29/08/2026
Winsley CC vs Ram Exiles CC – Match Report
Wednesday 19th August 2026
By Simon Cooper
Scorecard: https://ramexiles.play-cricket.com/website/results/7622259
On a perfect English evening at the beautiful hilltop Winsley Cricket Club ground, overlooking the White Horse and sporting one of the very few green squares outside Lords, the Oval, Headingley, Old Trafford, Edgbaston and a few Premier League pitches, the Rams took on a team spanning at least seven decades in age range.
Winsley started the batting against the fearsome Rams attack bowling led by Neil and Aaron. In the second over Aaron took a wicket with his first ball. Facing the attack from the other end was a member of the Zimbabwe Women’s Team, Mo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modester_Mupachikwa), who guided the ball deftly through the slips, third man, cover, square, mid-wicket and pretty much all other points despite being of small stature. She was joined at the wicket by Tebb and the two built up a 50-run partnership. In the meantime Paul and Dave took up bowling honours, Paul eventually taking the wicket of Tebb with a wicket maiden. Ed and Simon then kept the run rate reasonably slow followed by Chris and Harry; Harry swapping the wicket keeping gloves with Chris, and Neil returning to the attack for the last over.
133 to catch. Rams to bat. Winsley then put on a fly past for their visitors, an Airbus A400M Atlas, a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed by Airbus Military, now Airbus Defence and Space, flying low over the pitch (technical details supplied by our umpire Pete the Pilot). As the sun started to fade and the light was disappearing over the horizon Ed and Rupert strode purposefully to the wicket and started to set about their bowlers led by Oliver, Vin, Ellie and Clive who put in four overs a piece; well Ed started setting about their bowlers but Rupert maintained a Boycottesque anchor role. Ed motored to a magnificent 49 before retiring and handing over to Dave who immediately requested the sightscreen be moved slightly to the right for his oncoming cover drives. At the other end Rupert maintained a staunch defence of his wicket. In the footsteps of Ed, Dave crashed the ball to the boundary reaching 30 and retiring. Harry then marched to the wicket with more than half a dozen overs remaining and only a little over 30 runs to win. Rupert meanwhile staunchly defended his wicket. With three overs remaining, Rams galloped to a comfortable victory. Meanwhile Rupert maintained a staunch defence of his wicket.
Photo credit: Paul Brophy
