Hello Saturday. What’s on for today – the 20th June? The 1s are away at old foes Sarisbury Athletic. The 2s are at home to Fair Oak 2s. The 3s are welcoming Burridge 3s to the Old Ground and the 4s are over at Trojans 3s. Well, they would be, in the ideal, real world that is so sadly lacking right now. Keep going everyone – we will get to something like cricket soon. Maybe something like South Africa are trying – 3 teams in one game?!
Our record at Andover is pretty ordinary. Our last league win over their 1sts at Batchelors Barn Road came in 2000 (although we did beat their 2s in 2008 and 2009). We were on our way to being relegated in 2015, this woeful record in North Hampshire continues to this day! Skipper Mark Lavelle won the toss and decided to put the home side in, a decision that he would probably regret once Glyn Treagus hit 66 and David Taylor, who famously played in the first two seasons of the Twenty20 Cup for Worcestershire and Derbyshire, launched 91 off 82 balls after being dropped on 20 by Tom Pegler. James Rose bowled nicely for his 4-38 amidst the carnage of the hosts reaching 277-8. Some would say our chances of chasing it down were hampered when the captain retired hurt on 2 after twisting his ankle whilst running between the wickets – and was carried off by 45-year-old Darren Vann and 40-year-old Taylor – but it allowed Ben Johns and James Rose to join together in a partnership of 147 which gave us a chance. They both went within four runs of each other, Johns for 73 and Rose 77 and it opened the door for Augustus (3-53) and Adams (3-43) to tie us to 221-7 and defeat by 56 runs. We all hoped the captain would recover from his injury in time for next week …. downing VRB’s in 90 Degrees that night would have eased the pain!!
An all-round performance from Ben Perry wasn’t enough to save the 2s from a home defeat to Langley Manor 2s by 24 runs. Perry took 3-37 and Paul Henry 3-32 as the visitors made 198 before Ben would hit a lone hand of 56 with the bat as we were bowled out for 174, Jack Nicholson a late 26 helping out. And the 3s were well beaten by Shrewton 2s by 78 runs despite another sublime batting display from Dave Rose who mauled 10 fours and nine sixes in his 109 out of a total of 160 in response to the visitors’ 238 all out.
It was better for the Mark Stanton’s 4s away at Otterbourne 2s, but only just! Storm Anning’s 4-31 led the way for our bowlers as they held Otterbourne to 197-9. Callum Kitcher’s fine 63 gave the innings a solid opening before Adam Pattison (45) and Jack Stuttard (41) took up the mantle of the chase. It came down to seven to win with nine wickets down. A single. Connor Pengelly on strike. Third ball of the penultimate over. BANG! Six! Where did that come from! Calmore win by one wicket!
We swing back to 2009 and our 1st XIs last season in the Hampshire League. We had won five of our opening six and would make that six from seven with slightly edgy win over Ryde at Loperwood by four wickets. Darren Challis took 3-30 and Paul Cass 3-50 as we let the Islanders off the hook from 160-7 to let them reach 217-7 in their 50. But an excellent stand of 139 between Mark Archer (78) and Cass (63) knocked off the majority of the target. A slip saw us lose three wickets for 8 runs but it couldn’t deter from the momentum and Michael Cook’s 25 not out secured the victory.
The 1s had a successful chase and so did the 2s thanks to Ben Perry’s excellent 5-31 when sent Portsmouth 3s scurrying from 117-4 to 132 all out in quick time in Regional 1 South. Mark Gardner’s initial spell of 10-5-7-2 set things up well but it was Perry’s control which made the difference. An undefeated 52 from captain Mike Cotton along with contributions from Nick Coe (17), Perry (17) and Aiden Smith (12*) was enough to secure the comfortable win.
And the 3s were at home to Fawley 3s and we would lose this match by 4 wickets but we had two men score 50 in our 174-5. There was another display of big hitting from Dave Rose who clubbed 53 from 56 balls which included six sixes. The other carried his bat through the full 42 overs for 62 not out in 109 balls. Who was this batting Goliath? One Pete Lavelle. Well played Mr. Chairman! Martin Donovan did his best at the top of the innings with 4-16 in 10 overs but Fawley’s Ward and Thomas took a liking to Sam Dempster and skipper Daniel Croft and got home with time to spare.
Regular readers of these will know by now that Saturday means a look back at that incredible season of 1998. With five wins from five, including a 1 run win, a 1 wicket win and a 2 wicket win, Martin Kellaway’s side had already shredded the nerves and it was only mid June! But there were no nerves in this game today, a superb 46 run victory over a strong South Wilts side at Bemerton. It was an excellent all-round performance from all involved. Paul Draper dug in hard for his 97-ball 39 and he was kept company by Gregg Lewis’ 47-ball 14. Martin Kellaway made 25 and Clive Surry 29 as we worked hard to get 161-9. Graeme Lyon removed both Jamie Glasson and Russell Rowe on his way to 2-20 – is this the famous game where Gragy marked his run-up with a pie in an attempt to distract Rowe …. I think you will find it was (Gragy actually wanted to bowl it at him … but Kellers felt this was a bit too amateur!!!). Rob Wade (30) and Tim Lamb (20) gave them a lift. However, Steve Brandes removed them both and alongside Draper made them go from 65-2 to 75-7. Steve Benbough and Shaun Little tried to resurrect things but Brandes (4-28) and Draper (3-23) knocked them over for just 115 and we were six from six.
Talking of narrow margins, there was another in the Southern League clash in 1992 down at Lymington where Dave Parsons’ fine 86 was not enough to bring us victory. Hampshire’s Sean Morris (32) and Derek Pepperell (35) put on 65 for the first wicket but they faltered to 114-5. Dave Griffiths (36) and Les Browning (32) added vital runs in the middle order which was key to them reaching 177 as Graeme Lyon (3-45) and Paul Draper (3-40) keeping them in check. Parsons’ 86 was the shining beacon of the innings but we lost wickets all too readily as only Draper (15), Mark Boston (17) and Tom Pegler (12) made double figures and we would fall just 3 runs short of victory.
Hungerford Cricket Club. A club that sends shivers through the veins of many a Calmore player. Not only because of what happening in 1998 but also because they had the absolute wood over us. In the first 17 games we played against them, we won just three from 1979 to 2000. Two of those losses came ‘On This Day’ in 1981 and 1987.
The 1981 loss came by five wickets when we recovered from 59-8 thanks to Tufty Taylor and Ron Merritt’s unbeaten 31 and 20 respectively. They would chase it down with ease despite Merritt’s 2-21 and Terry Chilcott with 2-23. And in 1987, Hungerford’s 157-7 proved to be too many. Chris Garrett’s 3-28 and Paul Sealey with 3-49 took the bowling honours before Rob Budd with 59 and Stuart Bailey’s 43 were our only scores of double figures as we were bowled out for 134.
We might have lost in 1981 to Hungerford but the 2s and 3s both won. With this being the first year of cricket at Loperwood, it will be no surprise there was a low scorer against IBM Hursley. Baz Oram mastered the conditions with 27 not out as we fell to 104 all out but John Robertson’s 4-21 and Roy Matthews returned 10-5-8-3 as the visitors slid all out for 95. And the 3s hammered Langley Manor by 109 runs with Graham Love making 82 and Graham Cooper 31 led us to 160-4 before Pete Wakeford roared in with 6-20 and Steve Thomas 3-10 removed them for just 51.
CALMORE SPORTS BIRTHDAYS:
1959 – Gary Stinson
1950 – Tony Archer
