To Oxfordshire the Peckers ventured, in search of the ground which would host our penultimate fixture of the year. As your author navigated the winding roads towards the ground, escaping the concrete jungle of London and eventually passing through ever smaller towns and villages, it made me appreciate how lucky we are to visit such exquisite corners of England and play our beloved game, cricket. As the Woodpecker website states, the game “above all else celebrates the conviviality and camaraderie of village cricket”.

Well dear reader, a celebration? possibly, conviviality and camaraderie? - plentiful and Village? A blueprint to be followed.

Butternut puts Badger through his paces before heading out to open the batting

The cast for this display of Village Cricket slowly assembled at the handsome ground of Peppard Stoke Row CC as we were to be greeted by a barmy 21 degrees with some overhead cloud cover.

The XI included faces old and new. Two members of the Spinach lineage were on show, with the return of Badger after a two year hiatus, tempted by the fixture within his new chosen county to lay his Sett within and Butternut after a brief mid season hiatus. New faces were a mutual friend of POB and Murphy Graham ‘Gravy’ Craigmile and a Uni friend of Murphy’s Jack’The Geordie Butcher’ Hearn. Muttley, Karl with a K, club sponsor H-Bomb, Murphy and Chefrey completed the motley crew.

Woodpecker’s Innings

Given the youthfulness of the opposition and our strong batting line up on paper, POB decided to throw the embryonic opening pair of Badger and Muttley. Badger, who was in fine form following his transition to L*ague cricket for his village team Ascot-Under-Wychwood, was leathering balls back to Butternut and was raring to go.

The pitch was in good condition, benefiting from some recent rain and after a few wides, the 1st over saw a glorious boundary down the ground by Badger who had understood the assignment. With Muttley holding up the other end diligently, Badger took offence to some aggressive short bowling and hit 2 successive 4s, one of which was back over the bowlers head.

Muttley asking Gravy for middle stump, if only he hadn’t played down the Piccadilly line…

Aside from a mix up in the middle going for a questionable single by Badger, the pair motored towards 50 runs. A change of bowling saw Proudfoot enter the attack which forced Gravy, at umpire, to determine a straight-ish looking delivery to be given LBW for Muttley (11).

Gravy reliving the triggering of Muttley

This brought about a mini Pecker collapse, with Karl with a K (4) caught & bowled, Badger falling for a fluent 43 and Henners (9). All elegant batsmen in their own right, but caught by solid catches in the depths of the outfield.

After a flurry of wickets, the Pavillion was more like a Cricket inspired fashion show. Half dressed Peckers quickly busied themselves, strapping on (& off) various clobber. This resulted in the 7-10 being fully padded up in expectation of further casualties in the middle. Thankfully the tide was turned with the arrival of Butcher and Murphy to the crease. Both built their innings delicately at first and then let loose as they threatened half centuries. Jug avoidance perhaps, but they fell for 41 and 47 respectively.

Stopping the rot - Uni room mates Murphy and the Geordie Butcher with Wiener Schnitzel

More importantly, the innings had become respectable which saw us rebuild from 75-4 to 150-4. The final 5 batsmen added 19 between us to allow post a defendable 186 runs.

Match Tea

Despite historical BBQ extravaganzas at this charming ground, it was a BOYT situation, meaning the Peckers had to get creative. Despite a limited amount of home baked goods, the combination of the Pavillion bar and quantity of food kept us going. Yours truly had found the cheese he had meant to take to Lords at the back of the fridge 2 weeks prior and more importantly POB generously brought a tipple more associated with the Hampshire Hogs fixture, Port. It was very apt that, a season that had started with a glorious toooooor of Porto should see the last fixture played in the season* to include this delicious fortified wine. Celebrating both old and new faces, we took to the field well fed and very, very well oiled.

*Sanderstead rained off

Peppard Stoke Row Innings

It was my pleasure to carry on the the proceedings with my dear friend Butternut opening up at the other end. The field was set with Muttley keeping, joined by fellow keeper Badger and Butternut grinning away in the slips. As is customary, we don’t take many in the slips.There were village displays of fielding and catching, particularly behind the stumps. The bonnet of shame sat atop the majority of the side. Some less deserving, but some absolutely justified. The fielding at times resembled some sort of goalkeeping practice, with balls pushed over the bar and round the post to stop what would have surely been certain wickets.

The greasy paws of Badger and Mutley were most culpable and shared the Bonnet of shame for much of the match with Butters-Fingers

Comical throughout, a constant flurry of half-chances and bowling changes saw much hilarity. With every missed opportunity, there was an escalation of the internal sledging. This led to a game descending into a chaotic rhythm which was brought about by the quantity of alcohol consumed at tea and was partly reminiscent of the Afternoon Session of the 1st game of the toooooor. Much like chucking manure against a wall, the chances eventually stuck. The new boys really showed the way as Gravy’s ground fielding was impeccable and the Geordie Butcher took three catches on debut

Butcher, Murphy and Kwakka revelling in twosuccessful catches off Murphy’s bowling. Badger taking note and practicing his ‘technique’ without the gloves on…

With the usual liquriouce all sorts delivered, Butternut (3-0-28-0) gave way to Murphy (2-0-11-2) and saw two chances stick, dismissing No.2 & 3 batsmen leaving the opposition 50-3. Butcher (3-0-5-1) also entered the fray with some spicy medium-fast pace drying up the runs.

The attack, like the port which has touched our lips at Tea, matured in age with Karl with a K (2-0-2-1) and Cheffrey (4-0-18-2) making further inroads into the opposition. The last two bowling changes saw the opening pair, Wicket Keeping Union members Muttley & Badger (2-0-4-0) finished off the completing the set of bowlers. Muttley (2-0-11-1), not be outdone by the lack of runs batting, unlocked the final wicket to see us through to a victory by 37 runs. This also meant that after our poor run mid-season we ended the last five games unbeaten for a respectable 8-8-1 record. Most importantly we’ve had huge amounts of fun.