🗓️ 21 Jun – 27 Jun 1941 · 1941 — 1 match
🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformWWLLWSunday 22 June 1941, and I won the toss, elected to bat, and told myself it was the right call — a captain has to believe in something. We stumbled from the very first over, a wicket down with just one run on the board, but Joe Fenner steadied things with a fine 26, and between him and a splendidly generous 39 extras we crept towards respectability. Then, as is our club's particular gift, the innings simply fell over — 121 for 7 to 128 all out in the time it takes to put the kettle on, with Richard Harris, J Wenham and Don Hartridge all completing the walk of shame for a duck apiece. One hundred and seventeen from 23.5 overs felt light, but not hopeless.
It very nearly wasn't. Their reply began with the same nervous stumble as ours, 0 for 1, and from there we simply ran riot. Dennis Smith span a web through their order for a magnificent 5 for 29, with Gordon Fenner and R Dann chipping in either side, and R- Mills, P- Bailey and G- Nurse all departed without scoring as the innings collapsed from 24 for 4 to 27 for 7 and finally out for 38 in 14 overs.
Two names for the record books: Joe Fenner's 26 eased him past Guy Bracher into 18th on the all-time run-scorers' list, and Dennis Smith's five-for lifted him past W H Fryer into 10th among the wicket-takers — not bad going for an afternoon that began so shakily.
And yet, in the great mystery of village cricket arithmetic, 38 beat 117, and we lost by 88 runs. We'll be better for it next week.