🗓️ 08 Jul – 14 Jul 1939 · 1939 — 1 match
🧢 1st XIv CK Castle Hill CC, Kent · AwayformLWWWWSaturday 08 July 1939 – Away to Castle Hill CC, Kent
Lost the toss, and Castle Hill, sensing damp in the air or simply fancying their luck, sent us out into the field first. Whatever their reasoning, it backfired spectacularly: they were skittled for nought, the entire innings gone without so much as a scoreboard flicker. Sidney and Dennis Nightingale, presumably wondering why they'd bothered padding up at all, went back without troubling the scorers themselves — a family double-duck to treasure, or perhaps quietly forget. The real story with the ball was A Pratt, scything through the order for a magnificent 6-39, with Herbert Rayner mopping up admirably at 4-23. Between them there was barely a Castle Hill batsman left standing.
Our reply, in the finest traditions of reciprocal collapse, also folded for nought — Pratt again the shining light with 44 to his name, doing more work with bat and ball in one afternoon than most of us manage in a season.
Off the field, warm applause for Pratt, whose six wickets nudge him past T Gandy and up to 16th on the club's all-time list — a fitting reward for a man now sitting proudly atop both the 1939 run and wicket charts.
A curious afternoon of ducks and dominance, but a win by any margin is a win. Onwards.
🗓️ 17 Jun – 23 Jun 1939 · 1939 — 1 match
🧢 1st XIv CK Castle Hill CC, Kent · AwayformWLWWWThe heavens smiled on Castle Hill CC, Kent, last Saturday, though rather less so on my tossing arm — down it went, and they had no hesitation in putting us in.
We shuffled and stumbled our way through to being all out, saved from complete ignominy by Herbert Rayner, whose unbeaten 31 was a lone lighthouse in an otherwise foggy innings. X Rayner and E Hayes, alas, contributed nothing but a brace of ducks between them, the sort of golden nought that makes for excellent conversation in the tea interval and rather less excellent reading on the scorecard.
Out we went to bowl with something to prove, and prove it we did. Castle Hill fared no better than we had, likewise dismissed for the same tally, with Donald Adams and John Elphick both back in the pavilion without troubling the scorers. The star turn was A Pratt, spinning a web few of them could escape, finishing with a startling 6 for 31. Herbert Rayner chipped in again with 2 for none, and Bert Buckoke picked up one for good measure, while I did my modest bit with 31 of my own.
Worth noting for posterity: Pratt's six-for nudges him past Arthur Cornwallis into 24th on the club's all-time wicket-takers' list — a fine addition to a fine afternoon. Rayner and Pratt now sit atop this season's run and wicket charts respectively.
A win by 13 runs, snatched from the jaws of a distinctly wobbly batting display. We'll take it, and gladly.