got so tied down earlier in the innings – Davis in particular was a constant threat with his delicious arm ball – and we also had to be cautious to begin with. Rob provided more of the anchor role in the partnership and I was a whirling dervish on some sort of potent amphetamine at the other end! We decided that we would have to bat past tea, which I think would have been the case anyway given that we started late, and managed to get to 85-4 off 31 overs at 4pm, still nowhere near enough to declare.

Followed by a very light tea, provided by the Christ Church groundsman with thanks, my ‘everything must go’ Woolworths closing down sale approach to batting paid off and we really got the scoreboard moving. From 85-4 off 31 we managed to get to 176-5 dec off 41, declaring at around 5.10pm when I finally had one swing too many and was bowled, inevitably, by Davis. At this point I’d just like to say a special mention to the three teenagers playing for the Grannies yesterday, they all bowled with excellent line and length and I’m sure all have bright and promising futures in the game!

We performed a very un-DJs like swift turnaround to give the Grannies a fair crack at our total and also to give us enough overs to take wickets. We opened up with Jeremy and Jonny, though unfortunately neither of them quite found the consistent line and length exhibited by the Grannies’ attack earlier in the day which allowed them to exploit variations in bounce and some movement off the pitch. We managed to get 11 overs in before 6pm, however didn’t take any wickets and the Grannies were well on their way at 65-0; 112 to win off 20 overs. At this point we needed to unsettle the Grannies and so on came Darling and Hortle to try and change the tide of the game. Both bowled well, Adam beating the bat on numerous occasions and unlucky not to find an edge, and Hortle managed to make the breakthrough in his 2nd over with an absolute peach of a delivery to clip the top off and dismiss the Grannies’ imperious no.1 Toby Sykes for 53. When Rob followed up with another wicket in his next over the DJs thought this might be it, particularly when Jonny then produced a sharp piece of fielding to run out another one of the Grannies to build some pressure at 105-3 with 10 overs to go.

A little earlier Christ Church’s fancy electronic scoreboard had decided to pack up and call it a day, which made trying to calculate runs needed a little more tricky and perhaps I should have gone on the defensive earlier to create some scoring pressure. By the time we did push back I think the horse had already bolted and Hortle/Darling/Close/a returning Golec could neither blow the Grannies’ house down nor stop them from serenely marching towards victory with two overs to spare.

Overall, a fairly solid performance from the DJs, think slightly sub par with both bat and ball but many congratulations to the Grannies who outperformed us pretty much in all areas. We move onto a game against Hetaroi next Sunday looking to bounce back.

OA

Hetairoi

Winchmore Hill Cricket Club, Sunday 22 July 2018

Hetairoi 174 all out 34.4 overs (Hortle 3.4-1-14-4, Golec 6-1-13-2)
Demijohns 177-9 39.2 overs, (Hortle 52*, Adams 32)

Demijohns win by 1 wicket

It was with a degree of amazement that I drove up the M40 to play a game of cricket. A short 8 days earlier we had been licking our wounds post the game against the Grannies and discussing the overwhelming probability of this one being called off given that only had three signed up to play. However, DJs from all corners of the country had answered my multiple rallying calls and we had miraculously managed not only to field a side but a full 11, something of a novelty this season!

The weather, as ever, was almost oppressively warm, though slightly cloudier and more humid than it has been during the rest of the Summer. We arrived at Winchmore Hill CC to be greeted by another bone dry outfield, yet a paradoxically green wicket. A quick look at it; undulations, cracks, dust, crevasses, chunks missing etc, meant that bowling first was the only real option. Surprisingly I managed to win the toss and so gave Hetairoi the chance to bat first.

It’s very inconsiderate of Stuart to take holidays, particularly when he visits ‘the continent’ twice in the same month, so it was left to myself to don the oppo keeper’s gear and try to prevent byes becoming top scorer. We opened up with Golec and Hewitt, a fearsome duo who must have been licking their lips at the sight of the wicket. I’ve not fully filled in our book for FOW and runs after each over but suffice to say they were both absolutely magnificent. Every ball looked like a potential wicket taking delivery at both ends with Jonny in particular extracting some frankly alarming levels of variable bounce and movement off the pitch. ‘Keeping to him was both a joy and a terror as he beat the bat time after time, also giving several Hetairoi batsmen a fairly good ‘going over’ in the process, however I must say that the majority of this was from the pitch rearing up off a length as opposed to Jonny pitching it in his own half. I believe it was actually Dom who struck first at the other end however (apologies if my memory fails me) with an absolutely delightful thin snick off the edge through to myself, proper cricket dismissal. Not to be left out, Jonny then proceeded to take two himself, the first a snorter to beat the Hetairoi no.3 all ends up and the second a vicious spitting delivery that caught a bit of the no.4’s glove on the way through to me. By the end of their spells Hetairoi were in a world of trouble on around 35-3 off 11 overs.

On came Jeremy at one end and Alex (Bez) – old SJC regular of yesteryear who hadn’t played in around 10 years and cajoled out of retirement by myself – to further turn the screw. After a somewhat wayward and disastrous first over, with a request to be taken off that I promptly refused, Bez managed to repay my faith and settle down, finding a good line and length. Jeremy was metronomic as ever at the other end after returning to seam bowling after some dalliance with the fickle mistress of leg spin. It was with delight that we all watched Bez take his first wicket in a decade, clean bowled, and he then promptly followed it up with another clean bowled to, I think, give himself a double wicket maiden, proving the old adage that it really is all like riding a bike. Jeremy also got in on the act to leave the stumps in ruins himself.

This took us to drinks with Hetairoi’s score around 60-6 off 20 overs and a decision to make for myself and the DJs. Given that we were absolutely dominant and in total control at this stage, I decided it was probably only fair to share the bowling around because it was very tough to see everyone getting a bat with a view to us skittling Hetairoi for 100-odd. Not to say that this was a decision to bring on ‘weak’ bowling, given that we saw the return of the king ie. Dave Cross, which was a pleasure to see for us all, despite his creaky knee. With Gareth on at the other end I thought we’d continue to take wickets and that’d be that. However, either by hook or by crook, Hetairoi appeared to have reversed their batting order when one S. Anderson came to the crease. Despite some chuntering from his fellow batsman at the other end regarding how many golfing lessons he must have been having, these two proceeded to put on a tidy partnership which soon became a rather dangerous one! Both batsmen proceeded to pass 50 with the DJs wicketless for a considerable period of time in the context of the game, and the score had somehow suddenly rocketed to 130-odd with Hetairoi looking well set to post a very difficult score to chase on an absolute minefield of a wicket. With Dave and Gareth both ruining their economy rates and likely cursing me under their breaths, we brought on Ant and Rob to polish off the rather waggy Hetairoi tail.

Despite bowling very well; both beating the bat and having chances evade fielders on numerous occasions, Ant unfortunately ended wicketless. Rob, on the other hand, had no such misfortune and promptly clean bowled their no.2, no.8 and no.9, before claiming the final wicket of the Hetairoi skipper with a sharp take by Bez at point off a slightly mistimed cut. Rob finished with further miraculous figures, a running theme this season for him, of 3.4-1-14-4 and Hetairoi were a respectable, and indeed dangerous, 174 all out off 34.4 overs. The lesson for the batsmen here may be to never chunter at an Aussie, particularly not a nippy one capable of bowling off and leg cutters on a demonic wicket, by saying ‘he runs in faster than he bowls…’

Tea was a swift and light affair and we opened up with Dan and Adam with instructions being ‘no rush, but bat how you usually do and we’ll see where we are.’ Our fears regarding how many we had let Hetairoi get turned out to be well founded as their opening bowlers managed to extract the same amount of variable bounce and movement as we had earlier. With scoring difficult, we crept along at 2 an over to begin with and, though he toiled, Adam succumbed in the 5th over much to his chagrin as he ‘made the mistake of playing a proper defensive shot,’ and gloved one through to the keeper – 12-1 off 5. This brought Dave Cross to the crease and he also struggled to score, though he did manage to play an absolutely majestic pull shot off a short one that had us all on our feet and applauding. Sadly this partnership, and the one that followed, were shortlived and with both Dave and Dan back in the hutch we suddenly found ourselves on 30-3 off 10 overs. With an estimated 40 overs to bat we were both behind in terms of rate and wickets left, trouble in paradise.

Ant and Bez came together at the crease and we were in desperate need of some ship steadying. I must say I batted Bez at no.5 predominantly because I knew he had to leave early for his sister-in-law’s birthday party as opposed to this being his rightful position in the batting line-up. Thankfully, he went onto confound my lack of faith in this regard with an excellently watchful innings, mixing aggression and defense with precision, as well as providing some much-needed hard running between the wickets to get the scoreboard ticking over. It was also excellent to see Ant back in the middle and scoring some runs, indeed he took the first over of the Hetairoi first change bowler to the cleaners with three imperious pull shots and he was suddenly making the pitch look very easy. Unfortunately Ant then fell when looking well set with a mistimed shot to cover and after a brief spell of recovery the DJs were still precariously placed on 56-4 off 14 overs.

I came to crease and, despite having seen the pitch up close whilst keeping and also seeing it from the boundary during our innings, was still genuinely surprised by how much it was doing. Balls off the same length were moving in all directions at almost impossible angles and so the decision was made to either get down the wicket to it or to wait for half trackers and full tosses. Myself and Bez managed to get the scoreboard moving in this period of play with some hard running, mainly prompted by Bez, and no shortage of swings, lucky edges, occasional clean hits from myself. The Hetairoi skipper decided he’d seen enough of his second change bowler after two overs for 23 runs and brought on Ball to bowl flighty leg spin. As regular readers and observers of DJs cricket will be aware, this is without doubt my weakness and, despite taking some runs off his first two overs, I finally succeeded in finding long on with an excellent catch over his head right on the fence. This was, frankly, completely unnecessary given that we’d brought the required rate down to around 4 an over and had the field pushed back… suffice to say I was livid with myself.

Bez must have realized the time at this point and decided to join me back in the pavilion for an excellent and crucial 25 and the Demijohns were once again in trouble at 109-6 off 23 overs. The rate was fine – 66 to win off 16 overs – but the wickets remaining left all with cause for concern, Hortle and Dancer at the crease. There followed a frustrating passage of play whereby the Hetairoi 1st change managed to find his line and length, bowling an excellent and exceedingly lengthy spell. When Anderson came to join him to provide a tight double act the DJs were really struggling to score, with only 6 runs coming off the next 6 overs. When Gareth fell we were 129-7 off 30 overs – 46 to win off 9 overs and Hewitt to the crease. Dom had unfortunately earlier crocked his shoulder whilst bowling and so wasn’t able to hit with the same impunity as we are all used to seeing, however him and Rob took 10 off the next over to relieve some pressure and we are all hoping they’d see us home. Sadly Dom was then caught behind by the relentless Andrews, now in his 9th consecutive over, to bring Jeremy to the crease. Disaster then struck as Jeremy came and went, clean bowled by Anderson at the other end and the DJs were suddenly staring down the barrel with the score 142-9 – 34 to win off around 45 balls.

Jonny Golec is certainly not renowned for his batting, however this was now a case of cometh the hour, cometh the man. With Hortle struggling to score at the other end against a remarkably defensive field, we were going to have to run hard, survive and hope for a boundary every now and then to relieve the pressure. There was no shortage of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from both the Hetairoi fielders and the DJs watching on from the boundary as Jonny batted the only way he knows how to – strike and strike hard. The two fours he hit off Andrews (now in his 13th over in a row… ) straight down the ground were absolutely priceless and, with Rob also piercing the '9 men on the boundary' field on occasion, the DJs slowly but surely managed to scrape their way towards the required total. We entered the last over needing 4 to win, a fantastic late cut by Hortle and lightning running between the wickets then took it down to 2 off 5 balls. That we managed to win it with a nick past the keeper, having seen one also dropped at 1st slip in the over beforehand, was extremely fitting in a game that had everything. We watched with delight as the outfield took the ball all the way to the boundary to seal a famous Demijohns win by one wicket. Hortle also managed to bring up his 50 to finish on 52 not out (will he ever get out this season?) and Golec on an absolutely mammoth, amazing and delightful 11 not out.

Fantastic end to the game and a great win for the DJs, well done to all involved, we move onto our penultimate game of the season against Iffley Village on 5th August with a very decent season unfolding, currently we are Played 8 Won 4 Drawn 1 Lost 3, let’s keep it going to the end!

OA

Iffley Village

Wootton and Boar Hill Cricket Club, Sunday 05 August 2018

Pinkneys Green

Pinkneys Green, Sunday 19 August 2018

2017

Farleigh Wallop

Farleigh Wallop, Sunday 23 April

Lost

Fleet Street Strollers

Pinkneys Green, Sunday 07 May

Lost

St John’s College

St John’s College, Saturday 13 May

Lost

Oporto Cricket & Lawn Tennis Club

Oporto Cricket & Lawn Tennis Club, Saturday 27 May

Demijohns 151 all out (Haines 78)
Oporto 130(ish)-9 (Heaton 7-5-3-2, Hibbs 5-0-24-2)

Match drawn

Oporto Cricket & Lawn Tennis Club

Oporto Cricket & Lawn Tennis Club, Sunday 28 May

Oporto 255-7 dec (R. Heaton 10.1-0-69-4)

Demijohns 33-1

Match abandoned

Further Friars

Walled Garden, Erlestoke, Sunday 3 June

Demijohns 225-4 dec (Bachelor 104*, Balijaa 42)

Further Friars 165-6 (McGahan 9-1-58-2)

Match drawn

The Eclectics

Eastbourne College, Sunday 11 June

Demijohns 244-3 (Haines 120, Bachelor 55*)

Eclectics 193-9 (S. Jones 8-0-49-3, T. Wallace 5-0-25-2)

Won by 51 runs

Mermaids

St John's College Ground, Saturday 24 June

Mermaids 271-9 dec (White 5-0-26-2, Golec 9-1-35-2)

Demijohns 257-7 dec (Bachelor 154*, White 30)

Match drawn

Salix

St John's College Ground, Sunday 25 June

Demijohns 198-7 dec (Ashurst 52, Dyson 38)

Salix 169 all out (Hibbs 6.1-1-26-4, Lucas 8-2-24-2)

Won by 29 runs

The Village

St John's College Ground, Saturday 01 July 2017

The Village 180 all out (S. Jones 3.5-0-26-3, Golec 6-0-16-2, Heaton 5-2-19-2)

Demijohns 135 all out (Bachelor 31)

Lost by 45 runs

Skipper for the day Adams won the toss and, much to the chagrin of fellow Gaudy attenders Crockett and Earle, elected to bowl first. The thinking was that the forecast was good for later in the day and the Demijohns could take advantage of the overcast early afternoon then make some hay later in glorious sunshine... the plan was almost perfect.

What followed in the field was comfortably one of the most professional Demijohns performances ever witnessed by the skipper. An early wicket set the tone with Golec's back of a length niggling line outside the off stump proving too tempting for one of the Village openers. He didn't quite get to the pitch of the ball and the mistimed drive was gobbled up gratefully at short extra cover by Earle with consummate ease and no measure of panic/fear in his eyes whatsoever as the ball came to him.

The Demijohns continued to bowl well with good lines and a bit of extra something in the pitch for the bowlers. By the time Thurston and Golec finished their spells, and Crockett had come to join the party by taking advantage of a coalition of chaotic running between the wickets with a sharp stop and throw into the keeper's end, the top 3 for the village had come and gone having scored 0, 4 and 2.

Next it was the turn of Heaton and Hibbs, though a slightly off day for Ant with the ball left him wicketless. A period of calm followed but Heaton then showed why is the club's leading wicket taker in recent years with some trademark big in-swing bowling to leave the stumps in tatters not once but twice to remove 4 and 6 having beaten them all ends up.

Next came Earle and S. Jones, two spinners both alike in dignity etc... Earle probably bowling the tighter line with some good guile and flight, though very little turn, was left on to complete his 8 overs straight through. He was finally rewarded by winning an epic battle of body and mind with their no. 5 with a sharp caught and bowled followed by a 'swan dive' celebration to send the watching crowds of non-cricketing Gaudy attenders into a cacophony of rapturous cheers.

But whilst one can bowl the most wonderful spell in all of Christendom, Earle failed to follow one of the oldest DJs truisms; 'muck takes wickets.' S. Jones is a veteran of this philosophy and, perhaps, its arch teacher. This is doing him a slight disservice as he did bowl well and pretty consistently, but two classic top edges from half trackers were snaffled gratefully by Bachelor and Lucas, at a much needed time when it looked as though their no. 8 and leading run scorer was looking to tee off.

In the midst of this came big Phil Lucas, a giant of a man both physically and mentally, to remove their very dangerous no. 7 in the 40s with a caught and bowled, taken very casually in a Flintoff-esque fashion.

Darling then came into the attack just to polish off the tail and he did so with vigour, needing just one over to bamboozle the 10th wicket pair with a short and wide ball that the tail ender had no answer to and obligingly chopped onto the stumps. When Jones took the last wicket (12 a side batting) it left the Village 179 all out off 36.5 overs (of their allotted 40).

The less said about the DJs batting performance the better to be honest. Set 180 to win off 40 overs in the now beautiful sunshine with an army of home support should have been a casual saunter home. Sadly this wasn't to be. To pay a measure of respect and credit to the Village, their bowling was nippy, sharp and there was big movement early on in our innings from their openers, they fielded well and held onto their chances. Rather than painfully dissect the loss of wickets, I'll just stumble across some highlights:

1. Adam and the Village's interpretation of the lbw law/laws of physics are intriguing. Your narrator is still not quite over the dismissal and the choice words had with some of the Villagers prior to leaving for the pavilion were, perhaps, regretful in hindsight.
2. Bachelor heroically continued to bat on one leg after pinging his hamstring, once again top scoring in a season to remember with 31. It was cruel that the inevitable runner run out happened eventually because he was looking well set and in scintillating form.
3. Ant did not enjoy his batting coaching out in the middle from the opposition.
4. When chasing 4.5 per over, there is very little validity in losing 6 wickets being caught, particularly as the majority were skiers from top edges!
5. Earle and Lucas need to bat higher up the order and give themselves a chance to get set because they both looked fantastic out in the middle and have a genuinely big score in them.
6. The carnival atmosphere on the sidelines seemed to infect everyone as the scenes of celebration at the end rivalled the India-Pakistan ICC Champions Trophy final.

When all this is summarised, the Demijohns were woefully bowled out for 135 off 29.4 overs... in a game we really should have won and put ourselves in prime position to do so. Lessons to be learnt but a very good bowling/fielding effort. I'm sure everyone will be looking forward to the fixture next year and a chance for revenge.

OA

The Grannies

St John's College Ground, Sunday 09 July 2017

Cancelled: The Grannies were unable to muster a side, with only 3 players available.

Phene Philanderers

St John's College Ground, Saturday 15 July 2017

Demijohns 193-9 dec (Bachelor 49, Dyson 37)

Phene Philanderers 196-5 (Heaton 6-0-31-2)

Lost by 5 wickets

The Demijohns and the Phene met under threatening skies, and no small amount of drizzle in the morning, to contest the second-ever Landais Cup fixture. This was, of course, made all the more poignant by the recent tragic passing of John and all present were keen to play out a fixture fitting of his memory.

Sadly, your narrator was unable to attend the pre-match toss and subsequent decision of who would open the batting due to entirely predictable traffic leaving London and on the M40. Thus, it was left to the captain of yesteryear, Mr. Bachelor, to promptly lose the toss and allow the Phene to gleefully opt to bowl first. On my arrival, it was Heaton and Begg who were strapping on the pads and a finer pairing you couldn’t wish to see at the St. John’s ground to weather the likely storm of swing bowling in the overcast conditions. We started well, with Heaton and Begg looking relatively comfortable despite a few scares, Malcolm wasting little time before swatting his fourth ball away for 4, no doubt for fear of his strike rate dipping below 100. However, it was this swashbuckling attitude that led to his downfall when his mistimed shot looking to take the record for ‘longest 6 into the tennis courts’ unfortunately only made it to a calm and untroubled Jeremy McGahan at mid-off; 27-1 and Hewitt swaggered to the crease ready to make some hay.

We scored steadily at around four an over during his Heaton-Hewitt partnership, I admit Dom was far more watchful than I would expect, and perhaps it was his attempted patience that resulted in a degree of frustration which led to him caught behind chasing a wide one for an uncharacteristic 22 from 30, though it did include the shot of the innings; an imperious pull shot off a short ball which he just stood and watched as it raced to the boundary. Bachelor, the man of the hour/season came in next and looked as immovable as Mount Everest up against a light breeze. I say immovable only in terms of his resolute batting in tricky conditions with the Phene bowling a niggling line just back of a length, his running between the wickets remained as energetic as ever, much to the dismay of his batting partner Heaton at the other end. Though, it was with no small degree of amazement that we watched the Phene bungle a run out when it was, incredibly, Heaton pushing for the second whilst Bachelor had recognized one of the Phene’s gun fielders and sent Rog back! Somehow the man with a turning circle akin to a famous ship from April 14th 1912 managed to scarper back to safety whilst the Phene throw went awry.

Whether it was a longing to end the anxiety over running between the wickets or a desire to add to his ‘6s hit’ column on the stats sheet, Rog proceeded to have a wild hoik at a straight one and was castled for a very respectable 37, leaving us 93-3. In came your narrator, who I must say felt horribly out of touch and probably looked even worse, to steady the ship with Bachelor before launching an assault on the Phene bowling later to allow for the early declaration. The ship steadying went well with our runs coming at around 4 an over, predominantly due to some further sharp running between the wickets instigated entirely by Stuart and reluctantly cooperated with by myself. Then came the assault… beginning with yours truly finally finding the middle of the bat to gloriously launch a full toss from Siva straight down the throat of the Phene’s best fielder at long on; full credit goes to the opposition skipper for seeing where the wicket was going to come from.

Next came the mad dog Ian Madden; semi-professional cricket retiree who can never resist the urge to lace them up one last time (every season). He looked every bit like he’d been playing all season with two swift and silky boundaries. It is a priority next season to ensure Ian plays for us regularly because he has the gift and the bug for cricket, and it was great to see him out there at the middle where he belongs. Disastrously, Malcolm seemed to disagree with that sentiment by giving Ian out LBW when the ball was clearly missing a 2nd set of stumps/might even have been a wide/came off the bat/was a no ball etc. Ian was disgusted on his return to the Pav and the trademark ‘bat in the bin’ move was a sight that has been sorely missed – 141-5.

Thurston came to join Bachelor and, after an over or so to get his eye in, proceeded to start hitting out at his captain’s request. It was Bachelor who fell next however, again caught looking to push the scoring along, cruelly one short of his 3rd 50 of the season, though a handy, rapid 37 run partnership with Thurston had put us more in the running. The FoW that followed was swift but glorious with DJs batsmen sacrificing their wickets for the greater good of trying to get to score up before declaring. Golec was a revelation at 11 with two boundaries in the last over to get the DJs to a respectable 193-9 off 39 overs.

As ever, tea was spectacular and delicious thanks to Tara, and we resumed play slightly less mobile than before (if it were possible!), at 4.55pm, giving us an hour before the ’20 after 6’ to rattle through the Phene batting line up and celebrate a famous victory and retention of the Landais Cup… if only. The Phene had other ideas about this and opened up with the Jones brothers to face the mighty opening bowling pair of Golec and Thurston. They bowled well, Golec maybe slightly tighter but both threatening, and shared the spoils with a wicket each. Both were sharp catches, with Thurston taking a diving c&b to get the early breakthrough and Golec backed superbly in the field by the booming call of Hewitt at mid on, sprinting round to take a diving/falling catch on the run to dismiss their dangerous no.3 leaving the score at 67-2.

This brought oppo skipper Adam to the crease and, with it, the end of the DJs hopes of winning the game. Although we toiled and he gave some half chances, sadly none of them stuck and we just couldn’t dislodge him from the crease as he raced to a well-deserved and match-winning 80*. We bowled perhaps a little looser this week than against the Village, though one also must take this in the context of some very good batting from the Phene. Dom took the prize wicket of D. Jones with an excellent caught behind whilst standing up from Stuart, though he proceeded to receive some punishment from their skipper so I took him off fairly swiftly and looked to regain a measure of control with Heaton. Rog was, as he often is, the pick of the bowlers with some tight lines and trademark swing, and he was deservedly rewarded with two wickets.

At the other end it was a mixed bag for S. Jones, Close and Ritter, though to be fair to them they were bowling at well set batsmen looking to push on. In a slightly senile moment I had forgotten that Darling hadn’t bowled and I had batted him relatively low down the order, so I wasted no more time in bringing him on to bowl 1.2 overs and concede the winning runs, my sincerest apologies Adam!

All in all a game that never really caught fire on the DJs side, we were solid when batting and perhaps slightly below par when bowling/fielding, though it’s hard to pick any particular moments that prompted our loss. In reality, this was a match predominantly won by the Phene and their skipper’s innings, so many congratulations to them. Following the game Stuart proceeded to present the Landais Cup to Adam (Phene Adam, not our Adam) with some very kind words about John, the game and the Phene, which were gratefully received and fitting of the spirit the game had been played in. We then had a veritable mountain of meat and salads cooked by Ian and Tara at the post-game BBQ and the revelry went on long into the night. Many thanks again for their hospitality and to the Phene for a good day’s cricket, we look forward to trying to regain the cup next year!

OA

Hetairoi

St John's College Ground, Sunday 23 July 2017

Cancelled

Iffley Village CC

Appleton Sportsfield, Sunday 6 August 2017

Lost

Pinkneys Green CC

Pinkneys Green, Sunday 20 August 2017

Lost

2016

Farleigh Wallop

Farleigh Wallop, Sunday 24 April

Demijohns 240 for 8

Farleigh Wallop 217

Hewitt 60, Haines 50, Dyson 40

Heaton 7.2-0-24-5, Haines 6-1-18-2, Darling 4-0-14-1 We won the toss and batted in this 40-over match.

St John's College

St John's College Ground, Saturday 14 May

Won by 62 runs:

Demijohns 207

St John's College 145

Heaton 57, Turnbull 25, S Jones 24

McGahan 2-1-4-2, Haines 1-0-4-2, Hewitt 5-2-15-2, Snicker 7-1-22-2 After the brilliant sunshine of the previous weekend the weather gods were not smiling upon the noble game of cricket, specifically the annual clash with the current SJC side at the second home of cricket that is Ian Madden's temple. Photos of a flooded square and outfield littered my facebook news feed, with predictions of a cancellation or delayed start being the most likely outcome. However, thanks to sterling work from the aforementioned Madden, the game would go ahead as advertised, starting at 11am with plenty of time for both sides to construct and mould their innings…The DJs top/middle order decided not to follow this strategy, having been put into bat by the current college skipper, with one of the collapses in the history of the game. This may have been contributed to by my incessant chopping and changing of the batting order (see calamitous scorebook photo) due to a few late arrivals and the intense desire from approximately eight players to bat in the much coveted lower middle order slots. We actually got off to a decent start with Dyson and D Jones somehow racing to 29 off the first four overs, despite the wicket having more than a few demons in it. But, when Dyson uncharacteristically fell in single figures, things took a turn for the ridiculous with the FoW as follows - 30-1, 41-2, 41-3, 43-4, 47-5, 47-6, 49-7, 55-8.I missed a lot of the dismissals unfortunately, owing to the need to put my pads on/take them off. However, from my lengthy spell in the middle and general observation from the boundary, I must say that the college side thoroughly deserved to tear through the heart of the DJs batting line up with some excellent, good old-fashioned seam up bowling, taking full advantage of the facilities in order to claim their scalps. Watching from the non-striker's end, the incredulous look on Haines' face as he left a ball pitching well outside off only to see it jag back and clip the bail was worth the admission price alone. To be fair to Ross, he had played and missed at one that seamed away the ball before, however I feel it validates my own philosophy of rarely leaving, always swinging, often missing. Having said that, not to be outdone, yours truly then proceeded to dolly up a leading edge to one Ant Hibbs for an easy caught and bowled… Et tu, Brute?

So, 55-8, Heaton and Turnbull at the crease and the college captain decided, very kindly, to take some pity on us and give a few of his less regular bowlers a chance to loosen their arms, not that this prompted a run scoring frenzy. After some discussions between myself and vc Haines, we thought the best thing to do would be to ask to be put out of our misery and maybe get in a second game later in the day. I'd love to say that this was all part of a tactical masterstroke given what was to follow, with mind games on a par with Warne in his pomp, however I can't claim that in good conscience. After letting Rog and Chris know that I was instructing the college skipper not to run donate for a couple of hours before killing us off anyway, akin to a cat playing with a terrified mouse, they proceeded to put on a masterclass in tenacity on a difficult wicket and despite the college's best efforts to dislodge them. I don't know if Paddy Power would ever consider offering odds on DJs fixtures, but I think the price on an innings total of >200 at this stage may have prompted more die-hard fan wins thousands newspaper articles than Leicester City have in recent months; then again, maybe not, as we were a sorry and pessimistic bunch on the boundary at this point and I doubt anyone would have made the bet!

Apologies for the above spoiler, but essentially yes, Heaton and Turnbull proceeded to put on a record 82 for the 9th wicket. After going from the good, to the ridiculous, to the dismal, to the flicker of hope, S Jones came to the crease and decided it was time for the sublime, with a blistering 69 run partnership for the 10th wicket* with Heaton after lunch. It was during this partnership that I'm delighted to be able to say that Heaton scored his maiden half century - I believe in his cricketing career for any side - and to score it in such trying and difficult circumstances really was fantastic on his part. Due to the fact that we were playing with 12-a-side, Snicker then came in, with the plan having been to declare at the end of the over, our 61st of the innings, and have a few overs at the college side before tea. Never one to protect his average, Heaton then proceeded to be run out on the last planned ball of the innings, finishing on 57 from (I think, may have miscounted this as I'm writing at 5am during a night shift!) 134 balls, Boycott-esque. We finished 207 all out.

I think I will take credit for this particular tactical decision, as Haines and Hewitt opened up with ruthless efficiency and devastating outcome, managing to claim three wickets in three overs before tea. Our earlier tormentor Rob Hortle from the college side was particularly unlucky in his dismissal as the ball ricocheted from pad to pad to foot to leg stump, however I'm sure Haines was delighted that, on this occasion, Hortle didn't have the last chortle. After tea the DJs continued to bowl well, with regular changes to the attack to keep things fresh; no-one came in for any particular punishment and I thought the general standard of fielding was pretty good, despite Hewitt's best impressions of a man in his mid-20s pushing 85 with an astounding lack of flexibility/willingness to bend over and stop the ball! After the early collapse there was a good deal of resistance from the college side, with some hefty and defiant blows from their number four batsman, as well as some patient run scoring from a few batsman in the middle and lower order. However, the wickets continued to fall and were shared around pretty evenly with 2 apiece for Haines, Hewitt, Snicker and McGahan. Having earlier been dismissed by Hibbs, both Darling and I had a measure of revenge by combining to see Hibbs caught at short extra cover.

It was fitting that Heaton would then come back at the end of the game for a trundle, having been thoroughly worn out by his batting exploits, to claim the final wicket of the day, dismissing the college side for a total of 145, giving the DJs an - at one stage incredibly unlikely - 62 run victory! We then proceeded to have a delicious curry courtesy of Tara, and once again we have to say thanks to both her and Ian for all of their tireless work that make coming back to play at the SJC ground the absolute pleasure and joy that it is. The festivities up at the ground proceeded long into the night, with Ian ladling out punishing doses of very spicy Phall/Fahl/Faal (there's much disagreement on the internet with regards to the spelling of this) for various arbitrary fines conjured up by the devilish minds of myself, Hibbs and Madden himself.

OA

* It wasn't just the ninth - we broke the record for the tenth wicket too. The 69 partnership between Rog Heaton and Sam Jones beat the 52* scored in 1970 by Newbould and our esteemed Club President against a College side skippered by myself. N.B. The President maintains that, since both sides batted 12 in this match, he still holds the record for the last wicket!

Ed.

Damazan

Damazan, Saturday 28 May

Won by 5 wickets:

Damazan 101

Demijohns 102 for 5

Snicker 7-0-19-3, Cross 6.3-0-21-3, Heaton 7-2-10-2, S Jones 7-0-23-2

Bell 50*, D Jones 15

Toulouse

Toulouse, Sunday 29 May

Cancelled (rain)

Further Friars

Erlestoke, Saturday 04 June

Lost by 5 wickets:

Demijohns 187 for 11

Further Friars 189 for 5

White 49, Hewitt 26, Bachelor 22

Pitura 7-0-34-3, Heaton 7.4-1-38-1, McGahan 8-1-41-1 This year's fixture against the Further Friars coincided with the stag weekend of Alex Page, which meant that there were extra players on hand to plug a disappointing shortfall in the DJs XI. The venue was the walled garden at Erlestoke, complete with masonry bees in one portion of the boundary. Put into bat, DJs didn't so much get off to a slow start as slow start, middle and end. None of us batsmen converted, although opener White on 49 got as close as any. Afterwards Alan said that he had been aware that there were many batsmen waiting to come in and thus had thrown the bat a bit. You can tell that he hasn't been playing for the DJs for long... Although the Friars bowling was estimable and the pitch a slight help to their cause, it was the quality of their fielding that really suppressed the run-rate. As well as plenty of young bodies on the pitch as befitted the occasion, the competitiveness that comes to the fore when males assemble to celebrate what is essentially the marking of territory kicked in. Six wickets through catches plus one run out is not to be sniffed at, and I shall spare our blushes by not looking up when our own club was last able to perform such a feat. The last thing that did for us was (now occasional) captain Bachelor getting the declaration wrong - AGAIN. It would still have been a good game had we paced ourselves for an extra 10 minutes, instead of which we hastily threw ourselves on our swords at 187 for 11 (it was a big stag party).I have often observed that there is great variation in how teams come out of the traps with the bat. The main dichotomy is in a hurry versus no hurry. I can't say that the FF openers looked in a hurry as such, more that they just decided to hit most balls through the line and hard and high. That, plus big modern bats and a bit of decent timing, shrinks a total quickly. Pleased to have got a wicket a few damaging overs in, we soon regretted it as King came to the crease and maintained the party mood. He went on to score 104 not out, with wickets falling around him only occasionally. Ziggy Pitura - a moonlighting Friar - bowled by far the best, mainly because he was much better than he looked and used discipline in his line and length. The Friars' fielding athleticism also transferred to their batting, with any slipshod DJs fielding punished smartly. Although they had plenty of time left to bury us, the Friars managed it in three fewer overs. No great shakes, yes, but they did have six wickets in hand. In sum, though, it was super to be part of Page's last weekend as a free man. He captained with flair and his best men bettered us.SMB

Eclectics

Eastbourne College, Sunday 12 June

Cancelled (rain)

Wadham Pres Boys

St John's College Ground, Sunday 19 June

Cancelled

Pres Boys were double booked and gave priority to the established fixture.

Hetairoi

St John's College Ground, Saturday 25 June

Cancelled (rain)

The groundsman made an early call - not at all surprising given the amount of rain.

Salix

Trinity College Ground, Sunday 26 June

Cancelled (rain)

The Village

St John's College Ground, Saturday 02 July

Lost by 4 wickets:

Demijohns 214 for 6

The Village 216 for 6

Slevison 138*, Dyson 18, Hibbs 15

McGahan 7-0-38-4, Slevison 4-0-23-1, Madison 5-0-25-1 We won the toss and batted.

Mermaids

St John's College Ground, Saturday 09 July

Cancelled

We were unable to raise a side.

The Grannies

St John's College Ground, Sunday 10 July

Drawn:

Grannies 203 for 5

Demijohns 146 for 8

Hibbs 6.5-0-34-2, S Jones 6-0-26-1, Darling 4-0-26-1

E Wilman 53, Hibbs 43, H Wilman 12

Fleet Street Strollers

St John's College Ground, Saturday 16 July

Lost by 13 runs:

Fleet Street Strollers 239 for 4

Demijohns 226 for 8

Ovenden 7-4-16-2, Snicker 6-0-36-1, Hewitt 8-0-52-1

Ovenden 61, Clark 35, Madden 30 This was a 40 over match

Phené Philanderers

St John's College Ground, Saturday 30 July

Won by 5 wickets:

Phené Philanderers 199 for 9

Demijohns 201 for 5

Thurston 2-0-6-2, Heaton 5-3-13-2, Hortle 5-0-17-1

Bachelor 71, Hortle 33*, White 30 We were the inaugural winners of the new cup.

Pinkneys Green

Pinkneys Green, Sunday 21 August

Abandoned (rain):

Pinkneys Green 226 for 7

Demijohns 57 for 0

A le Clercq 8-0-35-3, Foulds 8-0-33-2, Heaton 4-0-32-1

Foulds 29*, Heaton 27*

This was an inaugural fixture that came about owing to our playing Fleet Street Strollers (another wandering side) at Pinkneys Green. Just before the toss, I remarked to their captain that we had a stronger bowling than batting side. However, this was predicated upon Luke Thomas of the Phené turning up. He didn't, and we still don't know why. Now down to 9, Pinkneys Green graciously helped us out with a substitute fielder and we all worked hard to cover more ground than usual. This task was made harder by two of our fielders barely being able to run and the fact that PG, as a league side, knew how to take every opportunity for scoring runs. Given this, the bowlers did a marvellous job of containing the run-rate, with Foulds striking early with help from Jones at mid-on. However, the score was at 74 before the next wicket fell. A couple of difficult catches were missed, and we were only helped by being able to manipulate the field in order to keep their only weak higher-order batsman on strike.It then gave me great pleasure to throw the ball to Tony Ham, a founder of the DJs long since retired. Tony had calculated that, if he played in this fixture, he would have been playing cricket longer than his father had. We were all too happy to oblige; although I had never faced Tony on the pitch, I distinctly recall him giving me some net practice before going in at Crockham Hill and being astonished by the force and accuracy of his deliveries. Taken off only after he had taken a spill on the strip, I'll let Tony's figures speak for themselves: 3-1-11-0.The second half of the innings saw more wickets fall, but, with plenty in the hutch, PG became more audacious. Le Clercq - a Phené ringer who had brought mum and dad along for support, for which we were grateful - deserves mention for the best bowling of the innings (8-0-35-3), as does Foulds for his outstanding fielding. I don't think that we were flattering ourselves when, at tea, we reflected that the total of 226 off 40 overs could've been much higher had we lost our shape in the field or if the bowlers had not strained every sinew. Despite it being an overs game, my instructions to openers Heaton and Foulds were (bearing in mind that we were 0-2 before the first ball had been bowled) to build the innings slowly, see off as many of the 8 overs of their openers as possible and wait for any pies to rain down. They did just that, notching up an estimable 57 at the 20-overs drinks break. It then rained and didn't stop. PG were understandably loath to pull the plug on a fixture that they would probably have won, and the Duckworth-Lewis app on their skipper's phone gave him cause for considerable excitement once he had punched in the numbers. However, it being a friendly game, we shook hands on a draw and I expressed my gratitude on behalf of the Demijohns for having us along. In sum, not a great day for the Demijohns given that only 8 of us managed to get out to play: but at least we held our bearing in the face of strong opposition.

SMB

1958

Captain Hawkins' XI

Everdon Hall, Sunday 31 August

Captain Hawkins' XI 145 for 7
Demijohns 75 for 7

Match drawn

With the death of Bob Rham, a long-serving and much missed founder member of the Demijohns who played in the inaugural match in 1958, I felt that it was both important and entertaining to reflect on that first match. This match, against Captain Hawkins' XI, for whom I played from time to time, had some of the ingredients of the wonderful village cricket match in A G MacDonnell's "England their England", which involved the Professor of Ballistics, the 'youth in the blue jumper' and, of course, the village blacksmith whose run, beginning out of sight from below the hill, was signalled by the shrill clamour of small birds and the rooks rising in protest from their nests in the vicarage trees. Bob - who never practised as a blacksmith (as far as I know) - bowled fast and fierce when I first met him, playing for Oriel against St John's, and we had a memorable contest in which he took wickets and I made runs.

When a group of us in the dressing room after the last St John's match of the 1957 season remarked that it was our last time playing together I proposed arranging a match the following year that would be based on the departing St John's team. This group included John Jones, Karle Simpson, John Pollard, Tony Breakwell and Ernie Chapman, all of whom made good their promise to play in the August 1958 inaugural DJ match against Captain Hawkins' XI at Everdon; and there we had the nucleus of the new Demijohns Club.

We agreed that the club would have to include non-St John's players to help maintain the standard that we hoped to perpetuate and to broaden its base and make it viable, and I was faced with the interesting task of organising an appropriate team. This was because Captain Hawkins, a somewhat patrician member of the 'landed gentry' and of a range of clubs from the MCC and I Zingari to the Jockey Club, was an unpredictable team selector, who was reputed once to have played for Middlesex 2nd XI but, for his own side, came in at number eleven and didn't bowl. His unpredictability involved mixing Northamptonshire county players with the locals of his village team, some of whom would have qualified for A G MacDonnell's descriptive prose, with the result that it was difficult to decide what standard we had to meet in DJ team selection.

The non-St John's founder players (the Demis) also had to be made aware of these quirky uncertainties and that they could be facing the great Australian test spinner, George Tribe, or the wild 'Nobby' Clarke - or the village blacksmith. They therefore had to be of Authentics standard and also, looking to the future, potentially able to expand the reach for new non-St John's members. Bob Rham, as an opening bowler who could provide a test for County players - whom I finally ran to earth somewhere in the Far East, and John Orton, a stylish opening batsman from Magdalen, both fitted the bill, as did Tony Ham, a wily off-spinner, Freddie Nunn, a seasoned organiser of a variety of Oxford-based cricket clubs and an important future promoter of the DJs, together with Martin Squire of Wadham, and my brother, an experienced wicket-keeper and batsman.

The match itself, which included only two budding Northants men in the Hawkins team - and was allowed to begin only when Captain Hawkins had emerged from the Hall through an ornate gate in a high hedge - ended in a draw (due I think either to bad light or a predetermined cut-off time); a theatrical prelude to the nearly 60 years of DJ cricket. I should add that Hawkins' butler had arranged post-match drinks - a custom that should be considered for preservation by the current DJs when selecting future opponents.

It is good to report that some years later, in a memorable celebration match on this beautiful little ground to commemorate the first post-war Test, an Old England team played Old Australia, all ex-Test players including legends such as Frank Tyson, Trevor Bailey, Godfrey Evans, Neil Harvey, Sam Loxton, Bill Johnston and Keith Miller, leaving another indelible memory of bygone days.

Champagne cricket; true to the Demijohns tradition.

Keith Harris-Watson,

President Emeritus

11 March 2014

Demijohns v Captain Hawkins' XI

Everdon Hall, Northamptonshire, 31 August 1958

Photograph L to R:

Ian Farquharson (Umpire) (St John's)

Peter Newbold (? College)

John Pollard (St John's)

John Harris-Watson (Guest)

John Orton (Magdalen)

Bob Rham (Oriel)

Freddie Nunn (Guest)

Martin Squire (Wadham)

John Jones (St John's)

Karle Simpson (St John's)

Tony Breakwell (St John's)

Keith Harris-Watson (St John's)