2025 Town vs Gown Matches

OUCC Men's and Women's Blues sides have just completed their annual Town vs Gown matches in a tradition extending back over 150 years. This year, these matches were played as T20s - acting as excellent preparation for the run-in to Lord's.

The men's side faced Oxford CC (a Home Counties Premier League side) on the Saturday in an early-morning T20 match. OUCC batted first and the innings was held together by an opening 55 from Henry Nicholls. In the latter stages of the innings, the impetus came from a stunning Saqlain Choudhary 60, reaching his 50 off just 20 balls. In reply to the University's 176, the Oxford CC side fell just short despite some strong lower-order hitting. The bowling effort for OUCC was led by Adam Hassan, Chris Carnegie and Saqlain Choudhary, picking up 4 wickets between them to lead OUCC to a narrow 3 run victory. Full match highlights can be found on the video below.

OUCC Women's Blues played the following day, again at the University Press ground. It is worth adding, that OUCC were without their county players, who were off representing Middlesex and Oxfordshire amongst others. Despite this, OUCC were able to field not one, but two, women's teams for the first time in our history (the women's second team playing Oxenford CC on the same day). This is testament to the incredible strength and depth of the women's section at OUCC.

The Town vs Gown rivalry was contested across 2 T20 matches. In the first T20, OUCC won the toss and elected to bat. A strong opening stand between Georgia Munro (70) and Hannah Sutton (47) took OUCC to a very respectable 151-3 off their 20 overs. In reply, the Oxford CC batting proved too strong - particularly when Stafanie Taylor (West Indies International and 2011 ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year) walked out to bat at number 4. Taylor's ball-striking unfortunately proved too much for the OUCC bowlers, but it was an excellent experience to get to play against a player of Taylor's calibre. Oxford CC cantered home to an 8-wicket victory.

In the second T20, OUCC bowled first and restricted Oxford CC to 110-6 off their 20 overs, largely due to the economical bowling of Bea Jones, Evie Mayhew and Hannah Sutton who shared 4 wickets between them. In reply, another excellent opening stand between two different openers, Jacqui Sanitt (42) and Annys Thirkell-Jones (26) was enough to see the University to a comfortable 6-wicket victory. Full match highlights for both of the two women's T20s can be found below.

Everyone at OUCC would like to thank Oxford CC for their excellent hospitality over the two days - we look forward to the fixtures next year.