The Club was saddened to learn of the death in December of long-serving Thursday XI captain and supporter, Eric Neale, at the age of 96.
Eric ran and captained the North Oxford CC Thursday XI side for many years, and took over the reins of the BNOCC Thursday XI following the merger of Bicester Town and North Oxford. Eric ran and captained the BNOCC Thursday XI with great success until his 80th birthday when he retired, after which he remained an active supporter and fixture secretary for the side.
Three of Eric’s friends and former team-mates share their memories of Eric below.
The Club extends its sympathies to Eric’s family.
From Len Payne
“Eric was one of the nicest people I have ever met; always polite, courteous and friendly. His organisation was efficient and friendly, ably assisted by his wife Doris who remarked how she had spent a full season jointly providing teas for the team in a time where we still had a full Thursday fixture list. Considering that was nearly 20 years ago it shows the mutual affection and enjoyment they gave to all aspects of the game.”
“Eric’s approach to social cricket was to first of all make sure that all the team had a part to play in the game, and secondly to win with good grace, and he rarely made a mistake. It was a considerable privilege to know him and play with him.”
From Peter Fenn
“Eric was held in great affection by those of us who enjoyed Thursday XI cricket under his direction. Always quiet and unassuming, his thoughts were always for his fellow cricketers and the game itself, and I recall from many a Thursday XI match that, although he might not have played what could be called an active part in the game, it was obvious that the pleasure he gained from it stemmed from the enjoyment it gave others.”
“Ever unassuming, Eric was a gentleman both on and off the field; it was a privilege to have known him.”
From Phil Mist
“When Bob and I agreed to amalgamate BTCC and North Oxford CC and form BNOCC, obviously many of our discussions centred around the perennial question which faces all volunteer led organisations: ‘Who does what’.”
“Being a cricket club, of course the decisions as to who ran each side and who was to be Captain was at the head of the list – Saturday and Sunday fixtures obviously caused some contentious issues, however Thursdays were never a problem. Eric simply told me he would handle Thursdays so I was able to I sit back and let him get on with it. He ran the side brilliantly – there were never any problems and everyone who played for Eric on a Thursday seemed to delight in the occasion.”
“Eric was a true gentleman a trait which is not often in evidence in today’s game. I was raised in senior cricket a very long time ago when the game was played by a large number of gentlemen and Eric was one of the few that remained in the game until his retirement some years ago. It was a pleasure to have known him – he did the newly formed Club a great service for many years, and he made my tenure as the new Club’s first Chairman much easier than it could have been.”
Congratulations to BNOCC Under 15 and 1st XI player, Jack Hobbs, who topped the batting averages out of several county U14 sides for Northamptonshire CCC in the ECB league.
Jack also collected 5 wickets in a fixture against the MCC.
Congratulations to BNOCC youth player Charlotte Hayes, 14, who is a member of the Oxfordshire Girls U15 side which reached the national finals of the Royal London County Cup.
After a narrow loss by just 2 runs in the semi-final against first-class giants Yorkshire, Oxfordshire bounced back to take third-place following victory over Kent.
Well done Charlotte from everyone at BNOCC.
On Sunday, 17th May 2015 there will be a gathering at the Club commencing at 3.00 p.m. to celebrate the life of BNOCC President, Peter Goss. It is very much hoped BNOCC members and friends can attend to join with Peter’s family, acquaintances and friends as they remember him.
After consultation with Peter’s family it has been decided that the occasion will not be overly formal. It is hoped that several tributes will be given (by BNOCC, Bicester Sports Association and Peter’s family), followed by a traditional cricket tea with time to reminisce and remember Peter. The afternoon will most probably end somewhere around 6.00 p.m.
Could you please let Wes Kernaghan know if you will be attending, as this will help with providing numbers to the caterer.
The funeral of BNOCC President Peter Goss will be held at 2pm on Tuesday 7 October at St Edburgh’s Church, Bicester.
Peter passed away peacefully at home on Thursday 18th September 2014 aged 72 years.
He will be greatly missed by all those who have known Peter through his decades of dedication to cricket in Bicester and Oxfordshire.
It is with great sadness that the club passes on news of the sudden death of Mike Lambourne on 18 January 2014 at the age of 68.
Mike was a loyal member of the club over many decades, as player, umpire, life member and latterly as a groundsman. Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Sally, daugher Emma, mother Joan and all his family.
A private family funeral will be held on 4 February. A memorial will be held on Tuesday 11 February at BNOCC at 11.30am to which all Mike’s friends are invited.
Any donations given in Mike’s memory will be divided between the Blue Cross and BNOCC. Cheques may be made payable to D L Hancock Ltd Charity Account. c/o D L Hancock Ltd Funeral Directors, Chapel Hse, 13 North St, Bicester, OX26 6NA. 01869 244200
BNOCC club stats and scorecards back to 1996 are at bno.play-cricket.com. Play-cricket.com are doing a major overhaul of their website which means that some of the functionality isn’t available over the next few weeks/months. It also means that the links from this website (www.bnocc.com) to our stats and scorecards are not available. We’ll rectify this over the winter as play-cricket.com complete their upgrades.
The 2013 League averages for all three of our senior sides can be viewed below. There was some good performances across all three teams, which we will look at taking into 2014.
Batting
| Name | Matches | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 50s | 100s |
| Richard Simpson | 16 | 15 | 1 | 366 | 58 | 26.14 | 2 | |
| Daniel Murphy | 13 | 12 | 0 | 269 | 73 | 22.42 | 2 | |
| Ryan Moore | 18 | 15 | 1 | 236 | 41 | 16.86 | ||
| Jonathan Pilgrim | 11 | 10 | 2 | 228 | 44 | 28.50 | ||
| Michael Simpson | 12 | 11 | 0 | 227 | 64 | 20.64 | 2 | |
| Matthew Collins | 14 | 12 | 0 | 212 | 55 | 17.67 | 1 | |
| Nick Moorman | 17 | 15 | 1 | 176 | 54 | 12.57 | 1 | |
| Rob Humphreys | 11 | 10 | 1 | 167 | 71 | 18.56 | 1 | |
| Graham Savin | 3 | 3 | 0 | 122 | 62 | 40.67 | 1 | |
| Shahin Ali | 14 | 12 | 3 | 104 | 23* | 11.56 | ||
| Stephen Conway | 11 | 9 | 2 | 52 | 15 | 7.43 | ||
| Kevin Hicks | 3 | 2 | 0 | 46 | 41 | 23.00 | ||
| Daniel Savin | 9 | 7 | 4 | 43 | 12 | 14.33 | ||
| Daniel Clark | 13 | 10 | 5 | 42 | 10* | 8.40 | ||
| Megan Burton | 7 | 5 | 2 | 31 | 14* | 10.33 | ||
| Haris Naeem | 3 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 23 | 12.00 | ||
| George Jeacock | 2 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 17.00 | ||
| Marcus Mears | 3 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 15 | 7.5 | ||
| Kishan Dave | 2 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 10 | 6.00 | ||
| Iain Horner | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 9.00 | ||
| Callum Doak | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 7.00 | ||
| David Clark | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 7.00 | ||
| Benaka Karanth | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2.00 | ||
| Freddie Burton | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2.00 | ||
| Cameron Hill | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
| Josh Dewar | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
| Oscar Kernaghan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0* | – | ||
| Sam Townsend | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | ||
| Ben Clark | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0* | – |
Bowling
| Name | Overs | M | R | W | Ave | BB | 5W | Econ | S-R |
| Richard Simpson | 142.4 | 21 | 585 | 27 | 21.67 | 6/55 | 1 | 4.10 | 31.69 |
| Michael Simpson | 90 | 7 | 333 | 18 | 18.50 | 4/51 | 3.70 | 30.00 | |
| Shahin Ali | 158.5 | 24 | 524 | 17 | 30.82 | 5/31 | 1 | 3.30 | 56.05 |
| Daniel Clark | 60.3 | 3 | 295 | 10 | 29.50 | 3/64 | 4.88 | 36.30 | |
| Ryan Moore | 90 | 6 | 405 | 8 | 50.63 | 2/33 | 4.50 | 67.50 | |
| Stephen Conway | 52 | 11 | 206 | 6 | 34.33 | 3/45 | 3.96 | 52.00 | |
| Ben Clark | 15 | 4 | 57 | 4 | 14.25 | 2/18 | 3.80 | 22.50 | |
| Daniel Savin | 32.3 | 1 | 141 | 4 | 35.25 | 2/30 | 4.34 | 48.75 | |
| Kishan Dave | 15 | 4 | 58 | 2 | 29.00 | 1/25 | 3.87 | 45.00 | |
| George Jeacock | 6 | 2 | 30 | 1 | 30.00 | 1/30 | 5.00 | 36.00 | |
| Graham Savin | 3 | 1 | 9 | 0 | – | 0/9 | 3.00 | – | |
| Jonathan Pilgrim | 7 | 0 | 15 | 0 | – | 0/9 | 3.57 | – | |
| David Clark | 6 | 2 | 12 | 0 | – | 0/12 | 2.00 | – |
The grand opening of Neil Harris’ recently refurbished score hut took place today.
The new roof, hatch and door sign are all in place with just the external paintwork to finish.
All three senior sides find themselves well-placed in their respective divisions as we reach the half way point of the Cherwell League season tomorrow.
Wins against Challow & Childrey, Bledlow Village and Minster Lovell saw our 1st XI leap-frog Cropredy in to 1st place in Division 2.
An unbeaten four-match spell for the 2nd XI saw them climb to 2nd in Division 7, with a winning draw over promotion rivals Minster Lovell – thanks to an unbeaten 101 from Nick Moorman (pictured) – sealing a successful month for the side.
The 3rd XI sit 3rd in Division 10 after a mixed month, but are within touching distance of the coveted top two spots.
All three sides have the chance to enhance their promotion hopes this weekend, with the 1st XI hosting Cropredy, the 2nd XI travelling to 3rd placed East Oxford, and the 3rd XI taking on Division 10 leaders Chearsley.