🗓️ 19 Jul – 25 Jul 1873 · 1873 — 1 match
🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLWWLLBeaten by six wickets, but by heavens what a Wednesday it was. From the captain's chair I can report we won the toss, elected to bowl, and for a good while looked rather pleased with ourselves for it.
W Crittenden was in some kind of trance, spinning his way to 8-0 and leaving the visitors' order in ruins — a spell that also nudged him past X Carroll into 5th on the club's all-time wicket-takers list, which is the sort of thing a man is allowed to mention at the bar for several weeks running. H Freed chipped in with 2-0, X Clanham held firm for the visitors with 27, and both X Marshall and X Waterman trudged off for ducks, poor souls.
Then it was our turn to bat, and the wheels came off with alarming enthusiasm. W T Court's 22 was the innings' one shaft of sunlight; F Warde and H Freed both bagged noughts, and your captain — determined to lead from the front — produced a golden blob of such purity it ought to be in a display case. J T Amies's unbeaten-looking 7 was scant consolation on the scoreboard, though it did carry him past A Startup into 5th on the run-scorers list, so the ledger wasn't entirely bleak.
We fell six wickets short in the end. Bowled like champions, batted like it was our first go with the willow — but Crittenden's arm and Court's bat give us plenty to build on. We'll be better for it next week.