🧢 Captain's Log

Sun 05 Sep 1943 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLLLLL

Beaten by 16 runs at home on a fine Sunday, but there was plenty to be cheerful about.

Winning the toss, I had no hesitation in batting first — and I'll stand by that call even as the scorebook shows we were all out. Herbert Rayner played the innings of the day, a really fine 54, with Stan Wratten's 25 and Gordon Fenner's unbeaten 22 giving it proper backbone. Not a total to frighten anyone, perhaps, but enough to make a game of it.

And what a game it became. The opposition raced to 131 all out in just 19.4 overs, X Mills (40) and X White (39) doing the early damage, but we clawed our way back into it in the field. From 50-2 to 56-5 in the blink of an eye, and X Mellows sent packing without so much as a single to his name — always a pleasure to watch. Gordon Fenner was superb with the ball, 3-31 to go with his runs, Herbert Wratten chipped in with 3-33, and M Patey took 2-31. My own 54 with the bat felt like a fair contribution to the cause, and it was rather nice to learn afterwards that it had eased Herbert Rayner past Jack Fryer into 5th on the club's all-time run-scorers list — Stan Wratten and Gordon Fenner continue to lead the way in this year's run and wicket charts respectively.

Sixteen runs the margin in the end — closer than the top order probably deserved, and closer than the bowlers' efforts merited losing by. We'll be better for it next week.

Sat 21 Aug 1943 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformWLLLL

Not our day, but Maurice Fenner's fifty past his fifty and a spell for the ages from Herbert Rayner made it a Saturday worth writing home about.

I called it right at the toss and, with the sun out at home, there was never any doubt — we were batting. It didn't start well, an early wicket down with just 7 on the board leaving a few of us chewing our fingernails on the boundary, but Maurice Fenner played the innings of the day, 53 to the good, with Gordon Fenner chipping in a fine 35 alongside him. A flurry of wickets from 82 to 96 threatened to undo the good work, but a defiant 67-run stand for the ninth wicket — the sort of partnership that gets talked about in the bar for weeks — hauled us up to 163 all out, with 26 extras doing their bit too.

Defending it, we turned to Herbert Rayner, and what a day he chose: 7 for 24, a five-for and then some, the pick of a spell that will live long in the memory and duly moved him past Ernest Cruttenden into 3rd on the club's all-time wicket-takers list. Gordon Fenner backed him up nicely with 2 for 28 and a couple of maidens for good measure. Only L Wynn, unbeaten on 47, stood firm as the rest subsided, and they were bowled out for 108.

Frank Sutton's useful 15 nudged him past F E Wallis into 18th on the run-scorers' list — small mercies. But 55 runs is 55 runs, and it wasn't our day. Heads up, and back to the nets.

Sun 25 Jul 1943 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLWLLL

Sunday 25 July 1943, and a fine afternoon it was for cricket, if not for our bowling figures nor, in due course, our batting. We won the toss and put the visitors in, and for a while it looked a sound decision — 5-1 had them wobbling early. But X Miroy dug in for an unbeaten 37, Sergeant Smith chipped in with 20, and between them they steadied the ship to 100 all out from 27 overs. Gordon Fenner was the pick of our attack with 4-24, well backed by Herbert Sunley's 3-15 and a single strike from Herbert Wratten. We sent Newport, Larking and Luckhurst back cheaply enough, so 100 seemed a target well within our compass.

It did not prove so. George Winter's 27 and Jimmy Jameson's 23 were the mainstay, but wickets clattered from 76-4 to 77-7 in the sort of collapse that gives a captain grey hairs, and we were bowled out for 112 — no, wait, 112 from 28.2 overs was in fact enough, and yet somehow it wasn't. Gordon Fenner, Frank Sutton and D Sells all made the long walk for nought, and I led from the front with a duck of my own, over which the least said the better.

There was a silver lining or two: Herbert Rayner's 15 runs saw him leapfrog Rev F A Leveson-Gower into 7th on the all-time run charts, and Herbert Sunley's three wickets took him past W H Fryer into 12th on the all-time list. Small mercies. All told, not our day. Heads up, chins high, and back to the nets.

Sun 11 Jul 1943 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformLLWLL

It was a chastening Sunday at home in Linton Park, and I'll spare you the false modesty: 168 was gettable, and we got nowhere near it.

Put into the field, we watched Frost play a proper captain's innings of 72, well supported by Bewley's 32, as the opposition rebuilt from an early wobble at 6-1 with a sturdy 61-run fourth-wicket stand. Once that partnership broke the innings folded in a hurry, 165-7 becoming 168 all out almost before the tea urn had boiled. Gordon Fenner was magnificent throughout, a career-best 6-30 that sends him past Rev Thomas Burra into 5th on the club's all-time wicket-takers list, with Stan Wratten (2-53) and J. Harrington (1-17) chipping away at the other end.

Chasing 169, we never found our rhythm. An early wicket for nought set the tone, and Jimmy Jameson's battling 35 — enough to move him past Leslie Wilson into 25th on the run-scorers list — was very much a lone hand. From 63-4 to 72-7 the innings simply capitulated, with Wratten, Winter and Bunting all departing for ducks, and we subsided to 96 all out. Fifteen byes, meanwhile, made for uncomfortable reading behind the stumps for poor Maurice Fenner.

There were individual honours amid the wreckage — Herbert Rayner still 3rd in the season's run charts, Gordon Fenner leading the wicket charts with 45 — but they were cold comfort on the day. A 72-run defeat, and not our finest hour. Heads up, chins out, and back to the nets.

Sun 23 May 1943 🧢 1st XIv ? · HomeformWLLWL

Sunday last, the 23rd of May, we hosted our visitors at home, and having called correctly at the toss I had no hesitation whatsoever in sending us in to bat. It looked the right call early doors — the openers put on a splendid 63 before the first wicket fell, and from there E Humphreys led the way with 40, Jimmy Jameson stayed unbeaten on a watchful 35, and F Weedon chipped in with 32 as we finished on a healthy 150 for 5 from our 34 overs. Not every name graced the honours board, mind — K Symonds and Herbert Sunley both departed for ducks, a reminder that this game keeps us humble.

Out in the field the opposition made us toil, reaching 155 for 7 from 27.5 overs to take it by three wickets. Lawes was the chief tormentor with a fine unbeaten 73, well supported by Lamb's 39, the pair putting on 83 for the seventh wicket when the match should long since have been ours. Herbert Sunley was pick of our bowlers with 3 for 52, I contributed 2 for 48, and Gordon Fenner took 1 for 44.

A word on the milestones, since the club ledger cares little for the final score: my 24 runs today carried me past J N Tonge into 10th on the all-time run-scorers' list, while Gordon's wicket did the same for him at 18th among the wicket-takers. Humphreys still leads our 1943 run charts with 124, and Fenner tops the wickets with 10.

Not our day, then — but heads up, and back to the nets.