St Lucia - No disgrace in defeat

OCCC 170 (Crump T 44, Howard 37) lost to South Castries 204 (Gabriel 69, Harman 3-31, Watkinson 2-18, Crump M 2-41) by 34 runs
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The sixth and final match of the tour again took place at the Beauesjour Cricket Ground but once more we went down to defeat, our fifth, and the fourth in four under the captaincy of Jonny Gates.

After a solid start from South Castries, the way their innings took off gave every indication we were going to end with a mauling. When Tom Crump took the fourth wicket in the 17th over, South Castries were on 111, but then Xavier Gabriel, a fast bowler in the island team, smashed 69 off 29 deliveries including four sixes. Crump suffered the most, his third over yielding 23, and at 181 for 4 in the 26th over a huge score seemed likely. But Gabriel gave Graeme Brown the charge and was well stumped by Will Howard (the far more Caribbean-sounding Wilson Howard according to the local paper) and the innings fell apart as South Castries were dismissed for 204.

As had been the case in the night game, Howard (37) and Tom Crump (44) gave us a strong start with an opening stand of 77 in 11 overs, but once both fell in quick succession the innings against slowly subsided among a flurry of catches in the deep and we ended 34 runs short. At least Jonny Gates got off the mark for the tour with a lovely cover drive, and Michael Chetwode brought the curtain down with an ugly heave to be bowled first ball and cheer everyone up a little.

There was a scrap of solace in 170 being our best score of the tour, by some way. There was also no dispute over Gabriel – who took 3 for 19 to add to his 69 – being named Man of the Match.