Sunday 12 July 2026
SCCC 196-6 dec (35 overs)
Drakes 79 all out (24 overs)
SCCC won by 117 runs
Declaration match
SCCC won the toss
Scorecard
Rory Goss writes:
The Cryptics, with a newly established XI, made their way down south to Chawton, the home village of Jane Austen, with two debutants for the third declaration game this season for a new fixture in the SCCCs calendar. The Cryptics won the toss and in the 30-degree British sun unsurprisingly chose to bat first.
Dom and Jimbo opened, starting steadily and positively, until the bowlers found their line and lengths and gave the batters (the what?- ed) very little to work with. Jimbo eventually fell, cutting straight to point for a well manufactured 24. Next in was Toby who batted well, until his eyes lit up when a half-tracker was sent his way. He decided to target the short leg side boundary and pulled the ball with the wind straight down the throat of deep square leg. The cricket on show clearly wasn’t entertaining enough for debutant Harry, who had two naps and a trip to the pub when he was reminded by his brother that he should probably come back as he would be batting shortly.
With the scoring rate slowly falling, Dom tried to accelerate with Andy, but it seemed the harder they swung the slower the ball came off the willow. The biggest controversy of the afternoon arrived with Andy on 28. Given out LBW by Jimbo, Andy walked off confused, claiming the ball had cannoned into both bat and his thigh pad. This decision reaffirmed that, in Sunday cricket, every LBW is either missing leg, pitching outside off, or clipping the bat on the way through. Despite this call, it led to the first innings of Lucas Graham for the club, who after being pushed up the order at 107-4 decided to try and play a T20 innings, swinging so hard he chopped on and walked off with Ricky. Keith went out to steady the ship to show the youngsters how to play declaration cricket. His third ball went to the rope for his 300th boundary for the club. To follow this, he cut one straight to point for his 106th time being dismissed.
Debutant Harry Graham followed, who hadn’t played cricket for four years and only played because Paul G found him at the pub after a few beers and convinced him to play. Harry then proved that he is a better cricketer than his brother by scoring one run. The innings was finished off with a lovely cameo from the returning Harvey Dunham hitting 29*, putting on 56 with Dom until Paul G declared, leaving the Cryptics on 196 with Dom on 83* having batted alongside seven different partners, seeing out the full 35 overs unbeaten. Credit must also be given to the shift Craig Jones put in bowling a 13-over opening spell in the hot sun picking up figures of 3-57.
Now for the highlight of the day for the Cryptics, the match tea. Upon arrival, we found out that the Drakes were taking part in a ‘tea20’ competition which has been described by some as the best match tea ever, with only one complaint from the club captain Richard Seeckts (not playing this game) who observed that the plates weren’t big enough.
After the delightful tea break, we finally made to the field to bowl. The skipper took the new ball with Harvey. An early sign of aggression from the opening batter had the bowlers under a bit of pressure. A smart catch from the Emanuel school wicket-keeper Lucas off Paul G began the collapse of Drakes CC. After a pressure-building spell from Harvey and the skipper, Ed came into the attack and bowled a thigh-high full toss which the batter chose to hit straight back to the bowler in true Sunday cricket style. We then saw some proper cricket from Ed with a beautiful delivery which took the edge and was taken smartly by Dom in the office. Goss Jn came in and dismissed the opener LBW in his first over after Goss Sn had worked him over for the previous seven overs. Both spinners kept it tidy taking 10-6-12-7 between them.
Harry Graham came into the attack and followed Ed’s example, bowling a slow full toss which the batter hit straight to the safe hands of Paul, for his first wicket for the club. Following his first tidy over, taking 1-4 he followed up with a 13 ball over. The first ball sailed over both the batter and keeper’s head landing in the hands of Dom at 1st slip, which led to the question from the bowler “was that a no-ball?” Harvey came back into the attack to finish off the innings by rearranging the stumps taking the Cryptics to a comfortable 117 run win.
We then headed to The Greyfrair pub where the remaining match tea returned to sum up a very good Sunday in Hampshire.