The 2023 cricket season began with a win and a defeat for our two league sides at the end of a taxing week for club administrators.
Selection discussions were still being held on Saturday morning as Dorchester struggled to put out two complete sides.
In the end, the firsts took 10 men to Wantage while the seconds hosted Abingdon Vale thirds with just nine players - but both teams mustered valiant displays.
The first team travelled to Wantage knowing exactly what to expect from the opposition. We enjoy the perfect cricketing relationship with our hosts - fiercely competitive on the pitch, firmly friendly at the bar.
The outfield was damp and the wicket relatively green, so it was no surprise that on winning the toss Wantage put Dorchester into bat.
Like a Monday morning at a solicitor's office, Wantage started with two Wills - Bury and Harvey, both takers of plenty of Dorchester wickets in years gone by.
After a tight over from each end, batsman Steve McComb's eyes lit up at the sight of a tempting full toss on his legs from Harvey.
He connected perfectly and swung the ball away towards the very short fine-leg boundary, only to find the safe hands of Bury who took a smart catch.
Catches, they say, win matches. And it was a good start from the hosts, but they would go on to drop 10 further chances from Dorchester batters - a stat that probably proved crucial.
Making his step up to the first team after a decade of injury woes, James Rockall came in at number three and instantly began deftly playing the ball later than a Thames Travel bus to carve out runs through third man.
He went on to make a cracking 41 but, visibly tiring, was dismissed first ball after the drinks break thanks to a very good catch from veteran Timothy Weekes at gulley.
At that point Dorchester were 67/3 in the 24th over, but the run rate was about to acclerate.
Dan Houseman - the most valuable player on our in-house fantasy cricket game - did what he does best. No, not pretend to support Wycombe Wanderers. He bludgeoned a load of runs.
Hitting the ball harder than anyone had managed up until that point, The House tonked nine fours in 76 balls and finished on an unbeaten 79.
He was well supported by Adrian Redhead (20) and cameos from Aiden Pugh and Keir Walker, but Wantage will have rued their dropped catches as Dorchester finished on 191/6 from their allotted 45 overs.
The 10-man visitors took to the field knowing they'd have to bowl well to strangle Wantage's talented batting line up.
Opening bowlers James Neal and Thom Airs kept things pretty tight, but Dorchester needed a breakthrough - and they got two in two balls when McComb replaced Neal.
A smart catch behind from the excellent Keir Walker was followed next ball by the sight of ball displacing bails. Wantage were 45/2 in the 13th over.
From then on, however, the game moved firmly in Wantage's favour.
Dave Spencer, so often a thorn in Dorch sides, smashed 34 in 35 balls including two big sixes to move the game seemingly out of the vistors' grasp.
Like Rockall before him, however, Spencer fell to the first ball after the drinks break (£12.5m man Houseman clean bowling him), but Wantage were 106/3 after 23.1 overs, needing just 86 to win in 131 balls.
The required run rate diminished even further after number five John Chitty went bang, bang, bang with a trio of huge maximums, while opener Colin Mercer continued serenely at the other end.
Wantage were cruising, but Dorchester would get their break - quite literally - in the 27th over.
Chitty, who showed awesome hitting power in his 13-ball 29, jammed down on an Aiden Pugh yorker and broke his bat.
Two balls later - after James Neal tried to offer him a broom as a replacement, "it hasn't got a middle but it's great at sweeping" - Chitty was out caught.
In the town of King Alfred's birth, it seemed there was some pretty Anglo-Saxon language as Chitty huffed to the dressing room. Perhaps he knew how pivotal his wicket would be.
And, incredibly, so it proved. An inspired Pugh (4-40) and Houseman (4-25) rattled through the still-dangerous Wantage lower order and took seven wickets for just six runs.
From 137/3 to 143 all out, depleted Dorchester had secured a fantastic win.