By RICHARD TILLEY CHALLOW & Childrey CC have turned down the chance to host Oxfordshire's potential NatWest Trophy clash with Essex next season, writes Richard Tilley.

The club were offered the opportunity to stage the prospective third round tie, but they have decided against it because of concerns that they will not have the time to organise such a big match.

Oxfordshire are set to face Essex - whose star-studded line-up includes England captain Nasser Hussain - on June 21, but only if they win away to either Wales or Buckinghamshire in the second round on May 16.

Now Banbury have been offered the potential showpiece game, and have accepted.

Challow president Don Pert said that five weeks was not long enough to prepare for the visit of the first class county.

"If we knew now that we were definitely going to get the game, we would work our socks off for nine months, no question," Pert said. "But it is all uncertain because it depends on the county winning the round before, and they could well lose that game.

"There is so much to do. We would have to get a marquee for 250 NatWest guests, lay communication lines for the press and sort out the catering.

"We could make a lot of money from this - about £10,000 - and that is money that we could do with. But we could also end up losing a lot."

Challow were earmarked to stage last year's NatWest third round game against Gloucestershire, but that tie never materialised because Oxon lost in the first round to a Durham Board XI.

"We felt that a lot had to happen last year for us to have to put the third round on," Pert added.

"Also, Gloucestershire was not going to be quite so big a draw as Essex. But even then we discovered how much work was needed for that game and it opened our eyes a bit."

Oxfordshire have been given a bye in next season's first round because they reached the last eight of the ECB 38 County Competition.

Pert admitted that the issue had caused heated debate at the club. "The majority desperately wanted us to hold the tie - and I was one of them," he said. "But, unfortunately, common sense had to prevail."

Pete O'Neill, the secretary of the Oxfordshire Cricket Board's cricket committee, said he had sympathy for Challow's predicament.

"Five weeks is a very short time to be given for such a big undertaking," he said.

"I know that other Minor Counties are having misgivings about staging high-profile ties at short notice.

"There have even been meetings between NatWest and the ECB about having the first two rounds played the season before, so that clubs have the whole of the winter to prepare.

"We've offered the game to Banbury and they've accepted. Banbury have a bar steward and a catering man on site all the time, so they have the infrastructure.

"It is a real shame for Challow, because they have done so much for us over the years."

Story date: Thursday 16 December

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