Welcome to Wednesday on the daily “Calmore On This Day”. It is 3rd June today and there was plenty happening on this day to get our teeth into. Wasn’t there, Lav (but maybe not you, Pra!).
As it is Wednesday, that means that it was a Saturday in 2017 and as we entered round five of the SPCL Division One “Are We Safe Yet” season with three wins and the one defeat at Basingstoke, we were faced with the always tricky task of visiting Tichborne Park, a side that we had only beaten once previously on their home ground. This task was made that little bit more difficult by the absence of Steve Wright, who had departed for Canada during that week and wouldn’t play again this season, leaving us with quite a dearth of seamers.
Electing to bat first, (hang on, I’ll cut and paste this next bit from two weeks ago) Lavelle went first ball leg before but Michael Cook with a fine 59 and Ben Johns 41 steadied the ship and all the batsmen got going, especially Paul Proudley who blasted a quickfire 33 and James Rose 21 in our decent enough total of 222-8. At 40-0 off three overs, nerves were jangling as George Ayling took a liking to Proudley’s six deliveries (no one knows they went for 24, Pra, we won’t tell anyone!). Jimmy Manning, who opened the bowling, removed him for 33 and then it was The Mark Lavelle Show! Bowling an initial five over spell, he removed Allen, Gunaratne and Don and then returned later, with Tichborne closing in at 168-5 to wash away the tail to finish with Calmore Sports 1st XI league record figures of 8-17 in 9.3 overs and close out a 24-run victory. In his last 3 games against Tichborne, Lav bowled 25.5 overs and took 14 for 47!
The 2s had a home game with progressive club Winton – who are now plying their trade in County One – and they showed why they were just passing through with a strong five wicket win. Ollie Tull with 45 and Mike Cotton 23 put on a much needed stand of 47 for the sixth wicket but it didn’t stop them from bowling us out for 110. Jono Maton and Paul Henry did take a couple of wickets each but the visitors won with ease. The nine-man 3s thrashed Whiteparish 2s by 7 wickets thanks to Daniel Croft’s 5-15 and Mitch Parker with 4-25, although Sam Vidler’s 8-6-7-1 does deserve a mention too. Mark Hardy with 24* and Nigel Hill’s 20 took us to the comfortable win.
We will just take a little detour into Sunday cricket and a game at Pylewell Park in 2012 that didn’t please the locals very much! We were asked by the home side to bring a weakened side, so that is what we did – five U15s, skipper Croft, Vidler, Cotton, Ben Perry, Cook and overseas player Pierre Kriel – with the sole intention of giving the kids a go. So we opened with Michael Donovan and Ben Johns. Donny jr made 80 and Johnser retired out on 102! And then Pierre came in and smashed 9 sixes and six fours in a 37-ball 100. We finished our 40 overs with 333-3. The 10-men of Pylewell were rolled for just 93 – Matt Taylor taking 3-19 and Sam Vidler 2-14. Don’t think we played there again!
Back to league action and a 2006 local derby in SPCL Division 3 against a strong-looking BAT Sports 2s. The visitors won the toss and they crashed to 47-6 in no time against Paul Proudley’s 4-40 and Nigel Hill 3-33. Terry Rawlins hit 21 and Oliver Knight 35 which boosted their total to 127 with a single wicket apiece for Pete Clark, James Rose and Keith Woodhall. Simon Ennew led the chase with 34 as we charged to a five-wicket win with 20 overs to spare.
One team that popped into the Southern Premier League very briefly was Cove from the far north-east corner of Hampshire – they came for a couple of seasons before returning to the Thames Valley League – and we met them in their first year in the SPCL Division One in 2000. Calmore won the toss and decided to bat first and watched Paul Draper bat through the 50 overs for a superb 101 not out while receiving good support from Gregg Lewis and James Lucy, who both hit 21 in our 203-5. Cove, who had Chris Benham in their side, crumbled against the left-arm spin pairing of Draper (3-23) and Mark Boston (2-30) along with two wickets each for Lee Savident and Pete Clark, being rolled for 136. Cove were relegated at the end of the season, spent a season in SPCL Division 2 and then disappeared!
Our next memory game comes in 1978 and a home game at KGV against Old Simmarians in County One and Terry Chilcott’s side pulled off a narrow four-run win but, yet again, it was far from a forgone conclusion! Billy Sims with 32 and Ben Lyon’s 23 led the way early on before some late order resistance from Roy Matthews (20) and Tufty Taylor (21*) took the score up to 146-9, which looked unlikely at 111-8. Old Simmarians were 128-3 but somehow managed to end their innings at 142-8 as Ray Hurst took 4-59 in his full 21 over allocation and Lyon an economical 2-9 in three overs at the end.
The last one today is actually from a scorecard that isn’t available but it comes from 1964 and saw a Calmore Sports XI take on a side from the National History Museum. It is a shame the card is missing … D. Attenborough, B. Whale, A. Dinosaur and Spinosaurus making up the opposition would have been quite entertaining!
