The first of July saw Cambridge University Cricket Club (CUCC) face Oxford University Cricket Club (OUCC) at Lord’s in the one-day Varsity match. A rain-affected morning caused a delayed start and reduced the game to 40 overs per side. After captain J Abbott of CUCC won the toss, his men took the field.

The OUCC innings lacked momentum for the most part, with the stadium pressure very much apparent. Only one batsman, S Westaway, struck at more than a run-per-ball. With many batsmen making starts, including three ‘20s’ and a 32 from opener D Escott, CUCC were rarely put under much pressure in the field. A Dalgleish of CUCC bowled in a disciplined manner, earning him 2-25 from his 8 overs. Opening bowler C Emerton was expensive but took 3 wickets in his spell of bowling. However, extras were the second-highest contributor to OUCC runs totaling 28 – in a reduced-overs match this was poor from CUCC and allowed Oxford to reach a competitive total of 198-9.

The CUCC innings started slowly, with opener T Day dismissed cheaply in the 5th over; O Jones of OUCC was the main cause of this slow start, going for just 1.62 runs-per-over in the match. A partnership then developed between captain J Abbott [19] and A Dalgleish [77] which took CUCC to 2-48 when Abbott was dismissed by M Dawes. After this partnership, however, the Cambridge innings faulted. No batsman reached double figures from this point, and both O Jones and J Marsden of OUCC ended the game with 3 wickets. With 7 of the 9 boundaries in this innings coming from the blade of A Dalgleish, his intent was commendable and earned him man-of-the-match after his similarly impressive bowling performance in the first innings. Eventually CUCC were bowled out for 140 in 34.1 overs, falling well short of the 4.8 runs-per-over set by Oxford.

Perhaps a case of pressure; perhaps two sides of differing ability, but all credit goes to OUCC on this occasion. Next year will be another game.