Those that were at the game will know why the Skipper is still smiling after the game on Saturday.

It had been a traumatic week in all, as the line-up for both teams changed many times. It did seem that the odds of winning the lottery were better than either team having a full quota.

It even ended with Sloth pinching two of the 2nds at the last moment. Well, Liam was in Jurgo’s car as he passed Newbury train station and Manoj had to bring Pradeep into Newbury anyway?  Still the 1sts only ended up with 10 men (that is, of course, if they could find out what had happened to John as he wasn’t picking up his phone!).....

On a beautiful day for cricket Sw NALGO 1 overcame the early shock of losing their openers for 13 runs to Zaf Akram with some sensible batting by Shaz Khan (100 not out) and Fahim Zafar (34) who put on 74 for the 3rd wicket. The need to accelerate the scoring rate saw the latter caught on the boundary by a well judged catch taken by Roberts. Then followed a cameo 34 from Shoayb Rahman to boost the score to 159 in the 39th over.  The last five overs saw Shaz Khan open his shoulders to bring him a well deserved hundred and the total to 217 for the loss of 4 wickets.

Shinfield started disastrously with Madgwick losing his middle stump in the 2nd ball to a snorter from young Usman Sahar (3 for 32). He continued to worry the batsmen and Srisanth Garg attempted to break loose by driving him  hard to mid off and Shoayb Rahman took a brilliant low catch diving to his left. M Ilyas who looked assured and dangerous upto now took an injudicious swipe at a rising ball on the offside giving skipper Penfold a scalp behind the stumps. Skipper Getgood did his best to anchor the batting but with Das (4 for 23) coming onto the attack together with Ahmed (2 for 24) saw Shinfield crumble to 105. NALGO took all the catches that were offered to gain 35 points after a good all round performance.

With the Twenty20 bug sweeping the world and taking cricket to previously unknown popularity, The Oratory School, Woodcote, are reviving an even faster, high-scoring and exciting form of the game with their inaugural Six-a-side competition on Sunday 22nd June. The day begins at 10 am, and eight local sides are taking up the challenge as they aim to become the debut winners. Peppard, Goring, The OS VI and  The Crossbatters fill Group A, whilst an equally competitive Group B features Stoke Row, Mortimer West End, a Select VI and The OS Real Tennis Professionals. The top two in each group will then progress to the semi finals, with the final beginning at around 5 pm.