🧢 Captain's Log

Wed 02 Aug 1882 🧢 1st XIv SC 1st Innings Boxley CC · HomeformLLLWL

On Wednesday the second of August, in the year 1882, we had the pleasure of welcoming Boxley Cricket Club to our ground at Linton Park. The coin fell kindly for us, and having no cause to doubt the wicket, I elected that our men should go in first.

It must be confessed at once that our innings brought little credit to the willow. Our fellows were dismissed for the whole of our total, W H Fryer and A Startup both walking back to the pavilion without troubling the scorer, a fate no batsman relishes and none escapes forever. It was not, I own, an afternoon on which the bat spoke loudest for Linton Park.

Yet if fortune had frowned upon us at the crease, our attack restored something of our pride when Boxley took their turn at the wicket. Their innings, too, closed with all ten men back in the pavilion, A Killick alone giving a good account of himself with a top score of 27. For the rest, our bowling found a rare and happy length, and F Atkins, H Foster and C Chambers were each sent back without scoring, chiefly through the offices of H Freed, whose figures of eight wickets without the concession of a run were as fine a piece of trundling as one could wish to witness. Freed's twelve runs with the bat, moreover, carried him past W T Court into seventh place upon the club's all-time list of run-scorers, a distinction well earned on a day of otherwise modest batting.

The season's ledger shows Fryer still foremost among our run-getters with 78, and Freed third in the wicket-taking table with nine victims to his name. For all these individual satisfactions, the match itself went against us, and I set it down honestly as a defeat, though one from which, I trust, our men will take instruction rather than discouragement. Boxley proved worthy victors, and we look forward to meeting them again.

Wed 05 Jul 1882 🧢 1st XIv SC 1st Innings Collier Street CC · HomeformLLLLW

On Wednesday last, the fifth of July, we welcomed 1st Innings Collier Street CC to Linton Park, and I won the toss and elected to take the field first, trusting our bowlers to make early inroads. Nor were we disappointed, for our attack proved altogether too searching for the visitors' batsmen. F Laurence alone showed any real mastery of the conditions, compiling a watchful 20, while F Savage was sent back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers. It was Jack Fryer, however, who bowled quite magnificently, returning figures of seven wickets without cost, and he was well supported by Ernest Cruttenden and J Gurney, each of whom claimed wickets of their own, so that the visitors' innings closed in some disarray.

Our reply, I regret to record, was a disappointing affair. G C Froud and I were both dismissed without scoring, and the less said of my own effort at the wicket the better. Our innings closed well short of what was required, and we found ourselves beaten by 222 runs, a margin that leaves no room for complaint against the run of play.

There was, nonetheless, cause for quiet satisfaction amid the disappointment. Jack Fryer's afternoon's work carried him past fifty wickets in his career with the club, a fine landmark honestly earned. Ernest Cruttenden, too, had reason for pride, his runs carrying him past T Gandy into third place among our all-time run-scorers, and his wickets lifting him past W Crittenden into seventh among our leading wicket-takers. In the season's reckoning thus far, R H B Simpson continues to lead the run-scoring with 61, and Jack Fryer the wickets with 16.

It was not our day, and our visitors deserved their victory, secured as it was by disciplined batting throughout their innings. We return to the nets heartened nonetheless by such individual distinction as the afternoon afforded, and hopeful of better fortune in the matches to come.

Wed 28 Jun 1882 🧢 1st XIv Marden CC, Kent · HomeformWLLLL

On Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of June, we entertained Marden CC, of Kent, upon our own ground. The toss fell to me, and I lost no time in choosing to bat, the wicket appearing kindly enough to reward good strokeplay.

Our whole side was in due course returned to the pavilion, though not before some useful contributions had been made. I was glad to find my form and put together 32, while Ernest Cruttenden chipped in usefully with 14, a knock that carried him past F Danells into fifth place among the club's run-getters of all time. Poor J Sedgwick, alas, was dismissed without scoring, his was the solitary duck of our innings.

Taking the field in turn, our bowlers gave Marden no comfort whatever. Both F Tipping and R Cleaver were sent back for nought, and the day belonged entirely to Cruttenden, whose figures of seven wickets without conceding a run were as fine a piece of trundling as one could wish to see, lifting him past G Sedgwick into tenth upon our bowling honours. I was pleased to add a single wicket of my own to the reckoning.

We carried the day by the handsome margin of 172 runs. With the season well advanced, I find myself at the head of the first eleven's run charts for 1882 with 53, and Cruttenden leads the wicket-takers with eleven. Marden CC played throughout in the best of spirits, and we shall look forward keenly to renewing the fixture.

Wed 14 Jun 1882 🧢 1st XIv SC 1st Innings Boxley CC · AwayformLWLLL

Wednesday last, the fourteenth of June, found us away to Boxley, where I won the toss and chose to send our opponents in.

They made a fair fist of it, C W Battiscombe leading with a capital knock of 47, well supported by A Killick's 37. Yet our bowling held its nerve, and one of their number, C F Foster, was sent back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers. Jack Fryer did the greater share of the damage, returning the admirable figures of four wickets without cost, with X Ellis taking two and H Freed one, so that the innings closed rather sooner than its early promise suggested.

Our own turn at the wicket, I regret to say, brought little comfort. C Gibbs and J Mallard could manage nothing better than a duck apiece, and I must own to having done no better myself, a disappointment best passed over quickly. H Freed's five runs, modest though they were, carried him past J T Amies into eighth place among the club's run-scorers of all time, while Fryer's four wickets saw him pass Freed to stand first among our wicket-takers, no small distinction on such an afternoon. For the season, X Ellis continues to lead our run charts with 38, and the wicket charts stand, I am glad to note, to my own name with six.

We were beaten, in the end, by an innings and 91 runs. Boxley played much the better cricket throughout and deserved their victory handsomely. We shall look for sterner performances next week, and trust that practice will mend what fortune did not favour on this occasion.

Wed 24 May 1882 🧢 1st XIv SC 1st Innings Collier Street CC · AwayformWLWLL

We travelled to Collier Street on Wednesday last, and upon winning the toss I did not hesitate in electing to bat, a decision I still hold to have been sound, whatever fortune made of it thereafter. Our innings did not prosper as we might have wished, and both F Foster and A Tapsfield were sent back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers, their ducks a blemish upon an otherwise honourable effort by the remainder of the eleven.

Taking the field in our turn, our bowlers gave a rather better account of themselves. Ernest Cruttenden bowled with great control and discipline to return figures of four wickets without cost, a spell as fine as any seen at the ground this season, and I was glad to lend what support I could, finding some rhythm of my own to finish with like figures. Among those sent packing was their batsman F Hodges, dismissed without scoring.

The afternoon was not without its milestones. F Danells's innings of sixteen runs carried him past Ernest Cruttenden to sixth place among the club's all-time run-scorers, while G Sedgwick's solitary wicket lifted him past R Morris into tenth on the wicket-takers' list. In the season's own reckoning, E Gurney continues to head the run charts with twenty-five, and I find myself at the top of the wicket-takers with five.

In the end our opponents proved the stronger side and completed victory by seven wickets. We return home a little chastened but not disheartened, and shall hope to give a better account of ourselves next week.