Oxford had to put out a very youthful Cadet side for the final series of NCL (S) matches, played at Cippenham on Sunday, March 17th. Reece Chamdal (just 11) made his debut, teaming up with Josh Selby (11) and Kavan Warrender (14), facing up to the tough task of trying to hang on to 2nd place in Division 1.
Reece, thrown right in at the deep end, amazingly won his first four matches, coming back from 0-2 down to beat Chris Johnson 11-4 in the 5th, a superlative effort, which gave us a 4-2 victory over Reading B. Next up were Spinners B, who had topped Div 2 and gained promotion, but were no match for our trio, going down 1-5. These wins were enough to guarantee us a top-three finish, but the dream ended there, as in the next matches the two top teams were far too strong.
Crusaders winning 5-1 to claim 2nd place, and runaway leaders Reading A beating us 6-0.
Nevertheless, Kavan kept on fighting and gave Reading no 1, Leo Long, a good game, losing 7-11 in the 5th, while Reece (Cadet ranking 827) beat Richard Pelc (Crusaders, Cadet ranking 115) 11-9 in the 5th, a truly astounding result.
John Birkin (City Team Manager)