🧢 Captain's Log

Fri 27 Aug 1886 🧢 1st XIv ? · AwayformLLLLL

We took the long road out on Friesday—er, Friday 27 August 1886, though where exactly the fixture list sent us has, I confess, slipped clean out of my scorebook. No matter: the cricket itself left its mark.

Asked to field first, we toiled honestly enough. Lieutenant Latter was the chief architect of their total, a watchful 21 that anchored things nicely from their end, before Tom Peach Snr turned the screw with a spell of real quality—6 for 0 off his allocation, a five-for and then some, the sort of figures a bowler dreams about on the walk to the ground and rarely gets to enjoy on the walk back. Their innings duly closed.

Our reply never quite found its rhythm. Arthur Cornwallis held firm and carried the innings with 22, and I did my modest bit alongside him with 22 of my own, but wickets went at the other end and we were bowled out in reply, beaten by 74 runs in the end.

There was, at least, one line worth framing for the clubhouse wall: Peach's six scalps carry him past Ernest Cruttenden and up to 7th on the club's all-time wicket-takers list. He now leads our 1886 wicket charts with those 6, while Cornwallis sits proudly atop the run charts with 128.

A hiding, then, but not a humiliation—we'll dust ourselves off and be better for it next week.

Wed 25 Aug 1886 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLLLLL

Wednesday last, the 25th of August, saw us play host to the visitors, and it was an afternoon that will live long in the memory of the Linton Park scorebook, if not in the result column.

With the bat, we found ourselves bowled out in the end, but what a innings we witnessed along the way. Arthur Cornwallis strode to the crease and simply refused to leave it, compiling a magnificent 106 — three figures, no less — while wickets fell around him at the other end. It is the sort of innings a captain dreams of and rarely gets: solitary, defiant, and utterly magnificent. I shall confess to no small amount of pride watching it unfold from the boundary's edge.

There was extra reason for celebration too, for that innings carried Cornwallis past the great C A Smith and into second place on the club's all-time run-scorers list — no mean feat, and one earned the hard way, ball by ball. He now sits proudly atop this season's 1st XI run charts as well, with those same 106 runs leading the way.

As for the match itself, we came up short in the end and must chalk it up as one that got away. But a defeat softened by an innings like that is no defeat at all in spirit. We shall dust ourselves down, raise a glass to Cornwallis in the pavilion, and go again next week wiser for the experience.

Sat 31 Jul 1886 🧢 House Teamv ? · HomeformLLLW

Saturday the 31st of July, 1886, and Linton Park at home – bunting more or less metaphorical, tea more or less on time. I won't pretend the top of our order gave the scorer much to do, but what we lacked in numbers we made up for in one rather glorious exception.

I'll confess to a certain private satisfaction in leading from the front with 106 – three figures, since you ask, and don't mind if I mention it twice, because a captain's ton doesn't come along every Saturday, or indeed every decade. F S W Cornwallis, for it was I, can now also report that this innings carries rather more weight than the scoreline alone suggests: it has nudged me past Arthur Cornwallis into third on the club's all-time run-scorers list, and left me sitting second in this year's House Team run charts. Family pride, no doubt, will be insufferable at supper.

For all that, the match itself would not go our way, and the lads trooped off rather more chastened than the individual highlights might suggest. A score of one hundred and six from the captain is a fine thing to put in the book; it is not, on its own, a cricket team.

So: heads up, back to the nets, and rather more support required from the other end next time. A personal triumph, then, but a collective lesson – and Linton Park will take both home with equal grace.

Wed 14 Jul 1886 🧢 House Teamv The Mote CC · AwayformLLL

We won the toss at The Mote and I had no hesitation electing to bat — the pitch had a good look to it, and for once my judgement wasn't found wanting. Walter Wright played the innings of the day, a well-crafted fifty (55) that gave the innings its backbone, with X Attewell (43) and W N Cobbold (35) chipping in handsomely round him. Down the order it was a rather less distinguished tale — L Friend and the Rev Thomas Burra both endured the long, lonely walk back for nought, proof that not even the clergy are spared cricket's cruelties.

Defending the total, we were rampant. C Lake's 23 was as good as it got for the home side, who found no answer to X Attewell, whose 7-0 was a five-for and thoroughly deserved — the pick of a fine attack, with Walter Wright (3-0) mopping up nicely at the other end. As for your captain, I shall draw a discreet veil over proceedings save to note a golden blob was recorded against my name; leadership by example is a fine principle, though evidently not one I extended to the bat today.

There were milestones to toast regardless — Arthur Cornwallis's 29 eased him past W Goad into 3rd on the club's all-time run-scorers list, while Attewell's seven-for lifted him past N T Nickolls into 19th among the wicket-takers, and both sit handsomely in this season's House Team charts besides. We ran out winners by 100 runs. A thumping margin, a proud day, and — golden duck notwithstanding — a very good one for the club.

Fri 04 Jun 1886 🧢 House Teamv The Mote CC · HomeformLL

The toss went against us, as tosses so often do at Linton Park, and The Mote CC elected to bat on a Friday that promised more from the sky than it delivered. We took to the field in good heart, and were rewarded when H Timins found some devilish spin, finishing with five for none — bowling of the sort that makes a captain forget his knees. H Hearne and Tom Peach Snr chipped in with two apiece, and J Noakes departed for a duck at our hands, but F M Atkins's well-made fifty of 60, ably supported by A J Thornton's 54 and Rev H Trower's unbeaten 36, gave the visitors the runs that would prove decisive.

Our reply never quite found its rhythm. H Timins, having terrorised them with the ball, then top-scored with 34, with Arthur Cornwallis a handy 22 alongside him, but the middle order rather collapsed in sympathy — ducks for Tom Peach Snr, F S W Cornwallis and J F Cornish, and your captain, I regret to report, also fell for nought. We shall draw a veil over that particular effort.

There was, at least, some cheer amid the wreckage: Arthur Cornwallis's innings carried him past T Gandy to 5th on the club's all-time run-scorers list, and Tom Peach Snr's two wickets nudged him past R Morris into 12th among our wicket-takers — with L Friend and H Timins both flying the flag near the top of this season's charts. But 22 runs separated the sides at the close. We'll be better for it next week.

Thu 03 Jun 1886 🧢 House Teamv ? · HomeformL

Thursday brought the sort of afternoon we live for, and I won the toss and, with the square looking full of runs, had no hesitation in sending us in to bat.

What followed was, in truth, a bit of a one-man show. C A Smith simply refused to get out, compiling a magnificent 144 while wickets fell around him — a captain's innings if ever I saw one, and I should know, as I was rather glad it wasn't me having to explain a golden duck to the tea ladies. It was, by some distance, the innings of our season so far, and fittingly enough it also carried Smith past W Goad and into 2nd on the club's all-time run-scorers list — the sort of thing that gets mentioned in hushed tones at the bar for weeks to come.

Sadly, all that fine batting from one end could not disguise the fact that the rest of us treated our creases as strictly temporary accommodation, and we were bowled out for considerably less than we'd hoped. The opposition made light work of the chase thereafter, running out winners by 144 runs — a margin that rather matched Smith's score, which felt almost too neat to be entirely comfortable.

All told: one great innings, one poor supporting cast, and a defeat that stings rather more for how avoidable it looked. We'll regroup, we'll bowl straighter, and we'll bat around Smith rather than watch him bat alone. Next week, please.