The Saturday 3rd XI came agonisingly close to an excellent win in their first match in the Warwickshire League at Tudor Grange on Saturday, falling to a 7-run defeat against Bablake Old Boys 3rd XI.

Andy Rowland having won the toss and inserted the opposition on a slightly sticky but generally true wicket, Olton's bowlers got off to a good start, with tight first spells from Joe Moore and Gareth Stratford. However, Bablake's batsmen began slogging to spectacular effect at about the 12 over mark. The two top scorers eventually fell to Paver, but not before inflicting some damage on the mid-innings bowling figures. Bablake kept the scoreboard moving even after the big hitters had gone, and Olton fought hard all the way to the end of the innings. James Eaton bowled a solid spell to finish with excellent figures of 4 for 22 from 8.1 overs, while Karim Ullah provided impressive support from the other end.

Olton's reply was based around an excellent unbeaten 75 from Gareth Stratford. Initially the scoreboard rattled along, with Phil Budd looking his usual zestful self until run out, Sponge being Sponge, and Munaf Mohammed also looking untroubled until he slapped a short ball to cover. The run rate appeared no problem, but wickets continued to fall, and despite some hearty hitting from Sultan Afsar and Karim Ullah, last man Joe Moore came to the wicket with 35 still needed.

Joe fought hard to support Gareth, and Olton inched ever nearer to the winning total of 250, but Joe was caught behind with just 8 needed for victory. Andy Rowland's side were left to rue a slew of dropped catches of varying degrees of difficulty, and a mixed batting performance that included four ducks.

Honourable mentions are due to Gareth for a fine league debut, to Joe for a good all-round contribution, and to Tim Joiner for fielding with all the vim of a youngster (and, strangely, for taking as many catches in one match as he took in the whole of last season).

Fantasy cricket footnote: Sunil Vyakaranam pointed out in the bar after Saturday's matches that the traditional question "how did you do today?” may no longer be the innocent, friendly inquiry that it once was, because of the inquirer's potential fantasy cricket interests. The following formula might therefore be appropriate for such post-match questions on a Saturday night:

a) I am deeply supportive of your personal performances as an individual cricketer, but I also happen to have you as a member of my fantasy team. That being the case, how did you get on today?

OR

b) I do not happen to have you as a member of my fantasy team, but I am nevertheless deeply supportive of your personal performances as an individual cricketer. How did you get on today?

You may find it useful to develop an appropriate facial expression to accompany these questions. If none of the above conditions apply (i.e. you don't care about somebody's performance, AND they are not a member of your fantasy team), it's polite to ask the question anyway. I hope that clears things up.

Roll on next Saturday.