Cricket News

Herath tees off at King Street

RAF Odiham 91-4 vs 93-5 RAF Benson

Odiham’s first match since 2019 ended in a comfortable Benson victory in the RAF Cup. Herath’s quickfire half century made relatively light work of the hosts’ total of 91 at Odiham and Greywell Cricket Club.

Benson won the toss and smartly put Odiham in, on a spongy King Street deck that would prove to be very challenging. The good length became even better with an unforgiving bounce that was turning straightforward drives into lofted chances.

Maisey fell early trying to cut Bailey (1-11), but he was too early on it, and it plopped up to Cover. Warner (7) went in the next over trying to drive McCormack (1-14) and succumbing to a similar fate to Maisey.

Captain Pritchard (8), insatiable when hitting into the V when it goes right, tried to accelerate and squirmed a couple behind square. Soon, though, he fizzed his best shot of the day straight into the hands of Cover to give Herath (121) some joy in the fourth column. At 25-3 after 9, Odiham had to accelerate, but it was tough. McMenamin stood firm while Singh (49) waited for the short ball or the full toss, often dispatching them to the boundary.

McMenamin (19*) pushed the singles and turned some into twos, Singh at the other end eventually falling at the end of the 18th over trying to clobber one of Stokes’(1-20) teasing floaters. Moverley (4*) and McMenamin squeezed Odiham to 91 which was reasonable after losing the top three quite cheaply. in two at the start of his second over. He castled McCormack (5) before getting away with one as Benson skipper Cooke tried to dispatch a long hop and skewed it into the hands of Dennison at Backward Point, a good catch on the up.

Herath (54) picked up McMenamin from the slot and sent it flying over the Wide Long On rope and also punished a short one in almost the same spot. Moverley continued to push on at the other end and bowled Payne (3) for his third. Odiham could have had 9 men between Cow Corner and Long On and Herath would have still taken them on, slapping another couple of boundaries off McMenamin.

Amanpreet (9) pulled a Dennison (1-11) full toss into the leg side, but an attempted repeat only reached Mid On where it was snaffled. Benson were flying on 52 after seven overs but already four down and the loss of Herath may have swung things. Singh was cursing his luck as he had him dropped twice, the first time just in front of Point when it was swirling, and then Maisey in the Slips couldn’t get down to one that had looped up off the shoulder of the bat.

A sublime display of power by Herath saw him amass 22 in a Singh over, all but ending the tie with half the innings remaining. Moverley (4-24) returned to the action from the bottom end and finally accounted for Herath, although it took a stinging low catch at Long On by Warner to do it.

After three quiet overs, Smith (11*) pulled Warner to the boundary to seal the game in the 14th. regain some match sharpness that we’ve lost over the past couple of years or to blood new players who may be playing their first competitive cricket game.

Cricket back on the map at Odiham

Interview with newly installed OIC Cricket, Flt Lt Rob Herrick.

After two years of no action and the departures of WO Andy Fry and Club President Dave Burridge, talk me through the challenges of such a big handover and change in personnel.

Firstly, I would like to formally thank Andy Fry for all he has done for the club especially over an extremely challenging period. It is to his credit that he has been able to keep the core of the club alive over the last couple of years despite the club not playing a fixture. Such a base has allowed us to get our first fixture under our belt already this season and start building for the future. In terms of the greatest challenge for us it is without doubt player availability. A civilian club would typically have 16-17 players on their books in order to raise 11 players each week. Due to being such a busy operational base, a squad of approximately 25+ players is required to find 11 players available, even then at a push.

What are your ambitions for the season? Is it all a bonus to just be playing?

Exactly that, this year is very much a rebuilding year for the club after the lack of cricket over the last two years. The aim is to get personnel enjoying cricket again by getting them away from the stressful working environment of Odiham and playing station sport again. The camaraderie that sport provides is crucial to a healthy work/life balance, which occasionally gets forgotten at detriment to our own personnel. We want as many people as possible enjoying station cricket once again at either our club nets, Mondays 1700-1900 in the Station Gym, or by playing fellow military units. The aim is to ram in as much cricket as we can this summer to

A defeat in our first game of the season against Benson, but plenty of positives to take. Singh with the bat, Moverley with the ball, a debut and a couple of reintroductions to cricket.

Plenty of positives to take indeed, we came up against a strong Benson side who have been playing on a weekly basis for the last few years and, bar one standout performance, we weren’t far off them at all which is credit to the work we’ve put in in the nets so far. On another day it could very easily have swung the other way. The biggest positive by far is RAF Odiham playing station cricket once again and we will continue to build over a busy summer towards a weekly league side of our own. We also had some standout performances as you mentioned, MoM for ourselves was undoubtedly WO2 Adarsh “Ash” Singh who was not only our saviour with the bat scoring 49 but also extremely unfortunate with the ball, seeing their star bat dropped off his bowling on numerous occasions. SAC(T) Josh “Moves” Moverley had an outstanding day with the ball achieving figures of 4-24 off his four overs and LAC Flo Collyer-Powell’s hard work in the nets paid off, playing her first competitive game after only taking up the sport in the past couple of months and showing great potential. We continue to go from strength to strength as a club and are always welcome to new faces at nets on a Monday night. If you are interested in getting involved, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, all abilities welcome!

Odiham take third place after Brize and Northolt

RAF Odiham finished their Winter Cross Country League campaign in 3rd place overall, despite outscoring winners Brize Norton in the overall points tally. Strong showings from Rob Wood, Luke Williams and Jack Sullivan amongst others earned the Men 2nd in their category, less than 50 points behind Brize.

Race 1, 13/10/21, Odiham:

Odiham put on a show as they hosted the first week of the Winter League, finishing top just eight points above Northolt. Luke Williams and Gareth Jones finished 3rd and 6th overall to earn 293 points between them, 38 seconds apart either side of 37 minutes. Meanwhile, Alicia Lewis earned the Ladies’ best result of the season as she earned 143 points, which proved to be vital in that week’s standings.

Race 2, 10/11/21, Corsham:

Williams pipped teammate Rob Wood to 4th by a single second just over the 36 minute mark, another 293 for Odiham. Henry James took 9th and, at this point, sat 4th in the overall Men’s Leaderboard. Williams, however, sat on top with 295, as the men won their category for the second and final team in the season.

Race 3, 24/11/21, Benson:

A short trip to Benson saw Wood take 5th spot in the individual rankings, but this wasn’t enough to stop Brize pipping the week. Luke Williams held onto top spot by a point at Brize in week 4, but he was absent in Week 5 when the big boys themselves swept up the top four spots and put themselves top overall. Meanwhile, Northolt had leapfrogged Odiham in the Men’s Standings.

Race 6, 27/01/22, Halton:

Another strong Brize performance at the RAF Champs saw them go top of the Men’s table, however Wood finished runner-up 29 seconds behind to put him into the top six in the Men’s Individuals, just ahead of Williams. Wood’s 149 points was Odiham’s best individual score of the season.

Williams and Jack Savage finished in the top ten in Week 7 at Boscombe Down, while Wood’s 145 points in the IS race would have seen him join them.

Race 8, 02/03/22, High Wycombe:

Jamie Arkle got round High Wycombe in 36:06 to finish 6th, while Wood and Williams had worked their way back to 4th and 6th in the Mens’ Leaderboard. Also, after three weeks in 5th in the Combined standings, Odiham jumped up to 4th.

Race 9, Chicksands:

Jack Savage, Dan King and Liam

Sullivan were in the top 12 in the final Cross Country race of the winter season.

Race 10 was four-leg relay which goes towards the team totals, where Odiham finished just five points behind Northolt.

This brought Odiham into 3rd place in the Unit Combined

Total positions, won of course by Brize Norton who passed the 1000-point mark in six of the ten events. Odiham had a better total score than Brize in the Men’s category, but of course these standings are decided on the Best 7 score. Northolt had the highest total Men’s score overall but finished 3rd.

Liam Sullivan was Odiham’s highest-placed individual, finishing 9th with a Best 7 score of 794. Liam’s total score was higher than four of the runners above him and only 24 behind winner Alex Gibb of Brize.

Other Odiham runners in the final top 20 include Wood, Williams, Savage and Ed Horsman.

Despite Brize’s Chloe Richardson amassing the highest individual tally of 900 points, it was High Wycombe who won the Ladies’ category. Joanne Johnson was instrumental in the achievement, only 11 behind Richardson herself.