Rollings rips up the record books

OCCC 387 for 4 (Rollings 203*, E Copleston 59*, Jordan 53) drew with Buccaneers 312 for 8 (Ryden 102*, Cross 3 for 31, J Scriven 3 for 107)

At the end of a week where batting records tumbled daily, the highest was saved for last. Will Rollings, who usually bats low down the order, seized the chance of opening the innings and made 203* against the Bucaneers, surpassing the 53-year-old record held by Nigel Paul who made 201* in the cricket week back in 1962. For the fifth successive match we passed 300, going on to a record score of 387 for 4, beating the previous highest of 370 set 48 hours earlier. Unsurprisingly, on a pitch where no side had been bowled out in five days, the Buccaneers ended on 310 for 8 and the match was drawn.

Sam Langmead won the toss and chose to bat, a popular decision with his side but one which almost ensured we could not win, barring some dreadful batting by the visitors. Rollings, who started with three fours in the first over, was matched by Ollie Cross (32) who hit seven fours in his 19-ball stay. He was replaced by Will Jordan (53) who reached his fifty off 18 deliveries, smashing five fours and four sixes in his 28-minutes innings.

Rollings made a steady start, bringing up his fifty in 54 minutes, ten minutes more than Michael Burgess took to reach his ton on Wednesday. The he sped up, reaching his hundred in 92 minutes off 65 balls. With Damian Hill (21) proving it was possible to score slowly on Jubilee, Rollings accelerated, and when joined by Eds Copleston (59*), never a man to miss out on some boot filling, the bowling was hit to all parts. They put on 164 for the fifth wicket in 70 minutes off 17 overs. Rollings, on reaching 150, was told by his partner to hit out or reverse sweep, so he did. The runs kept flowing.

There was some unease among the opposition as Copleston tried to placate them as the score mounted, but the declaration eventually came when Rollings brought up his double hundred. It was not his first century. He made one for the Colts. In all he batted 180 minutes, faced 130 deliveries and hit 29 fours and six sixes.

That was a second Paul record gone (he had lost his fastest hundred crown to Burgess earlier in the week) and near the end of the innings a third went as Copleston passed his record aggregate of runs for the club. It was a notable achievement for Copleston who may well become the first OC to pass 5000 runs; with the younger players all a long way behind, he may hold the record for some years.

Unfortunately, older brother Simon, in his only game during a break from Abu Dhabi, managed only 1, although he would not have minded too much as his six-year-old son Zan did bowl an over at the end of the Buccaneers innings.

Even though the Buccaneers received 58 overs in return, they were never realistically going to chase down such a massive target, although some generous bowling and attacking fields kept them interested. Cross picked up 3 for 31, astounding figures given the rest of the week, while Jack Scriven, reluctantly playing despite an injured finger, took a commendable 3 for 107. Ryden, batting at No.7, scored 102* off 86 balls, but spare a thought for Ballentyne who was bowled first ball by Scriven and whose three overs went for 38.

Batsmen dominate record-breaking cricket week

The cricket week was blessed by almost constant sunshine and we took great heart from the number of young players who took part, especially the batch of this year's leavers who all blended in straight away.  Catering was wonderful, thanks to the Louise/Daisy dream team, and the groundsman were helpful throughout.  But it was not a happy time for bowlers who suffered on pitches which became easier as the week progressed.  That the last three days on Jubilee was all six innings pass 300 and a run-rate of close to seven an over says it all.

The five days of the week kicked off with a game against Old Millfieldians which we lost by 77 runs. On a hard track we made early inroads but lacked the depth of bowling to capitalise, and from 119 for 5, OMs scored briskly to reach 176 for 5 by lunch. They continued in the same way in the afternoon, smashing the ball to all parts but at 214 for 8 with only ten men we seemed to have the match in control. But we allowed the last pair to add 63, Jenkins reaching a good hundred. Credit due to Tom Cooper, who on announcing he did not bowl much was rewarded with 16 overs in the heat. To his credit, he finished with 3 for 61. Our chase of 278 tottered as the top order failed before Brad Scriven (64), back after a broken finger, got us on track. All the middle order got starts but none went on to play the necessary supporting innings, and only a few late lusty blows when the game was already lost got us to 200. The Merry BBQ and MNG followed and the casualties were, as usual, bad. The club captain crashed and burned as only he can.

Historically the Old Georgians game has proved a hard one for us as it falls the day after the infamous Monday night antics. This year proved no different as we had three players there at the official start time, while another who shall remain nameless (Jock Vickers) called off shortly beforehand claiming he had to go to hospital after consuming silly amounts of vodka at even sillier prices. . Eds Copleston won the toss and elected to bat as the other seven arrived (again playing with 10 men which seems to be the norm in the Will Howard era). Cross looked aggressive early on , despite admitting he could not see the ball, but Charlie Gilbert fell early, shortly followed by Callum Kent and when Cross was caught behind we were in trouble at 51 for 3. Ollie Davies and Eds Copleston began to open up and the scoreboard was ticking along at a healthy rate into lunch. After the break they opened up, scoring 120 in nine overs as Copleston reached his hundred off 75 balls and fell an over later for 123, including 20 4s and 4 6s and ending a partnership of 198 for the fourth wicket. Davies continued the onslaught, assisted by Tom Cooper, the victim of some horrible MNG fines, but fell for 96 which prompted a declaration on 305 off 45 overs. Dan Chitty and Foster took the new ball and looked dangerous early on but OGs managed to see off the new ball and then began to attack … 305 looked a very small total and with five dropped catches we never had the chance to even test the OGs lower middle order. Spin pair Cooper and Copleston both proved expensive as OGs won by seven wickets at a canter. However 600 runs and excellent day out for the 10 men that made it, one of whom was the 69-year-old Dick Kennedy-Hawkes, summoned into action from the comfort of his deck chair. He thought Howard realised he was joking when he said he could play at OGs. Howard, never the sharpest tool, did not.

The Wednesday match was one of the most remarkable seen on Jubilee. The bare facts are that we beat the Grasshoppers by seven wickets with almost 18 overs to spare. But the devil is in the detail. Grasshoppers batted on a pitch which became flatter and easier as the week went on, and allied to a fast outfield, runs flowed. Against weak bowling, the batsmen scored almost at will and Grasshoppers called off the slaughter after 47 overs by which time they had made 336 for 3. The most sensible OC was Peter Hobbs who tactically pulled a muscle and retired from the attack with figures of 5.4-0-62-0. The target of 337 needed a record-breaking effort and it got just that. Brad Scriven (105) and Michael Burgess (131) opened the innings and put on 199 for the first wicket in 17 overs. Burgess was first out after 70 minutes. His fifty had come off 21 balls, his hundred off 44 in 54 minutes and he hit 19 fours and five sixes. Unsurprisingly, it was the fastest OC hundred by 17 minutes and it was not slogging, but calculated hitting. At the other end Scriven’s innings would have been breath-taking on any other day. His hundred took a pedestrian 90 minutes, and even when he fell, Cross picked up the mantle with 61 off 43 balls. Ed Tristam, fresh from the Upper Vth and persuaded to play after a hockey practice, finished the game off with 34 off 22 deliveries. It was the highest score we had ever chased down, beating the 301 we scored in the Cricketer Cup at Tonbridge the previous month.

On the Thursday we batted first against Free Foresters but failed to capitalise on the conditions and it took another Brad Scriven hundred – he made 102* batting at No.8 – to haul us to a defendable 310 for 9 declared. He added 57 for the tenth wicket with Horsey, whose share was 3. Our bowling was as lacklustre as our batting and our visitors rattled along at seven an over without looking troubled. Cross gave some respectability to the scorebook with late wickets but we were well beaten by four wickets with nine overs spare.

The nadir for bowlers came against Old Tonbridgians on Friday when records tumbled but the flattest of tracks rendered the game little more than an exercise in hitting boundaries. Tonbridge batted first and reached lunch on 203 for 1 from 37 overs. We dropped a couple of chances but that aside most of the morning was spent fetching balls from the furthest parts. The assault continued after lunch and only two late wickets provided any solace as OTs declared on 369 for 4. Credit is due to 52-year-old Michael Chetwode who bowled 17 overs on the trot in searing heat; he was replaced in the attack by 57-year-old David Bugge. So easy was batting that the only question seemed to be whether we would have the time to chase down 370 in a likely 54 overs. After a tough opening few overs, the batsmen cut loose. Sutha Thanabalasingam, borrowed from the Village, led the way with 104 and evenyone else chipped in as we reached the target with a little over five overs in hand. Despite the score, it was an unsatisfying victory. For the records, it was out highest score, the highest score against us, the highest score we have chased down, and the 739 runs in the day was the highest by almost 50.

Eton strike late as week opens with a tie

Eton Ramblers 229 for 9 (Westaway 74, Ewoode 62, Chetwode 3-62) tied with OCCC 229 (Kent 68, Johnston 49, Verdon 31, Richards 5-10) 
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Eton celebrate the last wicket

For the second time in a week we contrived to throw away a game against Eton Ramblers which appeared to be in the bag. Last Sunday we lost the Cricketer Cup tie. At least this week we salvaged a tie.

Eton won the toss and batted, racing along at almost five an over before lunch in a morning session which finished with them on 176 for 5 off 37 overs. Foster, fresh from the School’s 2nd XI, and Jamie Harrison bowled well with the new ball, and once they had done their bit Eds Copleston, captaining for the absentee Will Howard, brought on Michael Chetwode and Sutha and then sat back for the rest of the day and let them bowl out the innings. Sutha had been drafted in from Cranleigh CC at the last minute after Howard called him from Sweden to advise him he only had ten players and no ball.

Callum Kent

After lunch the pair toiled away and Eton slowed slightly, weighed down by an excellent meal. The innings ended with the fall of the ninth wicket, their No.11 Fox unable to bat as a result of a broken hand sustained catching Matt Crump the previous week. Still, he gamely fielded with his right (good) hand and arm swathed in a massive bandage.

Euan Johnston and Rob Verdon started much as Eton had done, with a flurry of boundaries, but after a brief wobble, Callum Kent and Charlie Gilbert, another making his debut after a season in the 2nd XI, guided us to 141 for 3. The fielding was growing ragged and it appeared the game was going our way. Kent and Suhta took us to 196 for 5 - Kent surviving a vociferous appeal for caught behind and a horrible drop at square-leg – when Eton tossed the ball to Richards.

With his second delivery he had Kent caught behind. “Surely not even we can **** this up,” Copleston was heard to mutter. A wrong one as it happened. In his next over he took a second wicket, and then two more in his third over to leave us needing eight with one wicket remaining. At this point Chetwode strode out. He was angry enough at having to change again, and positively livid at actually having to bat. He guided Richards through third man for four, and in the next over a scrambled leg-bye brought us within two of Eton’s total. Foster then pushed Richards through the covers to tie the scores but three balls later Richards had him caught behind. Cue wild celebrations from Eton, who clearly felt they had got out of jail, as they had.  A disappointing result for the OCCC but a cracking finale for the neutrals.

Mark Shapland edges to slip

Tristem and Bedford see School home

OCCC 201 (Westcott 53, Houston 28, Harris 3-15, Dickson 3-41) lost to Cranleigh School 264 for 6 (Tristem 104, Bedford 92, Chetwode 3-30) by 63 runs
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Ed Tristem's 104* came off 82 deliveries

The final match of the season for the School 1st XI gave them their 12th win from 17 games, ending a highly successful campaign for a side which for much of the time fielded six players still in the Upper Vth. Two of them – Lewis Bedford and Ed Tristem – proved crucial in a comfortable victory over the OCs - their second in four days, both by the same margin - adding 162 for the fifth wicket in 25 overs after Michael Chetwode,a man significantly older than both their fathers, showed there is little better than experience with here early wickets.

Early rain, in distinct contrast to the record temperatures of the previous day, delayed the start and reduced the match to a 40-over contest.  The School won the toss and batted, a welcome decision given most them had spent much of the day before in the field as Charterhouse grimly clung on to draw a two-day match.

The School started in a hurry, and although runs came quickly they lost wickets. Angus Dahl drove Chetwode to mid-off where Gerald Waterfall, a man who was drinking in Dublin less than eight hours earlier not only managed to see the ball as it looped towards him but also catch it. Suresh Kartik, looking a yard faster than when he left last year, accounted for Kennedy, before Chetwode, to the bemusement of the younger schoolboys who could see little danger in the old dog, removed Dickson and Harris to leave the School 74 for 4 in the 12th over.

Lewis Bedford was unlucky to miss out on a hundred

The game then changed in six deliveries. Bedford arrived at the crease just as Sam Langmead gave Brad Scriven his only over. It must have seemed a good idea at the time. By the end of it Bedford had smacked five fours and he was off. The bowling thereafter was distinctly average, and the catching, especially from the common-room duo of Rob Verdon and Ed Griffiths, left much to be desired. 

Bedford raced to his fifty before Tristem, whose opportunities with the bat have been very limited by Stuart Welch’s insistence on batting him right down the order, started catching him up. The pair played with real freedom and unleashed some cavalier shots, the pick of which coming when Bedford hoisted Trower into the oak. Bedford seemed set for his hundred when he called for a single to Waterfall – not a bad call in itself – but was sent back and left stranded. Trower then cut loose, taking 25 off the last four overs to reach his hundred off the penultimate delivery.

Rob Verdon struggles with a high one

Set 265 in 40 overs, Peter Westcott drove and pulled his way to 53 off 36 balls to keep the OCs up with a stiff asking rate for the first ten overs. But Turner, bowling well from the top end, removed him as well as Kent and Trower, while Ollie Trower snatched the vital scalp of Scriven, caught behind by Bedford as he tried to run the ball to third man. That was pretty much that.

Andy Houston, who had earlier bowled well at the death, ensured we passed 200 with a dogged 28 but the target was always well out of reach. For the OCs the cricket week looms. For the 1st XI, 2016 bodes well with the bulk of them back again under Ollie Pope, who missed this game as he was on duty for Surrey 2nd XI. The short-term future for the School is excellent, the long-term one for the OCs hopefully just as good.