Craven gets beaten up

OCs of all generations rallied behind Alex Craven after he took a right hook to the face in a desperate attempt to prevent the Brewers Cup being stolen.

It is unclear what the cup was actually doing at Cowdray Park, but Craven, celebrating his Man-of-the-Match award in Sunday's nine-wicket quarter-final win over Old Edmundians, was flattened by "an oik from Eastbourne" during an unprovoked attack. In scenes frighteningly reminiscent of Ed Copleston's ejection from a Sydney nightclub in 2003, the assailant was thrown out of the building.

Craven spent much of the night in A&E where he received six stitches to the wound above his right eye. In true dedicated reporting style, Ed Henderson snatched a photo before going to his colleague's aid.

Worringly, the cup later went missing all on its own, although it was found on the floor of another OCs' car the following morning.

This is not the first time the trophy has caused problems for the club. In 2002, hours after the final, the cup had to be fished out of the Thames after victory celebrations got out of hand, and in recent months Copleston admitted that he had been using it as a home for Playboy, his pet rabbit.