🗓️ 28 Jul – 03 Aug 1860 · 1860 — 1 match
🧢 Friendly XIv LC Loose CC · Homeform—Tuesday 31st July 1860 saw Loose CC visit for what promised to be a proper contest, and I confess winning the toss and electing to bat felt like the shrewdest decision I'd made all season. That confidence lasted rather less time than the walk out to the middle, as we subsided for none all out — a scoreline that flatters no one. J Tompson and F Daniels both made the long, dignified walk back for ducks, and I shall say no more about it than that.
Yet cricket, bless it, delights in symmetry, and Loose CC contrived to match us stroke for stroke, folding for none all out themselves. A Startup, F Garrett and W Wilson departed without troubling the scorers at our end of the bargain too, but where the bat had failed us, the ball did not. R Morris was a whirlwind, tearing through with 7 for 0, F Garrett chipped in with 3 for 0, and I permitted myself a quiet bit of pride at finding some rhythm for 3 wickets of my own.
There was genuine cause for celebration amid the wreckage: F Garrett's 26 runs carried him past H Sands to the summit of the club's all-time run-scorers, while R Morris's 9 wickets vaulted him past Garrett himself to lead the all-time wicket column — both now also topping this season's Friendly XI charts.
A draw, then, honours shared between two sides who, on this evidence, are equally allergic to runs. Verdict: a match for the history books, if not for the highlights reel.