🧢 Captain's Log

Mon 05 Aug 1912 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLDLLD

Monday last, the 5th of August, saw us play host under skies that promised more than they delivered — and it must be said the same could be levelled at our bowling for the better part of the afternoon. Put in to bowl, we watched B G Ellis compile a really rather magnificent 84 not out, ably supported by C H Ellis's fine 72 and C W Howlett's equally handsome 66 — the sort of stand that has a captain rearranging his field with increasing desperation and diminishing effect. Credit where due: H G Smith eventually found his rhythm to take 3 wickets, with Charles Wycherley and Ernest Cruttenden chipping in two apiece, but by then the horse had rather bolted.

Our reply never threatened to trouble the scorers in the way our opponents had troubled ours. Guy Bracher led the way with a spirited 43, Charles Wycherley added 24, P Le Feaver 21, and I contributed a workmanlike 17 of my own before the innings folded.

There was, at least, cause for quiet pride amid the wreckage: Bracher's 43 carried him past W H Fryer to 16th on the club's all-time run-scorers' list, while Smith's three wickets lifted him past H Freed into 5th among our leading wicket-takers. Bracher continues to lead our 1912 run charts with 108, and Smith sits second among the season's bowlers with 3.

Beaten by 157 runs, then — a proper hiding, no dressing it up. We'll be better for it next week.

Sat 03 Aug 1912 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLLDLL

Saturday the 3rd of August, 1912, and we welcomed our visitors to the ground with the sun obligingly out and my luck rather better than usual — the coin fell our way, and I had no hesitation in asking us to bat.

We batted right through the innings before the last wicket finally went down, which on a good pitch is exactly the sort of stubbornness a captain likes to see. Guy Bracher led things off with a well-made fifty of 65, and he was handsomely supported by A C Hills, who eased past his own half-century with 62, and the Reverend F A Leveson-Gower, who matched him run for run with 62 of his own — proof, if any were needed, that the Church knows its way around a cricket bat. The extras column, ever a reliable batting partner, chipped in a generous 52. Tucked away in the middle order, F S W Cornwallis's unassuming 7 runs turned out to carry rather more weight than the scoreboard let on, easing him past Jack Fryer and into 4th on the club's all-time run-scorers list.

In the field we gave as good as we got, though R K Price and H C Baird made us toil for every wicket with fine half-centuries of 81 and 76, and A E Paret weighed in with 66. Poor K McAlpine departed for a duck, courtesy of R H Mitchell, who bowled beautifully for three, with G H Cartwright and C Norman chipping in one apiece. My own 62 was a satisfying afternoon's work.

In the end neither side could force the issue, and honours were shared — a fair result, and rather a pleasant one to walk off with.