Today we look back at the events “On This Day” on 8th May in Calmore Sports history.
We start with a look back at the opening game of the HCL County Two season of 1976 under Terry Chilcott’s captaincy which would see the first XI promoted to County One for the first time and it started with a home win over Portsmouth-based Moneyfields by 3 wickets down at the King George V Playing Fields.
The visitors were bowled out for 120 in 30.4 overs with Ray Hurst (3-29) and Peter ‘Tufty’ Taylor (3-36) the main protagonists but we didn’t have it all our own way, sliding to 18-4 early on but Bob Wilcocks held firm to guide the side home with 41 not out, alongside Ray Hurst’s 26 and vital contributions from Tony Archer and the skipper took us to victory.
County One kicked off on this day in 1982 and we got the better of our local rivals Paultons by 52 runs to get our season off to the perfect start. The Calmore 42 overs gleaned 170-7 with Bob Wilcocks’ 37 the top score although skipper Martin Newman (30), Terry Chilcott (27) and Michael Newman (25) all did their bit. In those days, there was no restrictions on bowlers overs so Ray Hurst taking 5-43 from his 21 overs was something of the norm! Billy Sims took 4-39 as Paultons were knocked over for 118.
Another year that saw the County One season opener was 1993 when we headed up to Alton and we headed home with a crushing 140 run victory. Rob Budd’s 74 and Tom Pegler with 72 piled on the runs for the visitors, scoring 269-7. Only M. Hunton (30) stood firm for Alton against Paul Draper left-arm ‘spin’, taking 5-21 and Dominic Newman 3-37.
On the same day, the 3s comfortably beat Lyndhurst and Deanery 3s at Bolton’s Bench by 7 wickets after dismissing the home side for just 65 – Tony O’Connor taking 3-19 in 11 overs and Nigel Hill 4-13. We lost a couple of wickets early on before D. Gill (28*) and Graham Kinchington (29) knocked off the runs with plenty of time to spare.
The start of a new era happened on this day in 2010 – Darren Vann played his first league game for the club, arriving from Alton to take on the captaincy of the first XI but his first game ended in a narrow defeat to Tichborne Park by 2 wickets. James Rose with 36 top scored while the skipper hit 32 from 115 balls as we were restricted to 161-9. Regular wickets did keep the game interesting – Paul Cass taking 4-24 and Paul Proudley 2-32 – but they edged home. There was a lad who came in at number 7 and scored 9 and bowled six overs for 32 … there wasn’t much then to show he would break the club record for most runs in a season!
Over at Sarisbury, the 2s match was abandoned after the toss was made but without a ball bowled but an old friend returned to haunt his former club at the Old Ground as the 3s took on Exbury in Regional 3SW. 69 from Paul Galbraith and 49 for Dave Rose took the 3s to a challenging 203-8 with the bowling honours for the visitors going to Tony O’Connor, who rolled back the years with 2-42. Sam Dempster took 3-30 but the Gardeners got home with a couple of overs to spare.
As ever this early in the season, the weather had a say as all the matches in 1999 were washed out as was the opening full day of the season in 2004.
Back in the pre-league years, the club took part in the Southampton Evening League, mainly against ‘work’ teams. And one such game, in 1970, saw us take on Tyrrell and Green – the old department store which stood on Above Bar from 1955 until 2000. We batted first at the picturesque Millbrook Rec (!!) and Martin Newman (34), E. Smith (23) and Frank Stuttard (21) led us to 97-4 in our 16 overs. Michael Newman took 5-20 and Tufty Taylor 3-26 as the department store couldn’t get served and finished 47-8.
And it was over to Riverside Park in 1973 for a game against Dibbens – maybe the estate agents – and they were well and truly gazumped by the Newman’s! Michael took 6-14 and Martin 3-8 as they were rolled for just 25, which we overturned in 6.2 overs.
CALMORE SPORTS BIRTHDAYS:
2004 – Ryan Carty
