The 4s welcomed Abingdon Vale 4s to Boundary Park this week and to the same strip that we played on last week. Last week was a sticky dog, this week it was a beauty of a track. Hard and bouncy with a bit of grass to help the seamers. Having won the toss there was little doubt in the decision to invite the visitors to have a bat.

Callum looked dangerous from the start, using his height and bowling just back of a length to cause the batsmen issues. A wayward beamer in Callum’s second over put doubts in the opener’s mind and three balls later he meekly patted one back to the bowler.

Callum’s spell could have been over in his third over after another full toss but fortunately this one was just below the waistline and we all breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t take long to send this batsman back, he fended off another rib tickler, caught well by Ollie in the gully. The number four quickly followed, another catch by Ollie after Luke parried it in the slips. 30-3 after 9 overs and Didcot had started well.

Abingdon rallied and built a partnership and Didcot rotated the bowling. The introduction of Maddy was eventful. His second over consisted of two truly awful long hops which were both dispatched through square leg followed by an absolute jaffa that clipped the top of off and removed their danger man.

Another middle order partnership had taken the score to 120-6 when the re-introduction of Callum turned the tide in Didcot’s favour. His first ball of his second spell demolished the stumps and very next ball he got the new batsman, again caught by Ollie in the gully. Hat trick ball and he found the edge, unfortunately this went between keeper and slip. [As the author I will claim it was far closer to slip than keeper obviously]

Never fear, DA picked him up next over, caught well by Maddy and Callum got his 6th shortly afterwards with a regulation nick behind. Callum’s 7th was another catch in the grabbers, superbly taken by Luke. We won’t dwell on Luke’s horrendous ground fielding a few overs earlier when he thought he was still in the Welsh Ladies football camp and his attempted kick resulted in him nut megging himself. It was left to DA to wrap up the innings when he clean bowled Didcot alumnus Paul Tolley.

Callum was the star of the show returning figures of 9-1-31-7 but all of Didcot’s bowlers did very well and the catching was outstanding. Fun fact of the day was that the combined age of the four Didcot juniors on display is the same as club legend DA.

147 was the target for Didcot and the innings started well. The openers put on 29 for the first wicket and Viraj turned back the years with some glorious boundaries ably supported by Ollie. 69-3 at drinks and the game was in the balance. Unfortunately where Abingdon’s middle order had managed to rebuild and get some partnerships, ours struggled against some good bowling and we collapsed to 80-8.

Bazzer and Isteyn battled hard and dug in. Was the draw on the cards? They stuck around for 8 overs until Bazzer was out lbw which brought last man Finn to the crease. He and Isteyn kept Abingdon out for another 4 overs but with 12 balls left in the game, the final wicket fell and Didcot had lost by 53 runs.

What looks like a crushing defeat on paper was much closer in real life and everybody should hold their heads up and be proud of their performances.

Having seen Callum come into the 4s a few years ago it gave great pleasure to see him finally deliver what we all know he can do. He has worked hard on his action over the years and has something that cannot be coached with his natural height. Still only an U16 the future is bright and he richly deserved the match ball.