Copleston aims to end 14 years of US hurt

Once more into the breach ...

As the USA prepares to decide whether to give Barack Obama another chance, in New York another slick PR machine is preparing for one more attempt to bring home silverware in what could be his last opportunity to salvage a reputation disintegrating faster than Lance Armstrong’s.

Eds Copleston (who in fairness actually has silverware aplenty after refusing to hand back any trophy he has ever won, starting with his Best Painting Cup from his first year at the Prep) has led the OCs down to Florida ever since Henry Watkinson decided that a decade of failure was enough for any man.

The club first ventured to Sarasota in 1998 and since then has failed to make it to the final despite being the pre-tournament favourites on several occasions.  The reason for the poor record is clear. Drinking in general and the Saturday-night festival dinner in particular.

The slickest preparation and the best cricketers have all crashed and burned at that event. History has shown the biggest guns have tended to make the least impact, from Mike Gatting’s humiliating duck in 2001 to Alan Cope’s wretched showing last year.

This year Copleston, who has spent months planning, has asked his squad to arrive in the USA six days early and to assemble in New York for what he calls “acclimatisation”. This has been tried before. In 2000 Watkinson decided a few days on the Florida beaches would be a perfect way to prepare. The result was Steve Bailey being pecked to shreds by a seagull and a dozen players arriving at the Holiday Inn in need of rehab.

In 2001 Bailey led the side (well, two teams for the one and only time actually) with the opposite plan of attack, landing in Florida hours before the tournament. The result was the name. Early promise, Saturday dinner, Sunday illness and an incident involving a speedboat and a bridge which is still classified as an unsolved crime.  Sufficed to say Bailey and Tom Trevett have not been back since.

This time Copleston promises a hitherto unseen level of commitment. “The squad has a mixture of talent and experience,” he said from his Manhattan apartment.  “Rick Johnson assumes the managerial role again and veteran Henry Watkinson has been included in what many consider the strongest OCCC touring side in recent memory.

“Tom Crump makes his Sarasota debut and bother Matt has been recalled after being controversially dropped in 2011. Rob Merry makes his second appearance and experienced campaigners Will Howard and Sam Langmead return to Sarasota for the third year.

“It has been a few years since the OCCC raised some silverware (I’m not blaming Hendo entirely for that) but we’ll look to get through the group stages and then when you make finals day it will come down to how focused we can be. It’s an extremely tough trip this, both on and off the field but I think we have the right blend of talent to keep the OCCC dream alive.”

Independent observers believe the outcome will be no different to previous trips.

Click here for a gallery of shame from previous Sarasota trips

This November Eds will be running the NYC Marathon to raise money for BuildOn. Click here to support him.

Eds Copleston has been working hard to try to work out where it all went wrong in 2011