Sunday 11 May 2025
Tilford 247-8 dec (38 overs)
SCCC 248–4 (36 overs)
SCCC won by 6 wickets
Declaration match
SCCC won the toss
Scorecard
Richard Seeckts writes:
Returning to Tilford after a 20 year hiatus proved to be everything the Cryptics could have wished for. Sun with distant fluffy clouds straight from a Jocelyn Galsworthy painting, the Barley Mow trading briskly with spectators (and players) for mutual reward, and a declaration game that ebbed and flowed until the Cryptics reached a challenging target with one over to spare. Both teams mixed youth and experience and, with 11 of the 22 players accompanied by a father or son, it could almost have been Norfolk.
Winning the toss on a decent track with an unseasonably rapid outfield and peculiar shaped boundary was a considerable advantage. Judging a declaration wasn’t easy but the result suggests Tilford got it about right, though they may have wished they batted two more overs in the final reckoning.
To celebrate his freakish arrival before toss time, it was Captain Scottie for the day, more or less guaranteeing that he would give himself a bowl in the lull after the storm and pick up some bunnies. Guess what….
Gossy and Daddy Grinders struck little fear into the openers, a pair separated by a 49 year age gap. Dom, at cover, dropped the senior man off Gossy twice but caught the youngster, bringing in one Matt Swarbrick who has played higher levels of cricket than this. Off the back of Saturday’s 111, he eventually fell for 86 to the Grindrod trap which involves Ed tempting him to pepper more cars in the cow-corner-carpark and James catching the resulting top edge. Still, we found his weakness in the 190s-for-the-weekend. Most car owners around the ground could relax a little, but several had impacts to inspect. The dropped caught and bowled chance that almost carried for six testifies to Swarbrick’s might and Ed’s stupidity bravery.
Tilford’s middle order, starting from about 150-2 off 18, compliantly wilted at the sight of Scottie barrelling in from the end with the long boundary for 3-21 off 4 after Ed had been pounded for 2-57 off 7. Dwighty, back from an extended break in the real world, helped the hosts recover to declare and usher us to the pub garden for tea. 38 overs in two and half hours can be excused by the time spent fetching the ball from neighbouring postcodes beyond the roads that define the ground.
Dom joined Jimmy G in the kind of opening stand that allows the watching middle order to relax. Unfamiliar luxury. They clipped along at a run-a-ball without drama after a couple of impassioned early appeals. Concentration and good shot selection being virtues of these two, those who were neither umpiring nor padded up mostly sloped off to the bar having talked themselves down the batting order. The partnership was 101 when Jimmy fell for 48 in the 17th over, after which 147 were required from the last 20.
Keith, at No3, took his deputising for Hugs seriously, sharing a brief partnership of 27 with Dom before shovelling one to mid-off for the first Cryptic duck of the season. Enter Toby, none the worse for having kept wicket for the first time in yonks and off to a flyer with a five thanks to overthrows. The pair rattled along at 10 per over long enough to put the win in clear sight with 82 required from 14 when Dom was neatly pouched at slip for 75.
Joined by his old man, Toby showed unfaltering ability to count to six and calmly stroked the required runs every over before getting himself to the other end. Perhaps fancying himself as the new Scottie, the pretender also failed to finish the job, strangled down the leg side for 72, 14 runs short of victory. Thus it fell to Seeckts Snr and Roly to cross the line. Whatever nerves may have surfaced, in the middle or around the scorer’s table, never got mention. However, with over 12,500 Cryptic runs and nine centuries among the DNB’s, it wouldn’t have been a good one to mess up.
Jugs flowed in the Barley Mow, the hiatus now consigned to history and we look forward to returning to Tilford in 2026.
Jingle Bells!
