Michael Chetwode celebrates hitting the winning runs

The OCs first foray in the Cricketer Cup ended with a thrilling last-ball, two-wicket win of Harrow Wanderers in a match which ebbed and flowed from the off. The closing overs in front of a large OC Day crowd on a sun-drenched Jubilee were about as dramatic as you can get.

Chasing a target of 198, the game seemed to be slowly slipping away from us as the asking rate climbed above six and over on a day where runs were surprisingly hard to come by. Harrow, whose top-order batting had let them down, fielded like demons. Alan Cope kept the runs flowing, but when the penultimate over started we still needed 20 with three wickets in hand and the odds were against us.

Alex Craven pushed a crazy run off the first ball to get Cope on strike – had the fielder picked up cleanly from ten yards then Cope would have gone, but he fumbled. Although there were five men in the deep, Cope threaded three fours from the next four balls, a clip over midwicket, a rasping straight drive and a lofted drive over extra cover. Crucially, he pinched a the strike with a tip-and-run single from the final delivery.

Last over, six to win. The finest of sweeps found a big gap for four from the second ball – sweeping, both reverse and conventional, were shots Cope milked with skill all day, including two perfectly-executed reverse versions. Two to win, four balls. The third was hit straight to a cover fielder, and then Cope was trapped leg-before trying a slog sweep. As he trudged off for 61 the celebrations of the Harrovians suggested they thought the wicket had won the day. They had not come up against Michael Chetwode.

Chetwode, with a year at Eton under his belt before most of the Harrow side had been born, had several points to prove. Two to win, two balls. The first was full and squeezed to point. Despite urging from the crowd to run, Craven stayed out leaving Chetwode to face the music.

Under the competition rules, if the scores were tied then it went back to each side’s total after 25 overs. Harrow had been 82 for 6 at that stage; we had been 72 for 2. So we needed two, but that seemed to be lost on the Harrow skipper who, rather than push men out to save two, brought everyone in on the one. Chetwode clipped the ball past the full-length dive of short midwicket and set off on what passes for a sprint when you are 44 and not as fit as you once were … he pumped the air in delight as he came back for the second and the celebrations began.

We looked to have done the hard work much earlier. Stuart Welch’s pre-match fielding practice set the tone, Henry Watkinson won the toss and stuck Harrow in under a blue sky, and struck with the fifth ball of the day. For a few overs we struggled for accuracy – in all we bowled 20 wides – but from 40 for 2 Harrow slid to 80 for 6. Cope, at the end of an expensive opening burst, started the rot and then Craven and Chetwode strangled the innings. Chetwode’s first over went for seven; in the next nine he took 2 for 13. Craven took 2 for 30 off nine, and 11 of those came off his final over.

The decision to play the only man alive older than Chetwode still playing cricket, Graham Webb, was vindicated, even though he may never recover from Welsh’s fielding warm-up. Bowling from the top end, he hit the spot as has been doing for three decades and took 2 for 37. His figures would have been even better had Engelen, who rallied the tail with a hard-hitting 67 not out, not got after him at the end.

Our ground fielding was good, but we missed catches – three in the close field – although none proved too costly. One in the deep from Engelen was more expensive.

At 111 for 8, Harrow were all but finished, but Engelen and Harmsworth put on 58 for the ninth wicket with some sensible batting, hitting the bad ball, often very hard, and milking singles. It was Harmsworth at No. 10 who took the lead with 32 before he perished to a diving boundary catch from Janmohamed off Webb, but that triggered a late onslaught from Engelen which brought 28 runs in the final four overs. As Watkinson said, we would have taken a target under 200 at the start.

Against tight quick bowling, we took our time to get out of the blocks, and when Johnny Gates lost his middle stump shouldering arms we were 25 for 1 off 10. That did not cause alarm bells, but there was slight concern when 20 overs acme up and we were still only 52 for 2, Rob Jones falling to a leg-before decision that was so long coming it made Steve Bucknor look indecently hasty.

However, our middle order was out strength, and Will Howard and Janmohamed set about kick-starting the innings. Their running was predictably chaotic. At one point Howard called for an improbable run and found himself almost kissing Janmohamed at the striker’s end with the ball in square-leg’s hands. But for about the only time Harrow’s fielding let them down as Howard scrambled back the throw looped gently several feet over the bowler’s head.

They added 75 in 19 overs, and at one stage, when Howard hit three glorious fours in four balls, the tide looked to be turning. But then the innings faltered. Howard holed out to deep midwicket for 59 and Janmohamed mistimed a pull. In seven overs we scored 12 runs for the loss of two wickets.

Cope and Eds Copleston pressed, Copleston manipulating the strike sensibly so most of it went to his partner. Harrow continued to field brilliantly and the asking rate crept up. We needed 60 off 10. Copleston, in a bid to get the scoreboard moving, cut hard to backward point and was well caught – 46 needed from seven. Matt Crump was sawn off when a fierce drive from Cope was deflected into the non-striker’s stumps – 40 off five – and then Watkinson, an old hand at singles, hit a return catch to the bowler.

Then came the real drama.