Buccaneers vs Old Hurstjohnians at Hurstpierpoint Saturday 11th August 2018
The captain touched down at Gatwick at 11.30pm the night before the match, after two weeks of hot weather training in Portugal, to be confronted by drizzle. The two days of rain (which had flooded Lord’s) was too much for a prompt start at Hurst, but proceedings got underway satisfactorily at 12.30pm. The Buccaneers were inserted and Jeremy Milne and Alex Rydon were up to the task with a fluent opening partnership of 86 in the first hour. Alex belayed his youth, with an experienced miss two balls before lunch to be triggered LBW.
After a sumptuous lunch, play resumed with Tom Fletcher partnering Jeremy. He soon joined a growing list of Buccaneers to be run out while batting with him. Archie Marsh came and went after a busy little innings and then proceedings took a strange turn. While Jeremy had reached his half century with no hint of a chance, his progression to 81 included seven dropped catches. It was left to a stumping to see him off. No worries for the Buccaneers as Steve Moules was limbering up by now and smashing it to all parts. A fifth wicket partnership of 74, with Henry Rydon contributing 13, gave us some credibility on the scoreboard. Sadly the OHJs remembered how to catch and Henry was taken smartly on the boundary, with his father Will following next ball at slip. Steve departed and it was left to Ludo Milne and Rob Rydon to take the score past 250 and declare.
Ludo came charging down the hill with the new ball while Tom Rydon had to labour up it. Ludo blasted out both openers, but then the quality of batting improved. Steve bowled a good spell up the hill, bagging one wicket, while Warwick Okines opened his account for the season with some twirling leg spin. Mark Semmence, who has probably scored more runs against the Buccaneers than anyone else, cruised ominously through the gears and the OHJs were easily keeping up with the run rate. Archie also twirled some leg spin to good effect, but the ninety run partnership (including five runs when the ball hit a helmet) was broken by a smart catch on the boundary by Ludo off Henry and then we were able to apply some pressure to the new bat. Thankfully, Semmence didn’t score another hundred against us and was smartly stumped by Tom Fletcher down the leg side off Henry.
Ludo and Henry bagged another couple of wickets but we couldn’t winkle out the remaining batsmen and OHJs fell thirty runs short with seven wickets down.
We drank some ale and listened to the Last Post being played as the OHJs lowered their flag for the last day of their cricket week. Next year is the fiftieth anniversary of this fixture and we expect to hear some stories of historic events through the ages (Hatrick off the first three balls of the match, anyone!).
Innings of Buccaneers
J Milne st May b Lowndes 81
A Rydon lbw Semmence 30
T Fletcher run out 4
A Marsh ct Warrender b Hall 11
S Moules ct Hall b Warrender 68
H Rydon ct Hall b Warrender 13
W Rydon ct Semmence b Hall 0
L Milne not out 8
R Rydon ct Warrender b Hall 16
Extras 23
Total 254-8 dec
Bowling
P McGahan 10.1-0-53-0
M Harrison 7-0-36-0
M Semmence 8-1-20-1
S Hall 15-1-67-3
S Lowndes 3.5-1-23-1
S Warrender 6-0-45-2
Innings of OHJ
E Welch ct J Milne b L Milne 15
T Harrison b L Milne 4
S May ct L Milne H Rydon 53
M Harrison ct H Rydon b S Moules 15
M Semmence st Fletcher b H Rydon 75
B Moulton ct Okines b L Milne 7
S Warrender not out 11
M Lowdnes ct T Rydon b H Rydon 6
S Hall not out 0
Extras 34
Total 220-7
Bowling
L Milne 10-0-46-3
T Rydon 4-0-27-0
S Moules 6-1-22-1
W Okines 7-1-43-0
H Rydon 11-3-39-3
A Marsh 4-0-25-0