Game 4 of the 2025 season saw the 3s travel to AWE Tadley in our attempt to make it 4 league wins out of 4 to start the campaign. With some incredibly strong availability across the club, we welcomed Ed Hellings, Elliot Walker, John Simmonds & Oscar Clouting for their first 3s league appearances of season, whilst welcoming back Clouting Sr and a returning Josh Poole, who’s last game for Odiham was back in 2017!

Some rain overnight had put this game in doubt, however we got the all clear at circa 11am and set off to meet at Tadley in plenty of time prior to the game. Not everyone quite grasped the ’12:15 meet’ memo, with Elliot underestimating the journey time, Ed Terry thinking about his upcoming travels and Simmo driving to a place that was not AWE Tadley.

Eventually all present and correct, the team had inspected and felt the pitch - with little sign of the strip being rolled in this millennia, and the overnight rain on this uncovered track, all signs pointed to a ‘bowl first’ decision at what seemed to be crucial toss. The skipper duly lost the toss and was awaiting the inevitable - incredibly, the oppo decided to bat first (maybe because they scored 300 last week?). Delighted with the outcome of the toss, we took the field in overcast & blustery conditions.

1st Innings

Dave took the new ball and immediately found some movement under cloudy skies. Oscar joined him from the other end and made an instant impact - three beautiful out-swingers to the left handed opener, were followed by a beautiful delivery that nipped off the surface and through the gate, hitting middle stump. An absolute ripper.

Oscar and Dave continued with probing lines and movement, as we started to see first signs of this pitch really misbehaving. Many length deliveries (particularly bowling from the pavilion end) were doing all sorts off the surface - occasionally shooting through but more often popping up and hitting gloves/shoulders or missing everything entirely. It was a day to make the most of the pitch, and let it do some of the work for you.

Dave arguably tried a little too hard to make the pitch work as the ball seemed to get stuck in his bucket hands, leading to a short flurry of boundaries off the Tadley No.3s bat. With his years of his experience, Dave (1-21) switched to off cutters and almost immediately got his reward, pinning the other opener on the toe for the most plumb LBW of the season so far (30-2). Oscar had it on a string and took his second just three balls later - beating the bat with the first couple of deliveries of his over, Oz found the edge and Lizo snaffled a regulation catch at slip - you don’t see many slip catches on the 3s but Lizo will admit he did not need to move his hands for this one!

Josh P replaced Dave as we had the rare sighting of two left armers bowling in tandem. Having not played a competitive match for 8 years, Josh understandably took a couple of overs to find his rhythm with the wind gusting across the square, but then started to settle in. It was however Oscar who struck again, this time, with the final ball of his spell. Oz is certainly a ‘thinking bowler’, moving around the wicket as the swing started to fade, in an attempt to make the batter play every ball - throwing in the odd cutter, particularly with the interesting surface, made Oz an absolute nightmare to face. It was an off-cutter, short of a length that made the No.5 bat chop on, leaving Tadley 42-4 after 10 overs - the O’s well on top.

Simmo replaced Oscar and quickly proved incredibly difficult to get away on this surface. We know Simmo varies his pace but he had the batters stuck in his web, with some deliveries viciously turning - perhaps even too much! Elliot was a towering presence at short cover/mid-off throughout, and he seemed to be in the game every ball, with the ball popping either side of him on multiple occasions - he let absolute nothing past, aside from one theatrical dive that saw him go fully horizontal after the ball had already passed him - shame there was no frog box for you all to enjoy.

Speaking of dives, Greg was kept busy behind the stumps - at times via the viscous swing or spin, and other times due to the sheer volatility of the pitch. But as always that man does his job superbly, zero byes again in certainly his toughest assignment yet, making the difficult look very easy - a highlight being a Simmo quicker ball that Greg plucked from the top corner, saving 4.

A field change to bolster the leg side (thanks Ed H for that one), the No.4 bat tried something different but missed a straight one as Josh got his first (49-5). The oppo were soon 6-down, as the new bat was swinging hard at everything - after finding the fence, he went again, spooning a turning Simmo delivery into the offside, where Andy C took a smart catch (54-6). Andy had been right in the game at extra cover and was getting a bit of a peppering but stopped everything that came his way.

Tadley had changed up their batting order, their 2 of their usual top 5 were in at 7 & 8, including their skipper. Some positive stroke play had started to get the scoreboard moving again, and the No.7 had looked handy, but after a probing over from Josh, he spooned the ball up to midwicket into the grateful hands of the Safi (70-7 after 17 overs). The O’s kept the pressure on, as the Tadley skipper hit the ball straight his counterpart at short midwicket and set off for a run - correctly sent back by his partner, the Tadley skipper could only watch as Safi threw the stumps down (incredibly not after a dropped catch), to reduce Tadley to 84-8 at Drinks.

After drinks, the skipper decided to give Clouting Sr a rest and swap him with Clouting Jr, who was twiddling his thumbs at square leg, criminal for someone that good in the field. Lo and behold, the very first ball after drinks was hit into that very extra cover region, and Oscar gleefully took the catch, much to the amusement of all (bar his dad). Two balls later the ball was absolute crunched to the right of Oz, who (also) dived like a goalkeeper to stop a sure boundary. Maybe Andy was grateful that his son was fielding there. Josh (3-41) finished his spell, and settled in nicely on his return to O’s cricket.

Simmo (1-24) bowled brilliantly but with the ball turning so much (not according to one of the tailenders), the skipper brought Oscar back on, and he only took 3 balls to wrap up the innings. Full and straight, up went the finger, and Tadley were rolled for 99 inside 24 overs - Oscar finishing with incredible figures of 4-13. Brilliant to have him in O’s colours. In spite of our brilliant performance in the field, we knew that this pitch would be challenging, so heads were screwed as we quickly ate our BYO-Teas.

2nd Innings

Andy C and Ed H opened up for us and immediately we saw that the demons remained in the surface. In the first over, Andy played a textbook forward defensive to one that flew closer to his helmet than his bat - he did however get things going two balls later with a trademark cut shot with the grace only a left-hander can showcase.

The Tadley opening bowlers were on the money though and were absolutely hooping it. The clouds had grown darker too, and with the swing, variable bounce and strong wind, it was if the cricketing gods were circling. Both Ed and Andy wore a couple of the glove and on the shoulder - it was not easy - certainly the most challenging batting conditions of the season so far.

After punching a nice two down the ground, Andy (10) snicked off to an absolute ripper of a catch behind the stumps (11-1). Lizo (1) didn’t last much longer as the opening bowler bowled a Jaffa of an in swinging Yorker that pegged back leg stump (18-2). Neither Andy nor Lizo could do much with those deliveries. Ed was looking resolute at the other end, wearing a few and holding the pose as the O’s just tried to survive this opening burst. The skipper joined Ed in the middle, with an intent to leave the ball and not play that horrible hoick that has got him out twice this year.

With the O’s 21-2 after 10 overs, the going was tough but we knew that the openers could only bowl for so long. It was however the 11th over that sparked the game back into life - the bowler sent in a short delivery that Ed helped on its way to deep backward square, who shelled a tough chance. Bowler = not happy. With Safi on strike, he then tried to repeat his ripper of a delivery to Lizo, however this time it somehow missed leg stump. Bowler = less happy. Two balls later he bowled a rank full toss that the skipper spooned up in the air to point who took the catch - thankfully, Simmo had his arm out at square leg to save the skipper’s blushes - no-ball. The frustration continued to grow and Safi could sense another short delivery coming, and it did, with the skipper pulling the ball to the leg side fence. A wry smile between the batters, as the O’s knew we had seen off one of their openers, who needed to blow off some steam.

Safi continued to ride his luck and seemed troubled by the swinging full tosses - clipping one just wide of short midwicket, and top edging other that should have been comfortably caught by gully. Ed remained unflappable amongst the chaos, clipping the ball to the square leg boundary, before unfurling a beautiful cover drive. With the other opening bowler into his last over, Ed cut one to the hands of deep point, who shelled the catch - it seemed our fielding effort was the difference in this game. In Safi’s (11) attempt to see off the last ball of the opener’s spell, he left a full swinging delivery - or so he thought. There are good leaves and bad leaves, and this was the latter - the ball didn’t swing and it cannoned into off-stump. That intent to leave the ball was maybe a touch strong.

At 48-3 after 16 overs, the O’s were nearly halfway to the target, so wickets were going to be the only thing stopping us. Elliot strode out to the middle and immediately looked to put pressure back on the change bowlers. The off-spinner found as much turn as Simmo, but Elliot gladly pulled a delivery to the square leg fence to get off the mark. He followed up with a lofted straight drive the following over, as quickly the O’s took back control. Ed hit a brace of cracking boundaries just prior to drinks, taking the O’s to 69-3, with the finish line in sight.

As Elliot and Ed looked increasingly assured, the boundaries kept coming, with both using the crease superbly to pick length and punish anything loose, despite the inconsistency in the pitch. There was one scare as the off spinner spun an absolute beauty between Elliot’s bat and pad, somehow missing everything, and flying away for 4 byes. Els rubbed salt into the wound by carting the next delivery to the fence.

To wrap the game up, Elliot continued to put the foot down, launching a cracking straight six, before Ed hit a back-foot punch through the covers to seal the victory for the O’s, as we won by 7 wickets with plenty of time to spare. Ed finishing on 38* (68 balls, 6x 4s) batting superbly in challenging conditions, and Elliot 29* (24 balls, 5x 4s & 1x 6), putting the pressure back on the oppo at exactly the right time.

A superb bowling and fielding effort won us that game, and in difficult conditions, a well managed chase of a low total. 4 wins out of 4 is fantastic, but this performance showed we could win in a different way - really positive.

POTM: Oscar Clouting - 5.2-0-13-4 & a catch/brilliant performance in the field. It is great to have you back Oz.

Next week, we are back to Long Sutton to host Crown Taverners 2nd XI - see you all then.