27/05/2026
The OCC lads managed to dust off the cobwebs over Easter when our friends from Oxfordshire, Middleton Stoney Cricket Club visited Malta for a 2 match tour at Marsa Sports Club . The visitors were looking to get one over the OCC, after we had beaten them on our 2025 UK tour in a tightly contested match.
After a week of heavy rain, Middleton Stoney won the toss on sunny Saturday morning and opted to bowl first, hoping the wet and heavy outfield would dry up by the afternoon, making it easier for their batsmen in this 40 over match. The OCC batting order was an experimental one and this showed with the team losing wickets at regular intervals, many of the batsmen caught in a T10/T20 mindset and not applying themselves to the longer format.
Ultimately a 55-run 11th wicket partnership between Nihal Moidu and David Millard (who claims he ran 5km in 2โs), helped OCC post a defendable total of 159/10 in 30.5 overs, with Moidu top scoring with 46 runs.
The visitors got off to a slow start, with disciplined bowling and fielding, restricting them to only 22 runs in the first 10 overs. The pressure eventually told in the 15th over, when with the last ball before drinks, Heinrich Gericke dismissed their captain Tim Riley, with Adrian Craig taking a good catch at backward point, leaving the tourists taking drinks on 34/1. After drinks, the visitors began to accelerate, with Matt Bazeley hitting some lovely boundaries and all of a sudden the score was 90/2 after 22 overs. Gericke then gave a signal and a word in Afrikaans to Christo Viljoen at square leg and the next ball saw Bazeley out, caught Viljoen, bowled Gericke.
James Hurley and Amulya Ratan helped apply more pressure on the middle order, bowling tight lines, both taking a couple of wickets. Despite a wag from the tail, which lead to a nervous last few overs, the visitors were bowled out for 151 in 38 overs, OCC winning a nail-biter by 8 runs.
A wonderful dayโs cricket was closed off with both teams enjoying some well deserved beers at KULU at 'the Marsa' , the tourists enjoying the Maltese sunshine and good weather they had brought with them (we think) after what was an unusually cold start to the Maltese spring!