Crump comes to the Cricketer Cup party

OCCC 183 for 1 (Crump T 69* Pope 78*) beat Old Wykhamists 182 for 9 (Escott 59, Waters 4-23) by nine wickets

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Tom Crump on his way to an unbeaten 69*

The OCCC eased into the semi-finals of the Cricketer Cup with a comfortable nine-wicket win at Winchester, an unbeaten second-wicket stand of 147 between Tom Crump (69*) and debutante Ollie Pope (78*)  putting the result beyond doubt long before the winning runs were hit with 14 overs to spare. We will host Old Wellingtonians on Jubilee on July 24.

Morning rain delayed the start until midday, and while the leaden clouds gradually gave way to sunshine, a strong wind blew down the ground throughout.  Debate between captain and senior players as to what to do if we won the toss was rendered immaterial when the home skipper called correctly and batted.  Crump insisted he wanted to bat first, continuing to maintain his stance long after the game was won.

It was apparent from the first over that the pitch offered little for the pace bowlers, but it was slow with a low bounce and took turn; more than three-quarters of the overs during the day came from spinners.   After a couple of loose overs we established a grip from which the batsmen never broke free, tight fielding preventing them from rotating the strike; the run-rate in the middle two thirds of the innings hovered around three an over.

Jack Scriven (10-0-29-2) bowled tightly and the top and tail of the innings while Max Subba Row – another making his debut – was unflappable, bowling his ten overs on the spin (10-0-34-1). The surprise package was Rob Jones (10-1-35-1) whose wobbling gentle medium pace proved hard to hit, his one wicket courtesy of a blink-and-you-miss-it stumping by Pope.

Ollie Pope pulls off a stumping

It was Seren Waters (10-1-23-4) who tore the heart out the middle order. He frustrated Cheetham for two overs before he holed out to mid-off, and then took the key wicket of opener Escott for a patient 88-ball 59 with an athletic return catch.  Hopes of a recovery disappeared when he then grabbed wickets with successive deliveries to leave Wykhamists 128 for 7.  McArthur (30*) and Hemmingway (11) boosted the score to 182 with improvisation and good running, the innings ending with the latter’s run-out by a direct hit from the boundary by Ollie Davies.

Waters (25) got our chase off to a strong start before he skewed a ball to square leg.  That brought Pope to the middle, fresh from a season at school during which he had scored 911 runs and a week which started with a call-up to the England U-19 squad.  At the other end the pressure was on Tom Crump who had not scored a fifty since 2012, a run of 12 matches but he responded magnificently, keeping the scoreboard ticking over with singles punctuated with some powerful drives and pulls.  There was genuine pleasure when he reached his half-century.

Pope started cautiously but grew in confidence, and after bringing up his own fifty he unleashed a series of reverse sweeps and drives which had the field chasing shadows. Fittingly, though, Crump hit the winning runs to see us through to the last four for the third time in four years.

Seren Waters takes a diving return catch to dismiss Escott