🧢 Captain's Log

Sun 02 Sep 1945 🧢 1st XIv SM 1st Innings MCPC · HomeformDWLDL

On the second Sunday of September we welcomed Mcpc to Linton Park under skies kind enough for cricket, and I had no hesitation in sending them in when the toss fell my way. It proved a shrewd decision, for they never quite settled, losing an early wicket with the total on a bare two and never entirely recovering their composure. E. Hodges played the innings of the day for them with a well-made 26, but the tail found little comfort, and C. Edwards and K. Wells departed without so much as troubling the scorers. The bowling honours belonged unmistakably to J. Jerman, whose 7 for 48 was a spell of real quality and richly deserved reward, with Gordon Fenner chipping in usefully at 2 for 18. Mcpc were all out for 98 in 23.2 overs.

Our reply was built soundly upon Stan Wratten, who batted with great good sense to finish 56 not out, well supported by Gordon Fenner's brisk 24. D. Clark and Jimmy Jameson both fell without scoring, though the tail wagged gamely enough, and Frank Sutton had a trying afternoon behind the stumps, conceding fourteen byes. I was glad to contribute 18 of my own, and happier still that the innings brought up my thousand runs for the club, a small landmark warmly received. Wratten's fifty carried him past F. S. W. Cornwallis into fifth place among our all-time run-scorers, while Jameson's solitary wicket edged him past J. Woollett on the bowling list.

We closed on 133 for 7 and took the match by an innings and 34 runs, two well-earned points against opponents who played the game in the right spirit throughout.

Sat 01 Sep 1945 🧢 1st XIv HC Harrietsham CC · AwayformWDWLD

Herbert Rayner led the eleven out to Harrietsham last Saturday, and a keener contest you could not wish for. I lost the toss and Harrietsham chose to bat, so we had first use of the ball on a wicket that gave little away. Their openers made a solid fist of it, putting on 54 before we broke through, and R Parsons went on to a fine unbeaten 62, well supported by A Goodhew's 26. Wakefield, Hutchins and Jordan came and went for ducks apiece, small mercies amid the runs, and I was fortunate enough to take 4 for 55, with good support from Peel-Yates, 2 for 60, Stan Wratten, 1 for 13, and four tidy maidens from Gordon Fenner. Harrietsham were all out for 167 from 45.5 overs.

We began our reply in good heart, Tom Osborn playing the innings of the day for a fine 64, and a stand of 81 for the second wicket, in which I made 44, promised a comfortable afternoon. But from 126 for 2 the innings slipped alarmingly to 146 for 5, Osborn's gloves costing sixteen byes along the way, and though the tail wagged gamely we could muster only 164 all out, three runs shy of our target.

There was cause for quiet celebration even in defeat. Stan Wratten's 20 carried him past Ernest Cruttenden to seventh on the club's all-time run-scorers, and my four wickets took me past Jack Fryer into second on the bowling list, while Osborn and I sit handsomely atop this season's run and wicket charts. A splendid, sporting game, honours fairly to Harrietsham, and we return to the nets already looking forward to the next.

Sun 26 Aug 1945 🧢 1st XIv SL 1st Innings Fifth Leicester · HomeformWWDWL

It was 1st Innings Fifth Leicester at home, and the coin having fallen kindly for us, I had no hesitation in sending our visitors into the field. It seemed a bright enough notion at the time.

Our innings never quite settled into its stride. T Crawford led the way with a fine 33, and Jimmy Jameson gave him staunch support with 24 not out, but between them the middle order rather lost its head, 56 for 3 becoming 67 for 6 almost before one had settled into one's deckchair. D Paine and I must both confess to golden ducks in that unhappy passage, and I fear the captain's example was not the one to be followed that afternoon, a batsman must lead from the front, and on this occasion I led rather too swiftly back to the pavilion. We were all out for 123 in 51.2 overs, a total that owed more to the tail's application than the top order might have wished.

In the field the eleven made amends handsomely, keeping Fifth Leicester to their crease without managing to prise out a single wicket before stumps brought the affair to its close, honours shared and neither side able to force the issue.

It should not pass unremarked that Jimmy Jameson's useful 24 carried him past F E Wallis and up to twentieth on the club's all-time list of run-scorers, a quiet distinction earned in the middle of a difficult day. Crawford, meanwhile, sits proudly atop our 1945 charts. A draw, then, and honours shared, but a sporting and good-humoured contest throughout, very much in the traditions of the club.

Sun 06 May 1945 🧢 1st XIv HB Home Guard - Royal West Kent 11th Battalion · AwayformWWWDW

On Sunday last we took the field against the Home Guard eleven of the Royal West Kent 11th Battalion, and elected to have first use of the ball, fancying there might be something in the pitch for our bowlers before the sun got properly to work on it.

We were not disappointed. The Home Guard were dismissed for 82 in 22.2 overs, Chambers alone giving the innings any real substance with a well-made 32, while poor Mugford was sent back without so much as troubling the scorers. Gordon Fenner was in his finest form, taking 3 for 20 with two maidens thrown in for good measure, and found willing support from Stan Wratten with 2 for 14 and from myself, who was fortunate enough to finish with 2 for 18. It was, I might add, a happy afternoon for Fenner in another respect, his tally passing the hundred wickets mark for his career, a fine landmark honestly earned.

Alas, our reply never quite gathered the momentum the bowling had promised us, and we were all out in our turn, saved from complete embarrassment only by E Humphreys, who carried the innings with a plucky 32 of his own, enough to lift him past J N Tonge into twelfth place on the club's all-time run-scorers list. Wratten's two wickets, meanwhile, carried him past T Gandy into twenty-third among our wicket-takers, a season already promising much.

In the end we fell short by 15 runs, but there was nothing in the manner of the contest to leave us downhearted, and we head back to the nets in good heart for the next fixture.