Old Blues vs Old Reigatians, Sunday 31st May 2009, Cricket World Trophy round 2

The scene was set - a strong eleven, a beautiful Summer's day and a change of ground from Reigate to CH, meaning the cup 2nd round fixture became a home rather than an away fixture. Could the Old Blues start the 2009 season as hoped, with a cup victory?

Old Reigatians are the current "Cricket World Trophy" holders, having defeated Old Oakhamians in the final in 2008, and whilst only a handful of the same side played, we knew they would be a strong opposition. There were debuts for the Old Blues for a number of players: Richard Stringfellow (1998), Hugo Holland (2001), George Hobden and Andy Whittingham (2008). As has been the case for the last few years, getting a side out was a bit of a struggle but when we had eleven confirmed we felt that we had a decent side, with lots of runs in the top order but a few bowlers who might be a little rusty. How wrong could we be?!

On arrival at CH, it was clear that everyone was up for it. People had travelled a long way and at 10.50am, 10 mins before the proposed start time, all were present and correct apart from the Skipper, and James Mitra. Mitty had stayed at the Davey's residence the night before on school grounds yet managed to be the last to arrive! Might need to start a fines system for that?!

Carl, who is now the regular Cup Skipper, boasted of an immaculate winning record with the toss - we wanted to field first due to our decent batting line up and the chance of chasing some runs down, so he duly lost the toss, but we were made to field anyway. Thank God for that!

Opening up were Jim Berressem from the Southwater (tenuous, I know - anyone got any better ideas?) end and George Hobden from the New South Block end! Reigate showed positivity with their batting from the start, but the variety of Jim bowling left arm over across the right hander and George pushing it through and varying his length caused them some problems. In the 5th over, the breakthrough was made with a fine edge, being superbly caught by "Stumper" Dean low to his left, one handed. I don't know if we credit his agility or the new cymbals he was sporting for the fact it stayed in! Rob Young, the Reigate skipper came in at 3 and took a while to get going, whilst at the other end, wickets began to fall with regularity. George got involved with a straight one that cleaned up the other opener and followed it swiftly in his next over with a wicket caught (not sure who caught that one, sorry!). 33 for 3 after 10, a great start!

Into the act came Richard Stringfellow and James Maxwell jnr. I don't think Richard has bowled more than a couple of times since leaving CH 11 years ago, but he steamed in with zeal, as if he were not a day older than 18! Unfortunately he is, but nevertheless he showed he still has the technique to trouble the batsmen, if perhaps a yard less pace! I think bowling on that pitch after a long period of time not bowling is nerve wracking to say the least, but Max was not feeling confident of his abilities when he got the call. He put his, and everybody elses' mind at rest by putting the first over on the spot, bowling straight medium pace on a difficult length to force away. As both bowlers went on they tired and there were a few bad balls punished by the Reigate skipper, by now seeing the ball well. He finally fell for 40, lbw to Maxwell, having put on 52 for the 4th wicket. Old Blues were hoping for another set of tumbling wickets but to Reigate's credit they continued to punish the bad ball, and the coiffed no.6 bat definitely had a good eye for the ball, taking the score well past 100.

With the score on 128, and Carl's mathematics beginning to fail him, he decided that we needed to buy a wicket. Feeling a new lease of life without the burden of the keeper's gloves Carl had been very active in the field but he decided to turn his arm over. There was a small exchange between our skipper and the confident Reigate no.6 so first ball Carl forced the outside edge, gratefully pouched by Deano behind the sticks. I don't think anyone could quite believe what had happened but it was just what we needed. Andy Whittingham followed Carl after the skipper took a breather with figures of 1 over, 1 wicket for 1 run intact. He took a little while to get into rhythm but when he did he troubled the lower order batsmen. Wickets began to fall, with Hobden getting a 3rd, a neat run out, Whittingham finishing with a wicket maiden, and finally the ever reliable Berressem who bowled beautifully to finish things off.

So, 160 on the board. Top scorer was extras, with 48 - this was due to the tight 1 day wides rule - something we will not be playing again! 36 wides in total, which says something I think about the rustiness of our bowlers but also their commitment to stepping up for the team despite not being necessarily at the top of their game. It is worth mentioning that there was not a single bye in the Reigate innings which is very tidy glovework Deano! All bowlers showed that there is still some real talent there, and as the games go on I am confident we will become a very strong bowling attack. Berressem and Hobden finished with 3 a piece for 23 runs.

Fully fed and watered (thanks to the Reigate caterer who luckily lives in Southwater!) there was a quiet confidence about the side as we usually have to chase more than 200! Carl gave a pep talk and then strode out confidently to the crease. He is the textbook batsman but is probably due a big score. Hugo, on debut was looking confident at the crease. Reigate opened with a chap bowling reasonable inswing from the NSB end but the early exchanges showed that he wasn't causing much trouble.

What happened next was unexpected. Before we knew it we were 21-4 with the loss of Carl, Mitty and Hugo cheaply, and Johnny without troubling the scorers. This was definitely not part of the plan. All 4 wickets went to Brickley, the aforementioned swinger (!) who finished with figures of 4-24 off 9. Fair play.

George provided some resistance, although I suspect there is a lot more to come on the batting front from him. With the score at 47-5 things weren't looking good. Up stepped 2 men: Tim Reeve and James Maxwell. Tim is of Carl's era, so one of the senior members of the side.....; this did not show! We had overs to play with and we were chasing a modest total so it was all about reaching it in blocks of 10. Easy? Not necessarily! Both batsmen got their heads down and kept the score ticking over until they were seeing the ball well and got after a couple of the bowlers. Max in particular seemed to enjoy the spinner. He batted very well indeed and reached 50 with 30 needed to win. If this pair had stayed together that would have been a fitting end to the innings but with the relief of reaching the milestone, or perhaps just a desire to get the game won, James holed out just after, leaving Tim and Deano to finish the job. Or so we thought. Unfortunately for Deano, another with immaculate technique, he got one that kept low (that was it wasn't it Deano??) and was sent back to the pavilion having only faced the 1 ball.

136 for 7. Surely this was not beyond our reach. It had been a while since a victory and we had fielded so well, caught all our catches and the morale and commitment had been excellent. Andy Whittingham strode to the crease to join Tim and looked assured with the bat, to finish 9 not out, hitting the winning runs as we won by 3 wickets with 8 overs to spare.

So there we have it, a victory for the Old Blues. Tim Reeve batted superbly and finished 41 not out. I think him and Carl should open a book on who scores more runs this season as I feel it might have been the other way around at school. I tell you what, I'll open a book of averages and keep it updated on here!

Mentions must go to Jim and George for their foundation bowling that set us up to win this game, and Max and Tim for a cracking partnership and for steadying a rather floundering ship! We have shown we can beat a good side and we must feel positive going into the next cup match, on 21st June at Eastbourne. The old enemy; how good would it be to beat them, guys?!

TFC, or more appropriately named "jack and fielded" I think should go to the author of this report. Clearly I must have been daydreaming about what to write. Next time I hope to have some good entries for "chat of the week" in the field....

Thanks to H for letting us use the pavilion at CH at relatively short notice and to all the team who travelled a long way to get down for this fixture.

If anyone who hasn't seen my email/replied to my email wants to get involved, we are going to run nets with a frequency to be determined in London over the Winter and I am hopeful of more fixtures in 2010 should we regularly have more players than spots in the team. Please email oldbluescricket@googlemail.com for more information.

Until next time.....