A screen shot of the Oxford Mail report reproduced here tells how Lee Mason recorded stunning figures of 9-20 to send Shipton crashing to 37 all out in reply to Horspath's 175-7. Making the most of favourable overcast conditions on that mid-May afternoon, Lee swung the ball both ways to take the first six wickets, before Will Eason interrupted his one-man demolition job.
At one time, Lee had the astonishing figures of 8-5 as Shipton slumped to 21-9. The report continued to relate how he saw two deliveries result in five wides and he bowled two more wides, before polishing the innings off inside 22 overs. Not surprisingly, his figures are the best by a Horspath bowler in the Cherwell League, and at the time they were the third best in the competition's history, only beaten by two ten-wicket hauls. Seven years on, they stand eighth in the league's record books.
Captain Adam Krol was still eulogizing about Lee's display at the league presentation evening five months later when Horspath were crowned champions, saying: "His performance at Shipton, getting 9-20, was as good as I have seen."
Looking back, Lee admits he went into the game with no great expectations as he was only just starting the campaign. "I am pretty sure it was the second game of the season," he says. "I think I had missed the first game and I remember I was not even sure if I would get picked. I think Pat (Foster) had joined us maybe the season before and we had a very good team.
"I was not sure if I would open the bowling because we had Pat, Will and Mossy (Mohson Rana) if I remember rightly, and I was probably not very fit either having not done pre-season by that stage of the season. We had a reasonable score, but not one that you would be all that confident about and as ever at that stage of my career I was not sure what would happen with my body especially as it was my first game of the season.
"But it swung a lot from the off. I don't remember it doing for them. It was just one of those days with the mystery of swing - one day it swings more than others. I guess the ball and the conditions would have helped.
"They had some good players with Holey (Simon Hole) and the left-hander Jason Hunt. They were both lbw and complained about it. I heard Holey was still complaining about it weeks later, but I remember it very different to him. He had been coming down the wicket as it was swinging, which was the right thing to do, but this time it just missed his front pad and hit the back pad right in front of the stumps. To me it was plumb.
"I remember the left-hander complained all the way off, saying how could it be out as I was swinging it away, and Wyndy (Andy Wynd) said I also swing it the other way - and that was that one!' I have seen I had 8-5 at one stage and Wyndy spoiled my figures. When I got a bit tired I bowled a couple down the legside and I remember vividly Wyndy waving them away rather than trying to stop it. He waved two down the legside and one went for five wides and knocked my figures. I have given him abuse about that ever since!
"They are my best figures. I did have nine up north (for Leycett in the North Staffordshire & South Cheshire League) when I was a pro. That was more the pitch. This was a decent pitch. It was just a swinging day. People have said to me they must have been rubbish opposition, but I think they finished second in the league. They were a decent side."
The figures helped Lee top the league's averages that season with his 39 wickets coming at a cost of 11.89 each. And he revealed that his success that campaign came after he took on board advice from three wise old heads following a chat in the clubroom. "I had been talking to Max (Eason), Hammy (Gordon Hamilton) and Ricksy (Clive Ricks)," he says. "The previous season I thought I had bowled really well and I was reflecting at the end of the season why I had not taken many wickets.
"I was beating the bat and bowling less swing and more seam from back of a length and not going for many runs, but not taking many wickets. They told me to pitch it up a little bit and go back to the swing a little bit and that is what I did. In that season I mixed up swing and seam bowling, by seaming it away and rediscovered swing."
However, the 2013 season, which saw Horspath do the double by winning the Bernard Tollett Oxfordshire Cup, proved to be his last after injury brought a premature end to his career. He says: "I probably bowled the best I ever did that season. In the last game I tore a cartilage in my knee. I played the day after in the Bernard Tollett Cup final and that turned out to be my last game. I had various knee ops, but as the missus said it was good to go out at the top. I finished altogether. I had just turned 40 and I was bowling probably as well as I had ever done, so now I play golf."
Posted by: Russ