As holders of the Cricketer Cup it always makes me nervous when the time comes to begin our defence the following year. I remember only too well we lost twice in the first round as defending champions and it was not a nice feeling.
I needn’t have worried this time as this very young OM side gave a very professional performance to defeat Sherborne comfortably and move on to the second round at Malvern again on 30th June against Old Merchant Taylor’s .
Josh Haynes (5.12-17) as Captain won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket with quite a lot of grass on it but a good wicket nonetheless. Josh and Freddie Wynn (7.10-15) opened the batting but we lost Freddie fairly early to a fine catch when Josh was joined by Ollie Cox (5.17-22). These two batted really well and took the score into the 70’s before Ollie was stumped ‘off a wide‘! Josh carried on scoring at a good pace and was joined by Alex Milton (5.10-14) and then Joel Cox (5.18-23) who launched into a brutal assault over the final few overs taking the score to 299-4. Sadly Josh was out for 94 - a fine innings that deserved to be his first 100 in the CC having made 99 not out a couple of years ago!
The Sherborne innings was fairly predictable based upon their previous results with early batters playing quite sensibly but never up to the run rate required. Angus Catto (5.17-22) and Liam Smith (5.10-15) opened the bowling - Liam bowling his 10 overs straight through, before the spinners came on in the forms of Dan Holland (SH.15-20), Josh Dickenson (9.16-21) and Josh Haynes with Dan Holland taking his first 5 wicket haul in the CC to restrict Sherborne to all out for 210.
Before the start of play there was a very moving moment when both teams lined up on the Senior to pay tribute to Josh Baker (SH.16-21) whom very sadly passed away aged just 20. His parents were present and joined us for lunch in the marquee as our guests and Mark Hardinges (1.91-96) spoke very glowingly of Josh and the tragedy of his loss so young.
At the Patrons Lunch we were also proud to have Martin Evans as our guest. Martin is retiring at the end of June after 43 years at Malvern. He joined as a YTS trainee on the ground staff rising to Head of the Ground staff. As we all see every time we visit the College the campus looks wonderful but in particular it is the Senior that is the star element and this is down to Martin and his team - let’s hope Tom Locke who has been with us for 18 years takes on Martin’s mantle.
On behalf of the OMCC and the Patrons I presented Martin with the print ‘ Coming in for lunch’ to remind him of his time at Malvern.
The Patrons Lunch was great fun with 70 attending and lovely to see old friends meeting up again and enjoying each others company.
Thank you all for your generosity and support for Malvern and OM cricket — you do make a huge difference and we are alone amongst all the Cricketers Cup schools to have such a group as ours and no wonder we are the best supported team in the CC .
Don’t forget Sunday 30th June for the next round at Malvern.
Bryan Richardson (3.57-62)
President of the OMCC and Founder of the Patrons Club