Season opens in stalemate

Old Cranleighans 302 for 7 dec (Rosenfeldt 71, Hume 37, Crump 32, Copleston 32, Ross 30) drew with Kenya Kongonis 205 for 8

This was the inaugural home tie against Kenya Kongonis – the away fixture took place in Nairobi in 2001 when the OCCC toured Kenya. The “Long Rains” had begun early when the two sides met in Nairobi (only two boundaries were hit all day with the wet outfield) and while England offered similar weather, Jubilee looked an absolute picture.

Rick Johnson was meant to match manage this fixture but as usual decided he would prefer to watch (and eat) all day, and so drafted Eds Copleston in to skipper. We won the toss and elected to bat first. Tristan Rosenfeldt and Jonny Gates, both in “the form of their lives” took some time to get the pace of the track, but then unleashed some excellent drives before Gates fell for a promising 35. Tristan eventually got caught for 71, having been dropped three times by Cranleigh Prep School headmaster Mike Wilson – rumours of bribery were quickly denied.

Roo Hume, who was returning from a sabbatical of mind-boggling lunacy (rowing the Atlantic and a plethora of other idiotic challenges) along with Matt Crump, Copleston and Nathan Ross contributed solid 30s in the middle order. Rick Johnson refused to let Eds declare when we had reached 260 off 44overs and instead batted on to 302 for 7 declared off 48overs.


The Kongonis started brightly with Duncan Allen and Abeed Janmohammed taking them to 55 without loss at tea. Roo Hume and Henry Watkinson, who skippered the game in 2001, opened the bowling. The highlight before tea was Abeed hooking a bouncer from Henry for 6. Henry isn’t as quick as he used to be when he was as old as his girlfriend is now (19).

Crump replaced Watkinson after tea and Peter Rollings came up the hill. Abeed ran Duncan Allen out straight after tea and was then adjudged LBW (given out box before wicket) and the asking rate began to rise sharply.

Davis(50) was the mainstay of the Kongonis innings but as soon as the openers went it appeared the win was out of reach. Wickets fell regularly with Henderson bowling Dave Wilson and Rollings trapping Prodger LBW. With the Kongonis needing 14 an over, Copleston brought himself on and had Rogan stumped trying to hit him into Guildford. David Waters then shut up shop and refused to go for the win – showing extreme patience in playing out flighted a maiden from Eds. Watkinson and Crump were brought back but couldn’t break the resistance as Kongonis hung on for a draw.

A fun day and with a better declaration the game could have been close, Johnson not having played much cricket since he was at school cannot be blamed for not understanding the game. Thank you to Hannah for scoring and Lydia’s first lunch for the OCCC was superb – lets hope we see them down on Jubilee for many years! So the season starts with a tame draw but a game played in excellent spirit and this is definitely one to make an annual fixture (Id be keen to play in Nairobi next year!). Eds Copleston