Our Pre-Season schedule saw only 3 out of 7 arranged friendlies completed across the club, due to the poor recent weather. But despite this, there has still been plenty to shout about at the club!
The 1st XI‘s first friendly against touring side, Cheadle, fell to the weather but much warmer scenes arrived the following week for the visit of Potters Bar. The visitors scored 216-8, with Alex Bell bowling well on debut for Thame in an effort that saw the wickets shared around the bowlers. In reply, Thame fell short on 202-8, with skipper Mike Beard’s 53 leading the scoring, supported by Hasham Mushtaq’s 48. This proved to be the only match time for the boys before they start the club’s first ever Home Counties Premier League Division 1 season. A week later, the fixture away to Dinton was unfortunately lost to the rain. The 1s play Finchampstead away to open their League Season, on May 5th.
For the 2nd XI, an away friendly against league rivals East Oxford opened their Pre-Season preparation. 12 year old Luke Hayes made his debut in adult cricket, taking 2 wickets in what promises to be a breakthrough season for the youngster, who has also been selected at County level. Batting first, Thame were all out for 183 with a Fifty from skipper Matt Furness and 43 from Matt Ridgeway. East Oxford chased down the target, but there were plenty of positives to take from the game. The following week’s home fixture versus Tiddington 2 was cancelled due to rain. The 2s welcome Bletchley Town to The Meadow for the season opener next week.
Luke Hayes on debut with skipper Matt Furness
During the scorching weekend, our 3rd and 4th XI took on each other in a friendly at Church Meadow, on the Sunday. This was a chance to give some players their first run outs of the season, and will go down as the first ever match for our new 4th XI! In an unorthodox friendly that saw some batsmen get 2 goes in order to use up all 35 of the overs, the 3rd XI batted first and got an impressive 172 – Guy Holmes (37), Robbie Jackson (29) and Paddy Harris (20) leading the way. The honour of the first ever wicket (in fact, first 4 wickets) for the 4ths went to Dan Constant in an excellent spell of bowling, while the rest of the wickets were well shared out.
In response, the 4ths never got going against some strong and experienced bowling, with Tim Dabbs (19) and Tony Barnes (15) the only men to reach double figures, eventually falling well short of the total. But it was a good run out for many players who haven’t played since last year, or in a few years even! Guy Holmes and Beth John each took 3 wickets. The 3rd XI start away against Tiddington 3s, while the 4th XI kick off at Lord Williams’ School versus Chearsley 2s.
It was decided that this fixture will be a regular occurrence, with the Captains naming the contest, ‘The Mashes’. Vimal Desai took the “Golden Masher” trophy on behalf of the 3rd XI for their victory this year!
3rd XI v 4th XI 2018
Lastly, with all friendlies cancelled on the last weekend of pre-season, 3 members of the club decided to take part in the Lord Williams’ School 5k obstacle and colour run. Chairman Matt Swain, Jackie Phippen and Joe Phippen completed the run together, wearing the colours of TTCC – the lads also deciding to complete it in pads! Several other cricket club associates also took part, representing other local organisations. The money raised went to the School and also it’s cricket ground, of which our 3rd and 4th XI will be using again this season. Well done to all runners, and thank you to those who supported!
Lord Williams’ School Fun Run 2018 – Jackie Phippen, Matt Swain, Joe Phippen