Celebrating one hundred years of nomadic club cricket

 Looking forward to our next century

Centenary Season Playing Record  (up to 25th July and including South Africa, Spain and Radley)

 Played 23.     Won 10.     Lost 7.      Drawn 6.      Cancelled 5.

 LATEST RESULTS

v Earl of Carnarvon's XI  Lost by 1 wicket

Cryptics                   277-6 dec (P.Armstrong 98, W.Gilgrass 70)

Earl's XI                  278-9 (J.Lee 70, S.Qureshi 70,K.Barker 60)

The headlines do not tell the story!  Cryptics seize defeat from the jaws of victory in game which see-saws right until the 19th over of the last 20.

Brilliant early batting by Paul Armstrong was spoiled only by his dismissal in the penultimate over before lunch just 2 short of what would have been his first century before lunch.  He had been well-supported by Olly Burns who, although out of touch, stuck with it. Will Langton struck the ball well for his 38 but the star of the second half of the innings was Will Gilgrass who, after a tentative start, batted superbly, fashioning some great inside out drives over extra cover en route to his top score for the club.

When taking the to the field it soon became clear to stand-in MM, Nick (teflon) Priestnall, that his bowling resources were stretched... little did he know how stretched they were to become.  After good opening spells by Francois Vainker and Will Langton which were blunted by one stubborn batsman and one brilliant one as Johnny Lee used his feet superbly to hit both to the boundary regularly, on came guest Rupert Brow.   It was not long before second change Andrew Ward got into the action.  He took two wickets in his first over including Johnny Lee who clearly planned to get the match over early. 

This is about where it all unravelled for the Cryptics.  After two good overs Rupert Brow pulled a fetlock and had to retire to slip.  Three bowlers left.  Not long afterwards Andrew Ward was no-balled for the second time for high full tosses and given a warning; a second warning followed soon afterwards...and in the second over of his second spell a further full toss was called again and he had to be red carded (although the batsman had hit two of the three for four and in fact pleaded his case!).  Just two bowlers left.  Francois Vainker and Will Langton bowled over 20 overs each on a hot day.  Their fantastic stamina and enthusiasm was not supported by the other 9.  Priestnall dropped a routine catch and missed two straightforward stumpings and somewhere between 5 and 10 other catches were dropped or missed, of which about half were straightforward and the rest harder.  The final debacle came when still charging in after more then 20 overs Will Langton saw the simplest possible catch dropped which would have won the match.  He or any one of 3 others could have got there and caught it.  The culprit shall be anonyomous but, extraordinarily, it wasn't the skipper, who by this stage had had a go at catching a ball in his mouth as the gloves seemed useless.

Added to all this the last hour of play was rendered farcical by an infestation of flying ants at one end making batting and keeping there very unpleasant. 

So a great day at a beautiful venue saw a very exciting game won in the penultimate over by the Earl's XI who were superb and generous hosts, with once again probably the best cricket lunch in the world and great hospitality and conviviality for which we thank them.

 See the full Radley story below.

 BREAKING NEWS:

Bill Blackshaw's history of the Club is now published. (£15) Available from Bill Blackshaw, Squash Court, Rottingdean, East Sussex BN2 7HA.  01273 302559. 

The Club has accepted an invitation to play in the Sussex Martlets Sandy Ross Memorial T20 Tournament at Hurstpierpoint on 22nd August.  We are delighted to participate in memory of a greatly missed Cryptic.  Paddy Nolan is the Match Manager and wants a good squad.  (Go to Fixtures for contact details.)

 Cross Arrows match at Lord's. Tuesday 14th September 2010.  Followed by Reception 

 If you also want to look the part and show your Club affiliation, order your Merchandise now. (Download Centenary Special Purchase Form)