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Sunshine and youngsters shine
The 2005 Cricket Week was blessed with sublime weather - the temperature never dropped below 80 degrees and barely a cloud was seen throughout - and on the field the emergence of several talented recent leavers heralded well for the future.
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Henry Watkinson clings on to the catch which won us the match against Grasshoppers
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Old Cranleighans drew with Eton Ramblers
The opening game of the week ended in disappointment as Eton, usually a formidable batting side, showed little inclination in chasing a far from formidable target after losing early wickets. Full report to follow.
Old Cranleighans 261 for 6 dec (Copleston E 97, Hill 78) beat Grasshoppers 258 (Jungaretti 61*, Ayres 59, Payne 3-59) by three runs
One of the most remarkable games in recent years appeared to be in the hands of the Grasshoppers when Henry Watkinson tossed the ball to Eds Copleston to deliver the penultimate over with five needed and two wickets in hand. After a single from the first ball, Brinslow was left stranded after using his feet to the looping legspin and Rob Merry completed to neat stumping. Enter Richard Thomas, an old foe and one reminded all the way to the wicket that this was for him to lose. What he lost was his head, aiming to smack Copleston's first ball into High Upfold; it went high, but straight up, and with OC fielders scattering in very direction, it was left to Watkinson to take the catch. Our innings was based on a third-wicket stand of 129 between Copleston and Damian Hill (78), and Copleston missed out on a deserved hundred when bowled in the final over. Tim Payne picked up the first three Grasshopper wickets to fall, and when Watkinson and Chetwode blew through the middle order to leave them on 165 for 7, the game seemed over. But inspired captaincy from Watkinson kept them in it, and a courageous 61 not out from the 16-year-old Jungaretti almost brought Grasshoppers a remarkable win. Almost.
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Eds Copleston celebrates his first wicket - stumped Rob Merry - at Georgians
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| Old Cranleighans 190 for 6 (Johnson 58, Hill 47, Bailey 33) beat Old Georgians 188 (Copleston 6-66) by four wickets
If on Monday, calling on Eds Copleston's legspin had been a freak gamble which paid off, at St George's he came of age as a semi-serious bowler. Three overs before lunch and OGs, who had won the toss, were cruising on 95 for 2 when Watkinson brought on Copleston. His flighted legspin seemed to have been show up for what it is when his first nine balls went for 24 runs, endangering the frogs inhabiting the old swimming pool more than anything inside the field of play. But whether it was the heat or the buffet bowling that led to Wensley embarking on a suicidal charge which ended with him being stumped by Rob Merry. After the break, the fielders' incredulity grew as batsman after batsman were lured into Copelston's siren-like trap, Merry completing a hat-trick of stumpings as Copleston finished with a career-best 6 for 66. Spare a thought for Graham Webb who toiled away at the other end with his ever-faultless slow left-arm only to end up with 1 for 39 off 19 overs. With Rick Johnson hammering a brisk 58 before tea (he had a meeting in the Midlands at 6.30pm) off the irascible Georgians' seamers, and then Damian Hill and Steve Bailey dealing in boundaries afterwards, a straightforward win was achieved before the start of the last 20 overs. There was still a final hiccup as we lost three wickets in five balls when oinly four were needed, sending the already showered and changed lower order scrambling back to the dressing room to change once again.
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Damian Hill on his way to 81 against Celeriacs
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| Old Cranleighans 249 for 5 (Hill 81, Merry T 51, Houston 41*) drew with Celeriacs 302 for 7 (Ackland-Hood 94, Houston 3-30)
A classic example of how dull cricket can be when a captain fails to grasp the concept of how cricket-week matches ought to be played. Unfortunately, only some creative captaincy could have saved this match once the Cryptics had won the toss and batted through to almost 3.45pm despite an (unusually) brisk OC over-rate and more than 300 on the board. The absence of more than two or three recognised bowlers meant that we were always going to have a fairly hard time in the field, although the toil was enlightened when after almost 280 matches and 26 years of service, Michael Chetwode threw the ball to the ground and refused to bowl any more. Martin Williamson, captain on the day, had won a side bet he could break the veteran. We needed a flying start to have any chance of chasing, but we got quite the opposite, crawling to 31 for 0 at tea. That was not the visitors' fault, but they did precious little to open the game out thereafter, and as they never looked to have anything like the firepower to bowl us out, the last hour was pretty turgid stuff.
An ask of 205 from the last 20 was always well out of reach, even though by then the fielding side were down to nine and eight of those were close catching (leaving the side's eminently capable woman to patrol the entire off side on her own while the men grazed in the slips). They blamed us, we blamed them, but as this is our report, the fault it clearly theirs.
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Rick Johnson absorbs a boundary catch
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| Old Cranleighans 189 for 9 (Hill 64*, Lewis 45) drew with Charterhouse Friars Merry R 4-9, Henderson 3-50)
Another draw, but one which highlighted what could be done with a little will on both sides. Charterhouse made good progress before lunch, all three pre-interval wickets falling to Ed Henderson, but struggled after the break with Rob Merry's gentle wobblers proving too hard to handleas he picked up four late wickets in 12 balls. But thoughts of victory on a decent batting track soon evaporated as we slid to 53 for 7, the captain's humour not helped by the disappearance of his middle order to go and look round the school, necessitating a quick reshuffle. Damian Hill, one of the sightseers, and Dom Lewis at first consolidated and then opened up, and a hopeless cause suddenly came alive as Charterhouse began to wilt. Even the dismissal of Lewis didn't check the run rate, Henderson making a brisk 12 and even Lewis Clark hammering a boundary before the captain called off the chase with 34 needed from two overs.
Old Cranleighans 301 for 8 (Merry R 58, Hume 48, Merry T 45) drew with Old Tonbridgians 316 for 6 (Hedley 104, Salmon 98, Moorby 3-65)
A perfect batting track and two sides with little bowling meant that this was always going to be a run feast, and 91 overs produced 617 runs and no result. Tonbridge's powerful batting line-up were largely untroubled by our attack, and although three three seamers - Lewis Clark, Howard Hardy-King and Luke Moorby - all had their moments, the second-string bowlers were savaged. Although we lost three early wickets, we kept chasing a target that was always just out of reach with the Merry brothers and Bob Hume leading the way. Rick Johnson launched a late assault to bring us within an over or two of victory, but with hindsight his hitting would have been better used higher up the order.
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The president in reflective mood
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| Old Cranleighans 196 (Watkinson 55, Starling 43, Shapland 39) lost to Surrey Cryptics 198 for 7 (Johnson 3-85) by three wickets
Tight bowling and some strange shot selections allowed our decent top order to be skittled cheaply, and only some doughty strokeplay from Henry Watkinson prevented a rout. When he fell to a remarkable catch from Tom Ware, an early finish appeared likely, but Gareth Starling and Mark Shapland put on 82 for the eighth wicket, helped by some buffet bowling, Richard Seeckts being the buffetist of the lot.
Only two OCs who took the field had bowled more than 100 overs, and so we were treated to Rick Johnson opening the attack with some little-seen wobblers which could have gained him more than the one early wicket he did con the Cryptics into gifting him. At 130 for 2, the Cryptics were cruising, but then the urge to win with sixes took hold, and a few jitters were in evidence as a succession of boundary catches would have meant the scoreboard took on an interesting appearance had it not blown up the day before. Johnson returned to lure two more victims to their fate (he finished with 3 for 85 from 11 idiosyncratic overs) and Martin Williamson announced he could die a happy man after dismissing Seeckts. But Cryptics had just enough in hand to secure a deserved victory.
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