School fall to Crump and Cope

Old Cranleighans 281 for 6 (43.5 overs: Crump T 91*, Cope 90, Crump M 41) beat Cranleigh School 280 for 9 (45 overs: Allen 89, Davies 34, Austin 30, Cowdrey 3-33) by four wickets
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We gained revenge for the OC Day Twenty20 the previous Sunday with a four-wicket win over the School on the hottest day of the year. It was again a close-fought 45-over encounter which went to the penultimate over, and in the end six hard days of cricket in increasing heat took its toll on the boys who wilted in the closing overs.

We again fielded a young side, albeit not quite as youthful as the recent leavers team on Sunday. The temperature was in the 90s, Jubilee as brown and arid as it has been for a number of years, and the pitch pluperfect as compared to its using perfection.


In the end the difference was a fourth-wicket stand of 171 between Tom Crump and Alan Cope which brought us back into a match which was drifting when they came together and took us to the brink of victory. Cope was at his clinical best in scoring 90, grinding down the fielding side with well-placed and well-run singles; Crump, who made a fifty on Sunday, added 91 not out to his haul and really looked a class act.

The stand was so well paced that throughout the run rate always hovered around 7.5 an over. It was also a club record for the fifth wicket,surpassing the 160 between Peter Black (114) and Jack Francis (83*) in the same fixture on the same ground 71 years earlier.

The fielding of the School was outstanding but a few errors near the end proved expensive. Even though Cope perished to a rare misjudged shot and Chris Preece followed in the following over, James Harrison put matters beyond doubt with a nicked a leg-side four and a cover drive as the shadows rolled across the outfield.


The School, who came into the game on the back of good wins over MCC and Charterhouse, found little to trouble them in the OC attack other than Matt Crump. The top six batsmen all made starts but only the ever-dependable Duncan Allen went on to make a big score, his innings ended by a silly run-out when he was in sight of a hundred.

Will Langmead only made 26 but it was enough to ensure he finished the season with more runs for the 1st XI in a year than anyone had before. In all, he made 947 runs at 67.64 with two hundreds, a remarkable return given he started the summer without a 1st XI fifty to his name.

In reply, we lost Ashton to a superb leaping catch by the keeper off the fifth ball and then Matt Crump has his box shattered, to widespread concern/amusement. James Halton (24) and Crump then pushed along at four an over, but as the run-rate began to climb both fell, Halton to a leg-before his snail-like exit showed his displeasure at the decision, Crump to a catch at deep midwicket. At 88 for 3, we seemed there for the taking, but then came Cope and the other Crump.

Old Tonbridgians forfeit Cricketer Cup win

Old Tonbridgians, defending Cricketer Cup champions and the side who knocked us out of the 2009 tournament, were eliminated from the 2010 competition after it was discovered they had played an ineligible player in their second round win over Old Brightonians.

"We beat the Old Brightonians by seven wickets to earn a home tie against the Charterhouse Friars, but discovered subsequently that we broke the rules of the Cricketer Cup by playing one of this year's leavers, who was not eligible to play in either the first or second rounds of the competition. As soon as we realised our error we immediately offered to forfeit the game. As a result we will take no further part in this year's competition."

The final is between Old Malvernians, who we lost to in the first round, and Oundle Rovers at Shenley on August 15.

Preece remains sedate as School win Twenty20 tie

Cranleigh School 158 for 5 (18.4 overs: Langmead 69*, Cross 64) beat Old Cranleighans 157 for 5 (20 overs: Crump T 53, Cope 46)

After the absence of a decade or more and years of constant pestering and sucking up by Rick Johnson, the headmaster finally allowed Speech Day and OC Day to merge once more. The results proved the decision was the right one with sport, art and music exhibitions showing Cranleigh’s true colours although the only dampner the suspected match-fixing rumours involving Chris Preece. More on that later...

After winning the toss, Matt Crump did the customary thing on an occasion such as this and batted first. The OCCC team had a youthful look to it with the oldest player being 23 mixed in with a few school- leavers.

Tom Crump and Will Jordan opened up the innings and Crump especially made it an explosive start. After three overs we were 41 for 0, Crump on 38 and Jordan 1. School coach Stu Welch’s instructions to his bowlers to bowl short at Crump was one out of the Johnson school of captaincy as a succession of deliveries disappeared over square leg. Crump managed 58 before being stumped but the decisive moment of the game came a few overs before when Jordan was out, again stumped and this saw the arrival to the crease of Preece.

Preece, who had controversially turned his back on his local club to ply his trade for Normandy, walked to the crease with much optimism but this soon changed as he decided to block some maidens. There was soon some heckling from the stands (mainly from ex-OC captain and Preece’s new boss Henry Watkinson) but he ignored the comments and continued to block. The innings struggled for momentum despite Alan Cope playing a cameo of 46 with his customary strutting between the wickets and our 157 for 5 - Preece 26 not out off 65 balls – was well below what had appeared on the cards. This is where rumours around the ground begun about whether Preece had received a brown envelope from the school coach before the game although nothing has been proven thus far...

We were at least 20 runs short of par but with a pace attack of Pritchard, Matt Crump and Cope there was always hope. We removed Austin to the 7th ball of the innings being bowled by a rare straight one from Crump. Then the school showed their class with new-found “gun” Will Langmead, brother of OC stalwart Sam, playing a match-winning innings of 69 not out and he was ably supported by Cross who also reached his half century before being dismissed by Cope. The school won by six wickets with eight balls to spare, a margin which would have been greater but for some late successes for the bowlers.

“This should take nothing away from the school who batted and fielding brilliantly to claim a third win in a row against us,” Matt Crump said afterwards. “But without rather a lot of interference from New York about team selection and general backseat driving the result could have been different.

“Friday sees the return of the traditional longer form of the game between the two sides with the younger OCs defying calls from the wanabee OCCC dictator in New York to take it upon themselves to win this fixture to balance the power between the two sides.”

Initial reports suggest Friday could see the return of Seren Waters (allegedly banned by Welsh as he is “too good”, surely a first) James Halton and Paddy Harman. Matt Crump refused to comment on speculation but was eager to confirm Preece was unlikely to feature in the match.

Waters scores hundred at Lord's

Congratulations to Alan Cope and Seren Waters who faced off against each other at Lord’s on June 25 on the MCC Universities final. Seren opened the batting for Durham and scored 111 (188 mins, 134 balls, 10x4, 2x6) in their total of 328 for 6. Alan, captaining Loughborough, made 12 in their reply of 169 as Durham won by 159 runs.