Hello Tuesday. Border League night and a trip to face Redlynch and Hale for the second week in a row on a lovely sunny evening. Would have been quite nice. Keep training everyone, we might get something at some point. Let’s see what happened on this day in Calmore history and today is 16th June. Enjoy!
I reckon we should start with this one today as this is the earliest full scorecard that we have in our archive and, as is so often the case with vintage cricket, it is a strange game! It comes from 1954 and was played down at the King George V against the 10-men from Romsey. Calmore captain Bill Dawkins scored 13 opening the batting but were hauled back by an excellent spell of bowling from Colin Luffman (6-21) and John Smart (3-20). After 21 overs and the score standing at 43-9, we declared – Brian Montrose left stranded not out on 7. Maybe Bill knew we had enough … because we did! Romsey opener Brooks scored 12 but Ray Lowman (4-12) and Stan Piper (4-11) sent them from 13-0 to 25 all out in just 15.1 overs to clinch a rather unlikely 18 run success.
Fast forward 64 years to 2018 and it was another low scoring home epic but, of course, this time at Loperwood Park against Hook and Newnham in SPCL Division One. The visitors chose to bat first and were rocked by Liam Newton’s early three wicket burst (3-31) reduced H&N to 35-4 before Harry Warner (26 in 103 balls) and Jordan Hobday (32) helped boost the total to 126 despite Mike West (2-32) and a typically economical spell of 2-9 in 7 overs from captain Mark Lavelle. Both openers were back in the hutch with just 19 on the board. A solid stand between Ben Johns (36) and Jimmy Manning (26) pulled things around but when Johns went at 101-6, there was some doubt in the camp. Ben Perry’s patient 16 helped the cause, Mike West (11*) and Newton (7*) ensured there were no late dramas in scoring the three-wicket win.
There was no game for the 2s but the 3s were at ‘home’ to Fawley 2s in a game played at Hunts Farm in Michelmersh. A couple of wickets each for Storm Anning (2-20) and Mitch Parker (2-27) kept the visitors to 163-6 with E.Earl making 76. Sam Dempster’s 25 along with Michael Donovan cracking 46 gave the innings a perfect start – although Allan Hurst retiring hurt on 3 was a concern. A middle order collapse set jitters through the team but Tom Perry’s timely unbeaten 30 took us to the four-wicket win with over 10 overs to spare.
And the 10-man 4s completed the mini clean sweep for the day with a narrow win over Sarisbury Athletic’s 5ths by 13 runs in Regional 3 Central. Skipper Paul Jewer hit 35 in an opening stand with Max Bailey who made 41. Josh Ellis’ excellent 56 took up the mantle with the bat alongside Adam Carty with 36 as we rose to a fine 196-5 in our 40 overs. Sarisbury made a stellar start at 67-1 but Max Bailey’s 3-25 kept them in check before Adam Carty used his vast experience with 2-3 late on to keep them out despite Bolton’s 68.
It was a miserable day weather wise in 2012 – grey, dank, drizzly. It ruined one game – a game that Calmore captain Darren Vann remembers all too vividly. “Yes, anyone who knows what I am like knew I was the full Darren Vann that day!!!”
He won the toss and inserted Sparsholt but at 65-1, it looked to be a decision he could regret. Mike West came on and proved it wasn’t with excellent figures of 10-4-10-3 and with James Rose (3-5) and Paul Henry (2-8) led the home side to crashing at 105 all out. 14.4 overs into the reply and we were cruising at 52-0 with Darren on 46 not out from 49 balls with seven fours and a six – typical from him – and Steve Dunn on 3 from 39 balls. It was then the heavens opened – rather out of nowhere. “It came down heavy for a little while,” said Darren, “but, such were the regulations that we had to have 25 overs to constitute a game, even though we were only a couple of runs from what we would have needed at 25.
“I remember sitting in the comfortable chairs in the clubhouse chatting to Wrighty (Steve Wright, who had bowled 7.4 overs for the hosts) for about an hour. But I did overhear one of the umpires saying that he was keen to get it called off so he could get on the next ferry back to the Isle of Wight. I wasn’t too happy about that so wouldn’t agree to calling it off until time ran out!
“We were so far ahead of the game that we didn’t need long to get out there but I went full Darren, far more serious than the rest of the lads! Even they were saying that we should just call it off but I wasn’t having any of it.” The match was abandoned in the end.
Back at Loperwood Park, the rain break came at the right time in the County 4 South clash with Bramshaw 2s. The visitors put us in given the conditions and got through the young opening duo of Donovan and Johns (that’s Michael and Ben ….. not Martin and Dave!!) early on. Tom Perry hit five fours and a couple of sixes in an impressive 65 – a score that he has not beaten on a Saturday since while Michael Cook’s 29-ball 36 took us to a competitive 185-5. Bramshaw’s openers Andrew Hart (51) and Tim Rogers put on 96 for the first wicket but the rain came … and it altered everything. Rogers was bowled by Steve Brandes for 47 and it started a procession as they lost 10 wickets for just 25 runs with Brandy taking 5-10 and Ben Perry 5-25 in the rout.
There was a couple of Saturday league washouts on this day – in 2007 at home to Compton and Chandler’s Ford in County One and in SPCL Division One time game in 2001 at Andover.
So we have to whizz all the way back to 1990 for the next Saturday league action and our first season of Southern League cricket. After knocking off the two time Southern League champions Lymington the week before, we welcomed the inaugural winners from 1969, Trojans hoping for more of the same. The visitors won the toss and their prolific opening pair of Greg Walsh and Richard Montgomery put on 88. Walsh, who was on his way to becoming the only player in Southern League history (not SPCL) to reach 1,000 runs in a season made 63 and Montgomery 44 before Kevin Marshall got among the wickets with 4-46 in a full 15 over compliment and they only made 197-6 – they would have wanted more after their start. Rob Budd made them pay with an excellent 81 and with help from David Parsons (25) and Tom Pegler (36*) sent us to a comfortable four wicket win with 11 balls to spare.
It was a Wednesday in 1982 which was the third day and second game of the Calmore Sports Club tour of Dorset. Having already beaten the local Police, we were up against Weymouth in an all-day declaration game. It was hard going for the hosts who declared having faced 54 overs at just 131-7 – we used nine bowlers with the pick being Pete Wakeford’s 2-16 and Tony Archer 2-2. We only needed 36.3 overs to knock off the runs with the evergreen Stan Piper making 31 and Bob Wilcocks a hard-hitting 35 not out down the order.
Two wins, two defeats and two washouts kicked off the 1979 County One season ahead of our long trip into Berkshire to face Hungerford and it was the bowlers who held sway as the home side were bowled out for 112 – Ray Hurst taking 4-34, Tufty Taylor 2-19 and Ron Merritt 2-9. The game went to the penultimate over but contributions through the innings, the largest being Jimmy Gill’s 26 but five other batsmen made double figures as we got home by three wickets.
Back at home, there was a very quick finish for the 2s in their South West Division Two game against Maybush. The visitors batted first and, well, it didn’t go well. 0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 1-4, 2-5, 3-6, 3-7! They were rescued by Dave Maiden, Matt’s father, with a swashbuckling 17 with a four and a six – Matt described this as his Dad’s career batting highlight – but when he became Steve Brandes’ fourth wicket on his way to great figures of 11-6-9-4, the end was nigh. Pete Wakeford took 5-20 which aided Maybush’s demise for just 29. Stan Piper made 12 and Roy Matthews 11 not out as we knocked off the runs in 11.3 overs – and headed into the bar.
Today’s last one comes in 1973 when many clubs had already joined the Hampshire Cricket League. On this particular Saturday, we had a trip across the Solent to play against Newport at the Victoria Recreation Ground – where Hampshire had played a couple of County Championship matches before the War. It was a 40-over contest and, no doubt, we had a good day out despite losing by 67 runs. Newport opener Exley hit a fine 99 and Humber made 43 in their 163-8 which could have been a lot worse but for Michael Newman’s 7-38. We didn’t get close as the hosts used nine bowlers and we ended 96-6 … but you know what trip to the Island are like – cricket often comes second!
