“Now in its fourth year, the OP T20 cricket match against the College 1^st X1 has established itself as one of the highlights of Founder’s Day – and the 2010 game didn’t disappoint,” writes Alex Smith (95-02).

 

With the sun beating down on the Big Side pitch, an OP XI including six players who toured Barbados in 2000 won the toss and elected to bowl. After a nervous start, the youngsters soon had the old boys working hard around the field, testing the fitness of some of the older players on show. Tremendous slogging from Ben Tooze had the OPs worried at one point but despite some rather unorthodox fielding techniques we restricted the College to a very chaseable 140 after 20 overs.

 

Going in to bat the OPs recovered well from the early loss of opener Mark Metcalfe (xx-xx), with James Lewis (xx-xx) and Jack Parsons (xx-xx) forming a strong partnership at the crease. Parsons eased to his half-century in some style before getting out, leaving skipper James Allsop (xx-xx) and Chris Sutton (xx-xx) to lead the OPs to victory in a dramatic final over.

 

The OPs collected their trophy in front of a large and supportive crowd, many of whom enjoyed the refreshments kindly provided by the College. So, with the match yet again proving to be a great success, we look forward to another contest in 2011.”