It was the side's fourth successive title after topping Divisions 5, 4 and 3 in the three previous seasons, and took the club up to the top flight for the first time. The crown was secured on the back of a five-match winning streak at the end of the season capped by victory over Abingdon Vale at the Recreation Ground on the final day.
Going into the game, Horspath were in pole position, but knew any slip-ups could see them miss out on promotion with Oxford 2nd and Tiddington also in the mix, while Abingdon still had an outside chance of going up.
The win was far from straightforward, though, as the report from The Oxford Times - sponsors of the league at the time - reproduced here relates with the home side tumbling to 26-3, before Robbie Eason (71) and Ned Murray (58) shared a fourth-wicket stand of 137 to take Horspath to 180-6. Vale were 40-3 in reply when Dean Creed took centre stage to hit the headlines with 5-15 from a superb ten-over spell of pace bowling, which sent the visitors crashing to 95 all out.
Reflecting on the difficult times people are experiencing at the moment with the coronavirus pandemic, Dean says: "Firstly, I hope everyone is safe and well." And looking back on that title triumph, he adds: "We had gone through from Division 5 to 2 winning every league consecutively. Division 2 is a tricky league, though. If you have a bad season you can get stuck there for a couple of years with strong clubs coming down.
"Other clubs would then start thinking Horspath have found their level from the split (from Oxford), but to be put in Division 5 (by the Cherwell League following the demerger) was an absolute joke which we showed by winning all those games. To win Division 2 after winning the other three leagues was one of the most crucial for the club.
"I was thinking about the team. We had quite a strong squad of players throughout all of it. We were all good friends in that team as well on and off the pitch. We trained well together and played well together, and then had a drink afterwards."
That excellent team spirit was never better illustrated than by an amusing moment earlier in the season, which remained with the side for the rest of the campaign. It involved batsman Adam Pitt, who had come over from Tasmania to play for Horspath that season, with Dean making the journey Down Under two years later to play at his club Riverside.
Dean recalls: "In that year as well there was the joke about the spitfire. It was the reverse fixture when we played Abingdon earlier in the season and a spitfire came overhead and Ed Murray (then chairman) shouted over to Adam Pitt, who was psyching himself up to go out and bat! It was mentioned to Adam every time after that when he was getting ready to bat. The rest of the players will all know exactly about that."
It was also a memorable season in more ways than one for Dean as his five-wicket haul on the final day helped him top the Division 2 bowling averages with 35 wickets at an impressive 10.48. He was the spearhead of the Horspath attack with Ben Cook (21 wkts at 22.04), Will Eason (20 wkts at 16.95) and Mohson Rana (17 wkts at 29.29) also in the top 20. "I had quite a strong yorker and used to move it a bit, but not a lot," says Dean. "I used to try and hit the deck more than anything."
Robbie Eason, with 509 runs at an average of 50.9, Adam Pitt (376 at 34.18), Phil Chanel (298 at 29.8) and Ned Murray (251 at 31.77) were the mainstays of the batting.
Dean says: "Robbie is still the same now - pretty much a rock - and it was a privilege to win all those trophies and league titles with Ned Murray. We had come through the Horspath youth together and played county youth together. That was probably all down to Max (Eason) and Paul (Smith) bringing us through the youth set-up."
Missing from the team picture is captain Adrian Manger, who had led the side from their Division 5 days to the title four-timer. However, by the latter stages of the 2007 season he had settled more into a club captain's role and played for the 2nd XI in their four-wicket win at Tiddington 2nd on the final day to help out with availability issues. The second team, including Joey Todd, Matt O'Connor, Shabaz Alam, David Heritage, Chris Gray, Stuart Berry and James Whittenbury, who starred with 59 in that season-closing game, finished fourth in Division 6.
Posted by: Russ