If anyone had said to me in May we would play some Men’s County Cricket I would have laughed.

Following the cancellation of the NCCA programme for the 2020 season, I wanted to try and get some fixtures organised to keep the momentum going from our successful 2019 campaign and give the Captain and Coaches the chance to look at the players coming through to the squad.

We managed to get 6 days of Cricket from the beginning of August, with us winning 6 out of the 7 matches. Between Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire we initiated the Nurton York Cup, which will now be played annually, in order to generate some competitive cricket in a friendly environment (Oxfordshire being the first Winners of the inaugural Cup). We beat Herefordshire in a 50 over match, and shared the spoils in a T20 day with the Free Foresters. In our final match we had Berkshire 9 wickets down needing over 50 to win before the rain came at Falkland CC last weekend.

A real positive truncated summer for us all. Highlights for me obviously James Coles having played in earlier games scoring heavily and went on to making his first class debut for Sussex. We used a total of 19 players, and our availability was excellent throughout. We also saw the return of Jack Brooks for the Bucks T20 day and his presence and professional approach clearly rubbed off on our younger boys winning both games on the day.

I would like to thank the Captain Jonny Cater, Coaches Rupert Evans and Paul White for their tireless efforts getting the teams together. Finally a big thank you to all those at Banbury CC, Abingdon CC and Aston Rowant CC for the use of their grounds and for the support they gave me in managing the COVID-19 processes.

John Finch
NCCA Chairman
Oxfordshire Cricket