An excellent cricket week saw the sun shine (almost) throughout, some good matches, four individual hundreds and more young players take part than ever before. Here are the reports of the seven matches which produced four wins, two losses and only the one draw
Old Malvernians 253 (Waters 4-51) lost to OCCC 254 for 4 (Jordan 91, Bedford 78*) by six wickets
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This game was notable for the first rain in a month. Rain is a little of an overstatement, but a few heavy drops accompanied by distant thunder sent the umpires scurrying for safety. The players remained in the middle and the umpires had to rapidly return. Malvernians recovered from 64 for 4 to reach 232 for 6 before Waters spun through the tail.
On a brown and fast outfield this was unlikely to be enough, and Will Jordan, in his one game of the year, played some lovely shots and appeared set for a hundred before he ran out of steam. Ed Tristem hit 34, including two massive sixes, before reverse sweeping into his middle stump, and then Lewis Bedford batted as if he had a colts session to go and coach (he did) hitting an unbeaten 78 in 40 minutes to end the game with 16 overs remaining.
OCCC 299 for 6 dec (Kent 100, Tristem 58, Hannah 41) beat Free Foresters 286 (Blain 91, Reingold 82, Horsey 4-55, Hannah 3-56) by 13 runs
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A cracking game which went down to the wire thanks to the Foresters chasing to the bitter end, a tactic which saw them come close to winning a game which at tea seemed dead and buried. Callum Kent’s 100 (106 balls, 122 minutes) and Ed Tristem’s brutal 58 formed the basis of our innings although Elliott Hannah (41), Sam Langmead (34) and Eds Copleston (32) provided good support.
A target of 300 looked impossible when Hannah took two wickets in his first over to reduce the Foresters to 11 for 3 which became 58 for 4 shortly before the interval. But the Foresters always bat deep and a Blain and Reingold savaged the bowling in a stand of 112 in 11 overs, and when Blain fell to a juggling catch by Kent , Reingold continued to flay all comers before he was superbly stumped down the leg side. At 235 for 8 that should have been that but Babbs and Saul got the Foresters to within touching distance with plenty of overs in hand before Horsey polished off the innings. There was earlier drama when Ed Henderson announced he was now a spinner; he bowled 6.1 overs for 56, his mauling ended by the umpire who banished him to the outfield after a second beamer. Back to the drawing board.
Grasshoppers 240 (Horsey 3-42) lost to OCCC 244 for 3 (Bugler 110*, Kent 63, Chase 43*) by seven wickets.
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Jack Horsey put the skids under ten-man Grasshoppers with three early wickets and it took a last-wicket stand of 65 to enable them to post a defendable target. The oddity of the innings (ever day has one) was 57-year-old Mike Chase deciding to field silly point to the very occasional offspin of Sam Bugler, 39 years his junior. One offside long hop later and he departed back to gully. Chase had also turned up at 11.30 rather than 11 “as that’s the time we used to start”.
We lost Max Richards and Ollie Trower early but Callum Kent and Bugler scored with ease, and when Kent was stumped, Chase belied his years with an attacking innings as he added 117 with Bugler in 53 minutes. Bugler reached his deserved maiden hundred off 93 balls and then finished the game with a four and a six.
OCCC 178 (Copleston 50) lost to Old Georgians 224 (Foster 5-54, Kennedy 3-51) by 46 runs
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A slightly surreal day and, for us, a rather uninspiring game of cricket which we lost after seemingly being set a very gettable target. OGs started well to reach 148 for 1 before the innings fell away to the seam bowling of Matt Foster. Will Howard, who usually finds unusual ways to impact on a match, told Foster if he got a five-for he would take him to Prague that night – Howard was going there en route to the World Cup semi-final in Moscow. So a second ticket was booked with the only snag both had to leave by 4.30 to get to Heathrow. Howard hit a breezy 26, Foster a less breezy 13 and they were off. By the time normality returned we were in trouble. Eds Copleston kept us interested with a 63-ball fifty but nobody was able to stay with him.
OCCC 278 for 5 dec (Bedford 150, Trower 57) drew with Flashmen 172 for 5 (Crump 3-15)
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A match which promised much ended in a rather dull draw as Freemen, after losing early wickets, decided to play out time.
The OCCC innings started with a bright stand between Lewis Bedford and Ollie Trower (57); after Trower fell, Bedford took the attack on with a barrage of pulls and drives and became only the seventh OCCC batsman to reach 150. A flurry of wickets as the declaration loomed caused some urgency in the dressing-room; Matt Crump hurriedly kitted up and strode to the middle only to be met by the fielders coming off as Cope declared.
On his day, Crump has been devastating with the ball. Of late, that devastation has tended to be inflicted on the slips. But he has shown signs of late he may be back as a bowler and three early wickets left Freemen wobling and then a suicidal run-out on the stroke of tea left them 32 for 4. Another wicket after the resumption ended their challenge and in the remaining 25 overs they scored 120 runs for the loss of one wicket against increasingly generous bowling.
OCCC 258 for 4 (Cowdrey 118) beat Old Etonians 256 for 7 dec by six wickets
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Over the past three decades we have had some cracking games against the Etonians on Jubilee. Sadly, this was not one of them. The day was all but decided before we took to the field. At the appointed start time there were three visitors on the ground; by the time the first ball was bowled there were eight and that’s how it stayed.
Given the numbers, Eds Copleston felt he had no choice but to stick Eton in but even then the game seemed likely for an early finish as Eton lost two quick wickets. But they battled back, aided by some enterprising bowling changes, and were able to declare, although after a long session in the field the captain’s sense of humour was tested to the limit when the seventh – and what he thought would be the final – wicket fell only for the OCCC tea lady (in reality an UVIth leaver from last summer) strode to the middle to prolong the suffering.
On a normal day a target of 258 would have been a challenge, but with no OCs willing to go straight back out in the heat to field, Eton were left with a lot of space to defend with eight men. Most batsmen made the most of this, with Rob Cowdrey scoring his second OCCC hundred. The game was done and dusted with 14 overs remaining.
Old Millfieldians 248 (Tristem 4-45) beat OCCC 244 (Harris 64, Copleston 40) by four runs
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This was a superb start to cricket week and a match which went right down to the wire. Millfield recovered from 110 for 5 (Ed Tristem doing some early damage) but the star for us was 14-year-old Tommy Ealham who, with his older brother George, was making his debut. He took two wickets and deserved more. Our innings was not helped by two shocking decisions – Lewis Bedford adjudged caufght behind off his pad and Tristem somehow given lbw to a ball down the leg side and which the keeper was preparing to take a chest height. Nonetheless, both sides pressed for the win and firstly Eds Copleston and then Jamie Harris kept us in the chase. We still looked down and out before Tommy Ealham and Max Bell (both in the School XI) brought us to the brink of victory before Ealham fell with five needed.
