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| 1982 |
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Played 14: Won 4, Lost 7, Drawn 3.
Saturday May 1 v Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester - Lost by 22 runs
The strong RAC batting made free with our attack, scoring at five an over throughout their innings. The elusive line of Garrett and the speed of Fish did not disturb their equilibrium and they were able to build a commanding total. By contrast our batting was a sorry affair for the most part. We slumped to 66-6 before Brearley took control. Striking the ball with power and grace to all parts of the ground he made a mockery of the bowlers' earlier successes. With twelve fours and two sixes he raced to a well deserved hundred putting us in sight of an unlikely victory. But it was not to be and when he was caught at 184 the innings collapsed. Sunday May 30 - Cricketer Cup first round v Eton Ramblers at Eton - Lost by 54 runs Once more an unaccountable failure to have organised the team properly and provide our strongest eleven led to our demise. Let us hope we have finally learnt our lesson about being prepared for the first round. We began well, Knight bowling consistently fast and accurately dismissed their opener without scoring, and they lost three wickets for 33. But then Lowndes and Yorke-Long took control. In a partnership of 148 they exposed our bowling for the lightweight rubbish it was, apart from Knight. Our batting was severely weakened by Tim Edwards' inability to bat but even so, we struggled well enough with three of the first four batsmen scoring 40's. But we were always behind the clock and, once Donald was left without competent partners, the innings died a quick death. Sunday June 20 v Radley Rangers at Radley - Lost by 31 runs The Radley innings was dominated by Waller who batted competently if unexcitingly. Gent toiled away with determination for his four wickets. Bulford batted well and featured in a fourth wicket partnership of 57 with Lough on which our slender hopes of victory were based, after we had lost our first three wickets for 53. After Lough was out at 164 we were buried. Saturday July 10 v The School at Sherborne - Lost by 52 runs We managed to lose by bowling badly and batting ineptly, and we were made to look very ordinary indeed. Lloyd batted well for the School, but was helped by some friendly bowling. The less said about our batting the better. Sunday July 11 v Marlborough Blues at Marlborough - Lost by 33 runs First there were three Wingfield Digbys, then there were three Donalds and this time there were three Loughs all in the same team. If this performance was anything to go by it may be the least successful combination. We bowled well enough, Marlborough slipping at one stage to 87-5, but we were unable to make another breakthrough despite restricting them to a little more than three an over. Our innings never really got going, but having struggled to 113-4 we were in with a remote chance. Unfortunately we then lost four wickets for four runs and we slithered to a disappointing defeat. Saturday July 17 v Honourable Artillery Company at Sherborne - Won by 3 wickets Having lost the first five matches of the season it was fitting that we should start the week against our favourite opponents, the HAC, whom we had never failed to beat so far, but it was a close run thing this time. Lyons bowled to great effect and Wilson produced eleven tight overs to take 3-24. After a partnership of 69 for the fourth wicket the HAC collapsed losing their last seven wickets for only 26. Lough was in tremendous form and the full blade of the bat swept through the HAC bowling with wonderful fluency. Lyons helped him add 75 for the fourth wicket and then went on to add 53 more for the sixth wicket which took us close to victory. Powe scored a powerful 33. Sunday July 18 v Sherborne Town at Sherborne - Drawn This was an excellent game which resulted from a well timed declaration by Reg Hayward. Although the Town seemed to have batted for some time, they had been contained by fine bowling from Wilson, Rory Powe, Walker and Mason. Leakey was cunning in bringing on Walker early to beguile the Town's batsmen with his length, flight and width. We lost wickets regularly throughout our innings with nobody except Leakey managing to get established. At 117-6 Wilson joined Jonathan Powe and, with both hitting lustily, we reached 150 and sight of victory before Powe was ridiculously run out and was quite properly awarded the Horlicks as a result. Our hopes evaporated with his departure and Wilson's shortly after. Monday July 19 v Somerset Stragglers at Sherborne - Won by 4 wickets Although Stebbings and Powe bowled tidily to start with, it was with the introduction of Lyons as first change that we began to dominate the inept Stragglers batting. Thereafter the wickets fell regularly. After an opening partnership of 82 between Gent and Lloyd we managed to lose 6 wickets for 29 runs. Some Pilgrims teams would have surrendered at this stage but the Stragglers hadn't reckoned with Arkell and Mason who saw us through to victory with an undefeated partnership of 69. Tuesday July 20 v Dorset Rangers at Sherborne - Drawn We narrowly survived against a strong Rangers side. From 31-1 we slipped to 38-5 and then to 66-6 before Gay and Mason got a grip. They both played with tenacious application in adding 81 for the seventh wicket, and we struggled to a respectable total. After a ferocious opening spell by Stebbings, who took two wickets for one run in four overs, the Rangers settled but none of their batsmen ever really dominated enough to go for victory. They should have won easily. Wednesday July 21 v Old Cliftonians at Clifton - Won by 8 wickets Victory against Clifton was sweet as we have lost rather more often than we have won in recent years. A remarkable spell of bowling by Lyons decimated the Clifton middle order, which in truth was rather brittle, and only Scott showed any competence at all. We cantered to victory, if canter is a word that can properly be attributed to Bulford's batting! Sunday July 25 v Old Tonbridgians at Tonbridge - Lost by 5 wickets An embarrassingly one sided defeat during which we never seemed to come to terms with the OT's superior all round ability. Martin and Mason made valiant attempts to apply themselves to dealing with the high quality bowling but the rest of us were nowhere. The OT's bowled 73 overs of which Allbrook used up 31, bowling unchanged to finish with 3-62. We were unfortunate enough to meet an in-form Graham Cowdrey who, after a relatively responsible first 50, let rip to reach his hundred with no trouble at all. His performance rather overshadowed the fact that Andrew Wilson had removed the other opener with the first ball of the innings and the OT's had in fact slipped to 17-2 before Cowdrey took over. The measure of their victory was that they used only 24 overs in reaching the target, that is less than a third of the number they bowled! Saturday July 31 v Hampshire Hogs at Warnford - Won by 2 wickets Another very good game against the Hogs made even more compelling by the perfect cricketing day. Our attack lacked penetration and, indeed, it was Stebbings who dropped the simplest chance of the summer to allow Came a life. It was left to Proctor, that great old workhorse, some call him Old Deuteronomy, to inveigle the batsmen into all manner of false strokes with his irresistible combination of leg breaks, top spinner, google and straight one. And it was Proctor, too, who delighted us with his scintillating batting, hitting three sixes in his match winning knock before he was last out with only four needed for victory. Saturday August 7 v Bluemantles at Tunbridge Wells - Drawn Although the Bluemantles had actually won in 1981, this was the third time in four years that we had managed to hold on by the skin of our teeth to scrape a draw. Fiducia was dropped early on and the Bluemantles were never in trouble after that, despite steady spells of bowling from Martin and Wilson, who bowled 18 very tidy overs with no luck at all. Our batting was indifferent, and it looked as though we would inevitably lose at 129-7 before Gay, that saviour of lost causes, struggled and gritted his way in his indomitable manner to safety. Sunday August 22 v Cobham at Cobham - Lost by 3 wickets Cobham had the better of a rain affected match for reasons which it would be unwise to relate. Outstanding contributions from Lyons and Brearley were the backbone of our innings. Despite the failure of some batsmen to see Donald's bowling for what it really was, Cobham were able to win comfortably with a long time to spare. |