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| 1991 |
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Played 17: Won 7, Lost 5, Drawn 2, Abandoned 3, Cancelled 1.
Sunday May 5 v Keble College - Cancelled Sunday May 12 v Old Whitgiftians at Croydon - Lost by 131 runs
Our first Cricketer Cup practice game brought us to Croydon to face a side that we had beaten in the previous two seasons, and in the previous year very easily. However, this time was very different and alas for the worst. On the first decent summer's day of the year we lost the toss and then had to chase leather for the next three hours, largely due to Phelps, a powerful Australian, smiting our attack to all parts of the ground. Whilst none of the bowlers bowled badly, the batsmen were always on top and in the end we had to work hard to keep the score below 300 off the allotted 55 overs. Obviously we needed a good start and this happened with sound batting from Turner and Quinlan (21); we were 82-0 and still in with an outside chance of victory. However, shortly after tea Quinlan and Turner were dismissed and we descended from 106-2 to a dismal 142 all out off 38 overs. A disappointing result but hopefully useful practice for later games. Sunday May 19 v Radley Rangers at Radley - Won as a result of losing fewer wickets in 50-over match An opening stand of 68 saw Radley off to a good start but Blackburn in particular bowled straight and moved the ball around, and Levy showed the value of a spinner, allowing only 31 runs to be scored off his 11 overs. A steady start by Lyons and Jones, and then Evans, took the score to 95-2 but a mini-collapse caused by the off-spinner, Pritchard, slowed the run rate; this brought Blackburn and Saunders together to retrieve the situation but 50 runs were required off the last five overs, which were achieved off the last ball. A great game of cricket. Sunday June 2 - Cricketer Cup first round v Old Wellingtonians at Wellington - Lost by 6 wickets A dry day with a possibility of rain later was forecast and so cloud all day was no surprise, but seeing a hard true wicket the Pilgrims on winning the toss (by Paul Saunders in the absence of Rob Rydon with Richmond RFC in Argentina) decided to bat. The makeshift opening pair of Lyons and de la Hey put on a satisfactory 37 in the first 10 overs, although the latter had been bowled with a no ball the previous over. Both were out by the 15th over and only ten runs were added in those five overs; however, Eckersley-Maslin, who had not been in the best of form, decided to chance his arm, survived various alarms, and with Edwards added 65 in the next 15 overs. Lunch was taken after 37 overs with the score at 129-3, at which point with wickets in hand a rate of six or seven an over for the rest of the innings was thought essential - in fact only five and a half was achieved despite Edwards battling so well to hold the innings together, finally being run out in the 52nd over for 90. Scott Stevens in his first Cricketer Cup match made his mark by bowling four wides with his first ball but then bowled tidily; the attack, however, lacked penetration and with good running between the wickets, tea was taken after 25 overs with the score 73-1 (at this point we had been 101-2). Soon after tea, with 32 overs gone, spots of rain were felt and the Wellington captain, Jamie Salmon, began to panic over run-rates. We had achieved 4.2 an over overall while Wellington were at that stage 3.4 runs per over and it was not until the 48th over that they finally did get ahead of the required rate thanks to a marvellous innings from Dyer who was out in the penultimate over. Not for the first time we had made a fight of the match to the end, but were fated to lose for want of a fifth specialist bowler, and also for failing to make the extra 30 or 40 runs which would have put greater pressure on the opposition. Sunday June 16 v Hampshire Hogs at Warnford - Abandoned Saturday June 29 v The School at Sherborne - Lost by 1 wicket We put out a powerful young side, but at lunch after 36 overs, had been reduced to 55-7; stout resistance from de la Hey, Stevens and S Knechtli nearly doubled the score against steady bowling from the School. The School's innings began steadily with Slade going for 20 runs in his first six overs; however, Knechtli made the breakthrough and Slade returned to reduce the School to 93-8. Ricketts kept his head, being top scorer in the match with 25, and amid much excitement the School crept to a famous victory. Sunday June 30 v Marlborough Blues at Marlborough - Abandoned Saturday July 6 v Old Aluredians at Sherborne - Won by 4 wickets The week at Sherborne did not get off to the most auspicious start with only seven players from each side on the ground at 11.30; however, Mason arrived and kept wicket so efficiently that soon our opponents were 36-6 and at lunch 73-7. Will Rydon finished off the innings with a brilliant caught and bowled before we stuttered towards victory by 4.30. Sunday July 7 v Dorset Rangers at Sherborne - Drawn With Mason again late onto the pitch the hoped-for distraction failed to work as the Pilgrims 'B' side, alias the Rangers (there were seven Pilgrims on the Rangers' side), scored steadily until 3.25 when rain interfered with the likely declaration leaving us about two hours 45 minutes' batting time. With only Tweedale being able to cope with the Royal Navy opening bowler, tea was taken at 27-4 and by 6.00 we had struggled to 73-7, at which point rain began and never ceased for nearly 24 hours. Monday July 8 v Old Blundellians at Sherborne - Abandoned Tuesday July 9 v Sherborne Town at Sherborne - Won by 3 wickets The wicket had been covered since Sunday evening and so was hard, although the outfield was damp; and the sun shone. We bowled 68 overs at the Town of which 49 were spin; despite the long day and late night before, the fielding was on the whole lively, although Saunders' bleary eyes certainly failed to focus on the blinding catch he took to dismiss Calway. In addition, three run outs were the top wicket taker and no byes were let through, so it was a very good performance to restrict the Town. However, the usual shaky start was worrying (38-4) before first Rix and Lough, and then Saunders and Lough, took the score up towards the target for a very satisfying victory. Wednesday July 10 v South Wales Hunt at Sherborne - Won by 5 wickets The sun again shone on a very up and down Pilgrims performance - not least with the non-appearance of Richard Gould for his annual outing. With some very lively bowling from Knechtli and Slade, the South Wales Hunts slumped to 78-5 at lunch and, but for some missed stumpings, might have been worse off; however, Cuthbert (2-6) cleaned up the tail. New boy Allen ran out his skipper for nought but our guest, Pool, helped us to cruise to victory. The old practice of the Horlicks award was revived which was to have a dramatic effect on Kitson following his performance behind the stumps. Thursday July 11 v Butterflies at Sherborne - Won by 3 wickets A third day of sun was unbelievable and so was the exuberant start of Kitson - no byes let through and 21 runs when opening the batting! First though the batting of the Butterflies had to be endured; 78-3 off 30 overs at lunch seemed reasonable but with Saunders and Gent bowling three successive maidens at 3.00pm perhaps further explanation is unnecessary. However, Slade bowled well before the declaration at 4.05pm. With orders not to play any silly shots Rice and Kitson proceeded to come into tea at 60-0 off 14 overs. Despite the not-unusual alarms (Allen causing another run out for nought we cruised to our fourth victory of the week with two overs to spare. Sunday July 14 v Old Tonbridgians at Tonbridge - Won by 3 wickets After losing the toss our opening seam attack of Slade and Garrett soon found how flat the wicket was, and the Tonbridge openers experienced little difficulty in putting on a century opening stand. With Tonbridge taking lunch at 109-0 we expected to have a long afternoon in the field. However, the introduction of Stone immediately got the breakthrough and inspired a mid-afternoon collapse by the OT's who descended to 199 all out. Stone, despite having not bowled for months, produced an immaculate line and length and fully deserved the impressive figures of 17-4-26-6. Chris Ward, captaining the Pilgrims for the first time, applied the pressure at the right time and safe catching plus one run out all made for a good fielding performance. Our innings started disastrously in the face of some hostile pace bowling and we descended to 3-3. Turner (22) and Stone (21) then hung on grimly until tea but, when Stone edged to the keeper and Turner was bowled shortly afterwards at 58-5, we were in deep trouble. The Tonbridge Cricketer Cup captain then very generously brought us back into the game, bowling five overs himself of 'Larry Lob' which was much to the liking of Hodges who helped himself to some cheap runs (Box-Grainger's figures were 5-0-43-0). With Hodges having played himself in, Evans now played a very sensible innings of 43 as the two put on 88 for the 6th wicket to take us nearer our target. However the required rate was still over six an over and it was going to be down to the big hitting of Hodges to see us home. With Slade keeping his cool, and hitting the second ball of the final over to the boundary, we secured an exciting victory. Hodges' innings of 87 was one of the best of the season and it must be hoped that his talents can be seen in the Cricketer Cup in years to come. For the record, Tonbridge won the 1991 Cricketer Cup final a few weeks after this game. Saturday August 10 v Bluemantles at Tunbridge Wells - Won by 5 wickets At 11.30am only seven Pilgrims were on the ground; as the captain was still struggling his way through Tunbridge Wells, Stone tossed up but called wrong and we had to take the field on one of the hottest days of the year, and, for the first time for most of us, with a lady umpire. The opening attack of Slade and Springfield soon found out how flat the wicket was and Slade suffered the unusual fate of twice being hit over his head for six. However, Slade persevered and eventually got his man thanks to a brilliant stumping from de la Hey. The Bluemantles' batsmen were then forced to work hard for their runs through steady bowling, particularly by Stone and Redfern, backed up by a good team fielding performance. Just before halfway the Bluemantles had scored 219-4 off 59 overs and we expected to be set 250 but were pleasantly surprised with an early declaration. However, right at the start of our innings Dr Mason managed to conjure some evil in the wicket (which wasn't there) as he guided a wide ball into gully's hands. This prompted Rice to unleash a violent attack upon the men from Kent's bowling; however, a blow to the foot brought his innings to a premature end as he had to retire hurt. This brought in Stone who batted with great assurance and class in making 88 before he asked to have the sightscreen moved and then saw that he had been just given out, caught behind, by the lady umpire. Stone had put on 120 with the evergreen Redfern but from 176-2 we descended to 185-5, and with Rice unable to bat and only having 10 men (farming problems forcing Will Rydon reluctantly to withdraw late) this was effectively 185-7 and potentially a crisis situation. However, Garrett, having received Slade's blessing to go in ahead of him, then surprised most of the side by taking control of the situation and along with Matthews seeing us home to a five wicket win. A hard but well earned victory by the 10 Pilgrims on surely the best ground we play on. Saturday August 18 v Hampstead at Hampstead - Lost by 6 wickets An amazing game of cricket in which we suffered from scoring our runs too quickly! On a very hot day the now bespectacled Jones won the toss and decided to bat, and then watched Spink and Levy put on 111 for the first wicket in 65 minutes. Spink, in particular, struck the ball with great power, hitting four sixes and regularly disrupting the tennis players who were situated over deep long on. However, the dreaded Nelson proved our undoing and we descended to 111-3 in the space of one over. De la Hey managed to talk his way into number three, after Rix turned up an hour late (having allegedly been stuck in a tunnel), but failed to trouble the scorers. Jones then took over and, after lunching at 183 4, we were able to declare at ten past three at 285-6 with Jones having scored a very good hundred and Rix chipping in with a useful 42. Whilst we were all very impressed with our total, having only three frontline bowlers on a fairly flat track meant that we would always have to work hard to defend our score. The opening attack of Garrett and Ward bowled steadily but without much penetration and Hampstead's openers put on 74 for the first wicket. The first bowling change brought on Mason who, despite having practised hard in the nets, bowled all over the place and with his final ball cleared the keeper Kitson's head by a couple of feet. One over of this was enough for Jones, who then allowed himself to be persuaded by de la Hey to let our Cricketer Cup keeper/batsman have a bowl. Levy and de la Hey then bowled steadily for the next 20 overs and, whilst Levy did take two wickets, Hampstead entered the final 20 overs needing only five an over with wickets in hand. One very difficult slip chance did go down which may not have helped our cause. We fought hard, but Hampstead deservedly won the game with an over to spare, although they batted for 62 overs compared to our 47. Saturday August 31 Honourable Artillery Company at Armoury House - Lost by 6 wickets A dismal defeat and, for the very first time, a loss to the HAC. We lost the toss and were asked to bat on a green wicket of somewhat variable bounce, but generally we batted badly. When application and patience were required all the batsmen tried to smash the ball out the ground and paid the penalty. At lunch we were 92-7, and then only a last wicket partnership of 28 between Springfield and Garrett gave the bowlers anything to bowl at. Apart from Garrett, only Matthews managed to get above 20 in our poor total. Defending such a low score we needed early wickets but after conceding 18 in the first two overs we were always going to struggle. Springfield bowled well and we did manage to reduce the HAC to 81-3, but their captain, Noyes, won the game with a sensible and patient 50, which showed us all how we should have batted. Enough said! Sunday September 1 v Cobham at Cobham - Drawn On a very hot and humid day we lost the toss and were surprisingly asked to bat. Rice immediately set about the admittedly average Cobham bowling and, with help from Matthews, we were sailing along after an hour or so at 164-1. However, when Rice and Matthews were both out in quick succession the middle order let the heat get to them and we descended rapidly to 176-6. Isaac's only innings of the season for the Pilgrims, and his last as a single man, yielded three before he missed the unplayable one - i.e. it was straight. Potential disaster was averted by de la Hey (25*) and Garrett (26) who helped push the score up to 250. As the game had been changed from an all day to an afternoon one, due to Cobham having problems with their caterers, we had just over two hours to bowl Cobham out. Whilst Springfield bowled fast and effectively in taking 5-47, and we did our best to get Cobham near our score (both Isaac and Kitson's names appeared on the bowling sheet and Isaac dismissed their top scorer!), they did not seem at all interested and the game fizzled out into a dull draw. It would have been nice to end the season with a win as we played all the cricket, but afternoon games do not give Pilgrims enough time to display all their talents - or do they? |