“Groundhog Day at Pooley’s Well”

Match: 26 / 671

Lost by 5 wkts

Team	Total
Far From the MCC	130 - 7
C. Williams 21, R. Turner 18*
Wootton & Bladon CC	134 - 5
D. Shorten 2-14

Following The days of one-club footballers seems to be long gone. Even one club cricketers are rare in this age of endless franchise. However, as ever, The MAD seem to be bucking the trend, by being something of a rarity – a one-club cricket club. It seems that nowadays we only play one other club, West Bladon*, aka Wootton & Bladon, in Cassington.

The Cassington lot.

I went off on a bit of a jaunt in 2025, missing the entire season. The last game I played for The MAD was in late-August 2024, against this lot in Cassington. My previous game to that game was against this lot, in Cassington. Thus, it provoked a certain element of déjà vu when I learned my first game back would be against this lot, in Cassington.

This means I can probably consider myself a regular in the Red Lion, where we all met for our regular Sunday drink to find Russ had finally plugged into 25 years’ worth of data and was outlining his plans for batting if we won the toss.

This was the first time the pitch has been played on this year and on arrival the tractor roller was still in operation. The pitch looked surprisingly good, little rain recently leaving a drier looking track than the usual early season rolled snot.

Williams tonks one to leg.

Williams and Mead batted well and made a careful start (44-0) against a distinctly unbalanced attack posing rather differing challenges. At one end Nick Haywood, who is hitting the two-metre mark in height, at the other, Charvis, who doesn’t quite. It also became apparent after an over or two that one end (Charvis’ fortunately) popped, with the ball lifting sharply off a length occasionally. Matt (14) was victim of this, taking one in the grill that he was perfectly correct in playing forward to. Unsurprisingly unsettled, he was bowled next ball. Chris (26) followed shortly afterwards having played the shot of the day, driving a six over extra cover. John Harris (7) then got a gem from WB skipper, Gordon, which cut back sharply and bowled him.

Edwards (Charvis) and Nathan, ball to hand.

Paddy Mellor was a late replacement for Mike, who for some unfathomable reason wasn’t prepared to make a 15-hour round trip from Nottingham on the slim chance of ten minutes’ cricket. Paddy came in on the back of a series of some very consistent scores over the last few years. Today his first single prevented the occurrence of his (purported) sixth successive duck, almost to his own disappointment. It’s always nice to set a record here and there. For the record, whilst looking completely baffled he actually played Gordon, WB’s outstanding bowler on the day, as well as anyone.

Mellor plays with his tackle whilst Webster nurses his thigh.

Steve Poole was then brought on to bowl. Batting against Pooley is like throwing money into a wishing well and then listening for a splash. When no splash comes it is a natural instinct to lean over the edge of the well to see where your money has gone. At which point a metaphorical boxing glove punches you hard on the nose. Four of us – Paddy, myself, Spam and Dave – went fishing at Pooley’s well today, leaving us a rather wobbly 97-6.

Some good running and decent shots (one of which Gordon literally took on the chin, fortunately without hospitalisation) from Russ, Dave and Joe Nickel at the end just about dragged The MAD to respectability at 130-7 and the end of The MAD innings saw a nostalgic look back to the days of Geoffball as Russ carefully shepherded the innings to safe harbour with three successive dot balls.

Mr Poole, grenade to hand.

At the halfway stage it wasn’t clear whether The MAD total constituted a decent total or not, but it was rapidly made clear that one way or another the full 30 overs wouldn’t be required as after three overs the score stood at 24-2. Joe Nickel and Dave Shorten opened up, were each slapped for several boundaries, but each also picked up a wicket – Nickel putting paid to the dangerous Nick Hambridge. A little later an absolute champagne moment jaffa from Dave Shorten, which just flicked the top of off, saw him take a second wicket and leave the match fairly well balanced at 35-3.

However, WB then rode their luck and a mixture of good shots and rather fortuitous hoicks edges and bunts Ash Hambridge and Bob De Bono put on 58, before John Harris snaffled the resident local lateral thinker.

Rundle bowling, Jake tumbling, Ash batting and collecting his 50.

After running through Enstone the previous week, Psycho’s fortune ran out and while he beat the bat three times an over and only went for 15 runs his six over spell went wicketless. At the other end Matt Mead was slogged for a couple of boundaries before grabbing swift revenge and seeing Bowyer pouched off a skier at cover. The poacher in this instance being dressed in brown shoes blue jeans and a rather natty cardigan – Lucan had popped by to pick up some of those new-fangled spectator points and upon the broken Spam’s early demise, ended up also grabbing some catching points too. Annoyingly, in about half an hour he scored more individual points than most of The MAD players actually playing the full game. However, it wasn’t quite enough to prevent a WB win with 7 overs and 5 wickets to spare.

While I think The MAD could justifiably feel that luck hadn’t really swung our way, ultimately, the main difference on the day (give or take a few Pooley gifts) was Ash Hambridge’s patient batting and his 50 took the solid ones home. Additional credit to the Hambridge family should also go to Ash’s mum who once again provided a cracking tea. Also worth a mention was Jake who put in a very solid shift behind the stumps on a distinctly tricksy surface.

Looking ahead at the fixture list, it seems Spam has royally buggered it this year. We seem to be playing someone else, somewhere else next week. What about tradition?

* It seems that we have been mis-naming this team for years. Originally Wooton & Bladon, they abandoned the Wootton part years ago, changed the Wootton to West, then in a stroke of genius didn’t actually tell anyone.

’Brisket Envy’

*

Statto Scorecards

Far From the MCC versus Wootton & Bladon CC Played at Cassington, 3 May 2026 Far From the MCC won the toss and elected to bat Wootton & Bladon CC won by 5 wkts Far from the MCC debuts: n/a

26 / 671 30 over match

Team	Far From the MCC
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1	M. W. Mead	b Edwards	14	(40)	1	-	1-44
2	C. T. J. Williams	c Doggett b Gordon	21	(35)	3	1	2-46
3	J. Harris	b Gordon	7	(10)	-	-	3-55
4	J. vdG. Webster	b Poole	15	(18)	1	-	4-76
5	P. A. S. Mellor	b Poole	7	(27)	-	-	5-83
6	D. Shorten	c & b Poole	16	(18)	2	-	6-97
7	I. Howarth	c Edwards b Poole	11	(8)	2	-	7-118
8	R. P. Turner *	not out	18	(18)	2	-
9	J. E. Nickel	not out	6	(8)	-	-
10	M. S. Rundle
11	J. C. W. Hotson †
	Extras	NB3, W1, LB4, B7	15
	TOTAL	(for 7 wickets, 30 overs)	130

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	Econ
1	Edwards	6	1	28	1	4.67
2	Heywood	6	2	11	0	1.83
3	Gordon	6	2	20	2	3.33
4	Dale	6	0	29	0	4.83
5	Poole	6	0	31	4	5.17

Team	Wootton & Bladon CC
#	Batsman	How Out	Total	Balls	4s	6s	FOW
1	A. Hambridge	not out	55		6	-	1-13
2	T. Argenio	b Shorten	13		3	-	2-24
3	N. Hambridge	b Nickel	0		-	-	3-35
4	J. Floyd	b Shorten	1		-	-	4-93
5	D. De Bono	b Harris	21		1	-	5-106
6	J. J. Bouwer	c sub (Hadfield) b Mead	10		2	-
7	J. Barber	not out	13		2	-
8	N. Haywood
9	D. Gordon *
10	G. Doggett †
11	W. Dale
	Extras	NB3, W9, LB5, B4	21
	TOTAL	(for 5 wickets, 26.2 overs)	134

#	Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wkts	Econ
1	Nickel	6	0	40	1	6.67
2	Shorten	4	1	14	2	3.50
3	Rundle	6	1	15	0	2.50
4	Webster	3	0	17	0	5.67
5	Harris	4.2	0	21	1	4.85
6	Mead	3	0	22	1	7.33
Note: R. J. B. Hadfield was substitute fielder for I. Howarth (at drinks)
Note: S. Poole & S. Edwards fielded for Wootton & Bladon CC

MOTM: D. Shorten Champagne Moment: D. Shorten bowling Argenio Buffet Award: M. W. Mead’s chicken mayo sandwiches (various breads) MAD Moment: I. Howarth turning 1 into 3 whilst running back from gully with groin injury

Opposition: V025 / 045 Ground: G067 / 016 Captain: C024 / 118 Match No: OT / 050