Thame Town Cricket Club have appointed young Australian cricketer Jarryd McPhee as their player/coach for this season, and he has already made his mark in the club’s good start to 2015, taking wickets and scoring vital runs in their latest win away at Leighton Buzzard.
Jarryd hails from Perth, Western Australia, and has represented his state in U19 matches, where his career highlight was 5-35 against Victoria. He is a more than useful batsman, and a fully-qualified Cricket Australia coach.
He will be at the clubhouse on Saturday evening to meet junior players and parents.
Thame maintained their excellent start to the season with a nail-biting two-wicket win at Leighton Buzzard.
The home side elected to bat first and started quickly, racing to 60 off 12 overs.
However, tight spells from Sam Lachlan and Mike Higgs put the visitors back in control and at the halfway point Buzzard were 90-2 before Phil Watmore’s 52 helped steer them to 194-9 off 53 overs.
Thame’s Hassam Mushtaq finished with figures of 4-56.
In reply, the in-form Will Sutcliffe smashed 60 off 40 balls to get Thame to 77 off 11 overs for the loss of no wicket. However, Buzzard’s veteran bowler Lee Selfe then took 5-45, leaving Thame precariously placed on 120-6 before Honey Garg (35) and debutant Jarryd McPhee (35no) saw Thame to victory with nine balls and two wickets to spare.
Lying second in Cherwell League Division One, Thame entertain Cumnor at Church Meadow this Saturday.
Thame IIs, meanwhile, hit 167 off 50.2 overs with Ali Thomas scoring 50, Adam Phippen 33 and Andy Jinman 26.
Horspath managed to overhaul this total for the loss of five wickets, with Ali Thomas taking 4-51 from 15
The IIIs had a free weekend as Bledlow Village have disbanded their third team.
