Athens & Sparta. Wylder & Fury. Tom & Jerry. Many such famous rivalries paled in comparison to this hotly anticipated local derby when the Oxford U11 Yellows took on Wolvercote U11s in their away fixture at Cutteslowe Park. This was a game that both sides were eagerly looking forward to, as the Yellows had lost the first match of the league to the same team by the barest of margins, a mere one run, in a tantalising nail biting chase that set the tone for this reverse match up.

As the glorious sun shone on the immaculately lush Cutteslowe greens on Sunday morning at 0930 hrs, the parents arrived at the parking to pleasantly discover that the cricket pitch was quite literally "at" the parking, unlike the Saturday Summertown Stars Football experience where many have now become used to expertly circumventing noisy seagulls, sweaty runners, excitable pets and the occasional diesel locomotive to traverse a couple of miles into the interiors of Cutteslowe Park, only to finally unearth that the football pitch one is looking for is almost always located at the opposite end of whichever entrance one used to enter the park on the given day.

Getting back to the match report- Upon discovering one of most crucial lessons in life at the toss that “Tails never fails”, the Yellows captain, Timmy, donned the gloves and set the momentum for the game with an attacking 6-3 field intended to make the opposition work hard for their runs. The opening bowling pair was up for the task, with Dev and Troy setting the standard up top with a fine swing bowling spell of 4 overs, giving away just 13 runs, and Troy snapping up the first wicket with a searing yorker that clattered the stumps! Next up were Arthur and William who tightened the squeeze further with impressive line and length as Arthur made his Yellows bowling debut with a wicket maiden and both new bowlers making run making increasingly difficult for the Wolvercote batters.

The first half of the first innings was dominated by Oxford with the opposition score at 24/2, aided by some athletic fielding in the inner circle, particularly by Leo and Shaun who were quick to cut down any threat of quick singles and some high class out-fielding, eye catching dives and throws back atop the stumps by Rocket Arm, Hector, all backed up brilliantly by rest of the Yellows. This period of play of could well have yielded another couple of wickets for the Yellows with the wonders of DRS machine technology combined with more unforgiving, human umpiring!

Wolvercote batted out the middle overs in a risk averse fashion as Shaun and Prithvi completed their metronomic spell, restricting the batters from going big early, with the scoring rate still within check at 41/2 off 12 overs. And finally, Hugo and Lincoln closed out the slog overs very calmly, hitting that crucial back of the length spot with impressive accuracy despite the opposition batters threatening to break loose by chancing their arm with some uppish horizontal bat shots. Hugo deservedly finished the innings with a wicket off the last ball as Wolvercote closed out their innings at 69 runs, setting one of those tricky targets for the Yellows that necessitated an equal mix of caution and aggression to see through the chase.

The Yellows started their innings with the required degree of caution as the Wolvercote opening bowlers quickly settled into a clockwork rhythm, bowling stump to stump, not giving any width or length at all for the Yellows batters to work with. The first five overs saw the Yellows lose two wickets for 14 runs and the game situation needed some stability and Lincoln put up an impressive rear guard action with some sound defensive technique to stem the fall of wickets, in partnership, first with Troy and then Hugo, to get the team to 30-4 off 8 overs.

40 runs were now needed off 7 overs and the Wolvercote team were well and truly on top of the proceedings with two new batters, left hand-right hand combination of Prithvi and Dev in the middle. Probably unaware of the recently hyped term in English cricketing circles, Baz Ball, the two batters nevertheless embarked on an exhibition of counterattacking style of cricket the term denotes, as Prithvi put the pressure back on the opposition taking 15 runs off the 9th over with a couple of wristy boundaries to the fence towards long off and mid-wicket, and Dev rotating the strike running hard between the wickets. Soon, the partnership had crossed 20 runs with the scoring rate now back in Oxford’s favour at 50-4 in 10 overs, with Wolvercote now needing a couple of quick wickets to get back into the game.

Sure enough, staying true to the script of the now routine Oxford-Wolvercote potboilers, the Wolvercote bowlers broke through a couple of times, with the score delicately poised at 60-7, leaving Timmy holding up one end responsibly as the captain and William walking on to the crease with wicket pressure on! Given 4.2 overs were remaining, the players, spectators (and the coaches/umpires!) were hoping for a rather conservative canter to the finish line from the Yellows but William did not entertain any such ideas. Two hard hitting boundaries were summoned with flourish down the ground and to the cow corner and the game was all but over with 2 runs now needed off the last 4 overs.

The winning runs were fittingly scored by the captain, with Timmy crunching a pull shot towards the square leg as the Yellows rejoiced in a win that was hard fought and well earned in the end. The game was played in brilliant spirit by both teams and the on-field behaviour from the Yellows was as impressive as the collective team performance during the game, which stood out once again as a mighty fine advertisement of the cricketing culture the club is proud to endorse!