🧢 Captain's Log

Mon 07 Aug 1899 🧢 1st XIv RC Rochester CC · HomeformLWLLL

Here's the report:

Monday, the 7th of August, and Rochester CC came calling on a day when the toss decided against us — they elected to bat, and off we trooped into the field with more hope than expectation. L Cooper set about us for 49, with R H Wakeley (33) and F M Atkins (31) lending sturdy support, and it was left to George Champion to drag us back into it with a magnificent 4 for 0, backed up handsomely by the Hon J R Tufton, whose 4 for 26 came wrapped in six maidens of positively miserly intent. Arthur Cornwallis chipped in with 2 for 0, and F C Boucher and G L Mitchell both departed without troubling the scorer — small mercies, gratefully received.

Our reply never quite found its rhythm. J N Tonge played the innings of the day with a fine 45, ably assisted by the Hon J R Tufton's 26, but P T Oyler's blank duck rather summed up our fortunes, and the rest of the card offered little cheer. I did manage four wickets myself, which was some consolation on an otherwise chastening afternoon.

There were bright notes amid the gloom — Tonge's 45 nudges him past Ernest Cruttenden to fifth on the club's all-time run-scorers list, and Cornwallis's brace lifts him past G Sedgwick to twenty-first among our wicket-takers, while Champion continues to lead both the season's run and wicket charts in some style.

But history and statistics are cold comfort when the result reads defeat by 63 runs. Not our day, lads — heads up, and back to the nets.

Sat 05 Aug 1899 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLLWLL

Saturday 05 August 1899. Won the toss, and with the sky looking kind I had no hesitation in sending us in first — a decision I felt rather clever about at the time.

The lads set about it with George Champion in irresistible form, cracking a magnificent 65, well past his fifty, before the tail folded and the innings closed. Rev J R Leigh chipped in with a composed 48 and C N Watney added a useful 42, the sort of middle-order graft that so often goes unsung in these pages but shouldn't.

Out in the field we fancied our chances, and how the lads delivered. Captain Dick's half-century of 50 was the only real resistance the opposition could muster, for Major Young, X Teacher and X Hull all trooped back without so much as a run to their name. George Champion, not content with his runs, tore through them with 7-0, well supported by Rev Thomas Burra's 3-0 — bowling of the highest order.

A day for the record books regardless of the result: Champion brought up 1,000 career runs and 100 career wickets in the same afternoon, and leapfrogged Jack Fryer to sit first on the club's all-time wicket-takers list — he now leads our 1899 charts for both bat and ball. Leigh, meanwhile, edged past W H Patterson into 17th on the all-time run-scorers list.

For all that individual brilliance, the maths did us no favours and we went down by 194 runs. Not our day, but with form like Champion's in the side, heads stay up. Back to the nets.

Wed 12 Jul 1899 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformWLLWL

Left arm around a well-worn stump at Linton Park, and I won't pretend the coin toss wasn't the highlight of my captaincy this week. Called it right, though, and with the sun out and the outfield fast I never hesitated - we were batting first.

G Kemp gave us something to shout about, a fine seventy-seven that anchored the innings and, we're reliably informed, nudged him past G J V Weigall and into 13th on the club's all-time run-scorers list. Not bad for a Wednesday. He now sits fourth in this season's run charts too, which is the sort of statistic that gets mentioned rather too often in the clubhouse.

With the ball I did my best to lead from the front, contributing seventy-seven of my own, though leading from the front counts for little when the lads behind you can't quite follow. Their innings closed and, when the arithmetic was done, we'd fallen short by thirty-two runs.

A defeat, then, but not a chastening one. Kemp's innings will live longer in the memory than the scoreline, and there's a certain comfort in losing well rather than winning badly - or so I keep telling myself. We'll dust ourselves off, have a word about tightening things up, and be better for it next week.

Sat 08 Jul 1899 🧢 1st XIv YC Yalding CC · AwayformDWLLW

Skipper's Log — Saturday 08 July 1899, away to Yalding CC

We lost the toss, which these days feels less like bad luck and more like tradition, and duly found ourselves in the field first. Yalding made hay of the opportunity, with G A T Salmon compiling a thoroughly polished 72 that we simply couldn't prise him away from, and A F Gurney chipping in a stout 35 alongside him. All told it was the sort of stand that has opposing captains rearranging their fields and reconsidering their life choices in equal measure.

Chasing was always going to be a stern task, and so it proved. Tom Peach Snr batted with real application for his 35 — enough, pleasingly, to lodge him fourth in our 1899 run charts — and had good company from Jack Fryer's 30. I contributed a modest 30 of my own, more through stubbornness than style, but the middle order couldn't quite conjure the partnership we needed, and the innings folded up around us rather too obligingly.

In the end we went down by 59 runs, a margin that flatters neither the scorebook nor the state of my knees after an afternoon chasing leather. Yalding were the better side on the day and deserve their win; we were competitive in patches without ever threatening to be troublesome. There's plenty to take from it all the same — runs in the book for Peach and Fryer, and a batting effort that showed more backbone than the final total suggests. We'll dust ourselves down, have a word about our shot selection over a pint, and come back sharper next week.

Wed 05 Jul 1899 🧢 1st XIv BC Brenchley CC · HomeformLDWLL

Wednesday 5 July 1899, and Brenchley CC rolled up hoping for tea, sympathy and a few cheap runs. They got two out of three. Losing the toss and being put in to field is never how one wants to start the afternoon, but the lads set about it with proper purpose. J A Perkins made merry with an unbeaten 65, well supported by C Harris (38) and W Hodges (22), yet it was George Champion who owned the day entire — five wickets for not a run conceded, a spell to make the scorebook blush. Sterling support came from S Mendel, whose eight maidens suggest the Brenchley batsmen spent long spells simply admiring the Kent scenery, and H Pile chipped in handsomely too.

Then to the small matter of chasing it down. Arthur Cornwallis played an innings of real substance, a chanceless-looking century, with H Pile again to the fore past his own fifty. Not everything in the garden was rosy — Ernest Cruttenden and A G Oyler both departed for ducks, proof that cricket retains its capacity for cruelty even on a good day. But good days are made in the middle overs, not the scorebook footnotes, and we got home by three wickets.

And your correspondent, rather sheepishly, took five with the ball himself — the sort of afternoon a captain dares not mention twice for fear of tempting fate. Cornwallis now leads our run charts, Champion the wickets. A thoroughly satisfactory day for Linton Park. Onwards.

Sat 17 Jun 1899 🧢 1st XIv SS Sutton Valence School · HomeformLLDWL

Beaten by 132 runs, but honestly, we knew what we were up against the moment the coin came down wrong on Saturday. Sutton Valence School batted first and made hay while I stood at slip watching J B Shaw compile a rather magnificent 91, with H W Hunting (74) and Rev R E Lewis (65) offering plenty of ecclesiastical and secular support respectively. F B Leney toiled manfully for his 3-93 and, I might add, bowled ten maidens in the process — a spell of genuine miserliness that deserved a better return. Rev Thomas Burra and Arthur Cornwallis chipped in with a wicket apiece, proof that the Almighty does occasionally answer a bowler's prayers.

Our reply never quite got up a head of steam. I was rather chuffed to lead from the front with 69 not out — though "leading from the front" when your side is chasing a mountain has a certain hollow ring to it — while T J Dewe (25) and F B Leney (24) did their honest best around me. Less gloriously, F Smith, W L Meade and Rev Thomas Burra all made the sorrowful walk for nought, swelling the Duck Club to capacity; the Reverend, at least, can claim the rare distinction of a wicket and a duck in the same afternoon.

So it stands: I lead the run charts, Leney the wickets, and Sutton Valence lead the scoreboard by 132 runs. A chastening day, but not a discouraging one — we'll regroup, we'll bowl straighter, and we'll be considerably better for it next week.