🧢 Captain's Log

Fri 22 Jul 1887 🧢 House Teamv The Mote CC · HomeformLLLWL

Since 22 July 1887, Linton Park have hosted The Mote CC — I won the toss and elected to bat, and I still maintain it was the right call, whatever the boys mutter about my judgement on such matters. A M Streatfield played the innings of the day, motoring past his fifty to finish on 73, and found willing company in W N Cobbold, whose 34 kept the scoreboard ticking along nicely. Not every man can claim such glory, of course — C Pocock's contribution with the bat was a golden duck, though as will become clear, he made ample amends with the ball. We were all out, and handsomely so.

With such a total to defend, the lads took the field with a spring in their step, and it showed. K McAlpine and C W Stratford were both sent back without so much as a run to show for their trouble, and the opposition never recovered from there. Walter Wright was quite magnificent, claiming a five-for in figures of 6-0 that will live long in the memory, while C Pocock backed up his bowling with 4-0 of his own. I contributed a modest 15 to proceedings, more spectator than protagonist as the innings folded — The Mote, too, were dismissed for nought.

A word for the record books: Arthur Cornwallis's 16 runs carried him past W H Fryer to the very top of the club's all-time run-scorers list, while Walter Wright's nine wickets this match lifted him past Tom Peach Snr into 7th on the all-time wicket-takers' roll. Streatfield and Wright now sit proudly atop the 1887 season charts besides. A win by an innings and 26 runs — one can hardly ask for tidier work. Onwards.

Wed 22 Jun 1887 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLLLLL

Wednesday 22nd June, 1887, and the visitors rolled up on a fine afternoon looking rather too pleased with themselves — and, I confess, with good reason as things turned out.

Winning the toss, I opted to have first use of the ball, fancying our chances of skittling them early. It didn't quite go to plan, and the tail wagged rather more than we'd have liked before we finally had them all out. Still, cricket is a game of two innings, and we strode out with the bat determined to make a fist of it.

I'll not pretend the top order fired as one might hope, but H Vaughton played an absolute gem — 124 of the finest, carrying the innings almost single-handedly while the rest of us made our various contributions around him, extras chipping in a generous 43 for good measure. As it happens, your humble captain also contributed 124, which I mention purely for the record and not out of any vanity. That innings, incidentally, sees Vaughton leapfrog W Goad into 5th on the club's all-time run-scorers list, and it puts him top of the 1887 1st XI run charts to boot — the boy's in some form.

Sadly, form alone wasn't enough. We went down by an innings and 59 runs, a margin that rather flatters the opposition's bowling and rather less flatters ours. Not our day, then — heads up, chins out, and back to the nets we go.

Wed 15 Jun 1887 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLLLLL

Wednesday 15th June, 1887, and we welcomed our visitors to Linton Park under skies that, for once, weren't threatening anything worse than a light breeze. Skipper's prerogative saw us bowl first, and for a while it looked the shrewder call — F Killick back in the pavilion without troubling the scorers, and Walter Wright turning in a spell of real quality, five wickets for not a run conceded, the sort of figures a man dines out on for a season. Rev Thomas Burra chipped in handsomely too with four of his own, though W F Best's 24 kept the innings ticking along longer than we'd have liked.

Our reply, alas, told a rather different tale. G Knight batted beautifully for his fifty-seven, well supported by F M Atkins with 29 and George Champion's 28, but support around them was thin on the ground, and poor Jack Fryer's duck rather summed up the afternoon for the rest of us. We folded well short of what was required, and finished up losing by an innings and 43 runs — the sort of margin that has a man studying his bootlaces rather more than the scorebook.

Small mercies amid the wreckage: Walter Wright's 22 runs eased him past F F Crawford into 8th on the club's all-time run list, and his six wickets carried him past F Garrett into 15th among our leading wicket-takers — a fine all-round day's work lost in a poor team one. Not our afternoon, then, but the nets beckon, and we'll be back.