Rain means we had a soggy start to 2008 with Castle Hill washed away but fine weather greeted us in the Meon Valley for the Hogs game where new candidates Rob Spry 67 and Liam Kelly 82 were aided by 52 from returning skipper Jamie Lang allowing him to set the Hogs 285 to win. Jamie always feared our bowling might have been a touch on the weak side and so it proved as the Hogs got home for the loss of just three wickets.
The Rascals game was then rained off before we recorded out first win of the summer in a 40 over game against The Bar. The President deserted us to play with his fellow legal eagles as Paul Knight 65 and Ed Warner 59 underpinned our total of 206. The Bar opened with 2 Grannies candidates. Each batted colourfully, Mat Gullick making 33 and Jamie Williams 67, including five 6s (apparently the first of his life). A mature change attack of Fernie, Bagley and Begg then contrived to take 6 wickets between them (3, 2 and 1 respectively) and the Bar finally mustered 178, leaving the Grannies winners by 28 runs, interestingly one less than the total of the wides and no balls bowled by the Bar. We'll take a win in whatever shape it comes...
We've always struggled in the 20-20 at St Pauls and had to bat in the order in which we got to West London but 137 for 7 was a decent return, much augmented by a lovely little cameo of 37 not out including some lusty blows over his old school boundary rope by Adrian Lee in the final few overs. Adrian then made the break through once taking his ex-master's off stump as well as another wicket in the same over. He and Matt Webster bowled steadily in the middle overs and with the light dimming the skipper bought on his two quickies for the final 6 overs. Sam Weston Simons and John Davies ensured that the 137 was just too big a target in the fading light and the Grannies finally celebrated victory in this fixture!
Ben Scott has now taken over the running of the Invalids where Ed Warner followed up his earlier 50 with a wonderful 103. Will Finn weighed in with 60 and 209 was always going to be a challenging target. Clare Scott produced a fabulous tea and Richard Snowden, playing his first match for three years after two back operations, took a fine catch but we couldn't quite whittle them out as Richard and Pauline Finn came along to watch and regaled the next generation with stories of Stonegate in the 70s and 80s.
Grannies lost the toss and fielded first against Liphook and Ripsley. The wickets were shared around with 13 year old Archie Clarke luring their top scorer into a rash stroke to be caught on the boundary. A classic spinners wicket. Liphook finished on 161.
The Grannies batting flattered to deceive. Surely not - and although there was a useful and rapid 35 from Tom Hamilton at the end it was the skipper Jon Staniforth with 30* and Mike Fernie that played out a draw finishing on 143/9.
The Dusters was a 25 over game this year, luckily for us as we had only 80 odd after 20. The last 5 though yielded a glut and we finished on 155, Adrian West retiring on 35 and Jay Stockham (on debut) and Jamie Williams chipping in usefully. Our impressive line-up of bowlers consisting of Weston-Simons, Davies, West, Ansbro and Webster was too good for them, Sam taking 4 and John 3. The only risk was that we would get them all out too quickly, so allowing back their 120 hockey cap South African, who had retired earlier after some monumental hitting. Happily, when this did happen, they needed 40 odd off 4 and perished 23 short.
As the MM Jim Streeter eulogised about The Old Spots. Once again Follies Farm reminded us of the perfect English summer afternoon of cricket. The warm sunshine sent the swine sheltering in the shade, and upon winning the toss the skipper had no hesitation in sticking the Old Spots in to roast in the sun. James Brierly attacked from the start making 78 and James Scott finished 62 not out on 284 for 4 before one of the best teas on our fixture list. All the bowlers chipped in, the fielding held up and The Spots were all out for 222. As Jim, in Oscar Wilde mode, finished. The usual hospitality followed in the setting sun. What more could a Granny want? Another ham sandwich?
The Grannies fielding in the Goodwood game was described as 'almost comical at times' as the home side made 180 for 4, which was always just out of our reach as we went down by 63 runs. But at least the sun shone.
The Hurlingham match report reads thus, with no editions: Good game - we lost the toss and did not make enough runs. Great spirit and thank you to the members who played. A tough place to be on the wrong end of things.
The Gravediggers proved to be the last in Nigel Creffield's distinguished Grannies career. And I remember him as a young, tearaway, virile fast bowler. Well, that's what my mum said... Nick Pitt Brown took 4 wickets to help restrict them to 162 all out and The Grannies came up short, 145 all out thanks mainly to 11 year old Hector Don who took three wickets against us! Creff has been a wonderful servant to the Grannies and though he's stopped playing we will still see him at the parties that matter. Thank you, Creff.
An excellent Grannies fielding display lead to an ultimately comfortable victory in the 20/20 at St Benedicts. The Walden brothers, Oli and Frank, opened up with great accuracy, Frank took a staggering catch at slip and there was the wonderful sight of Charlie Villiers Smith turning his arm over for the first time in several years. Rob Waddington led the way with the bat with 42 and timed our tilt at 105 perfectly as we racked up a rare win at St Benedicts. And with Willoughby umpiring!
Ed Gardiner-Hill pummelled the Shopwyke Strollers attack for a quickfire (what else) 70. However wickets continued to tumble and the Grannies were all out for 153, a good 40 runs short of a competitive total. In the field the Grannies did their best to defend this small total, with Paul Knight (3-25) bowling a great spell of left arm swing and ripping through the top order. Charlie Gammell claimed a couple of scalps during an impressive spell of probing off spin but the worry that our total was under par proved correct as the Strollers got home in exactly that manner with just under 10 overs of the game remaining.
Everyone chipped in to our 162 all out against the Wine Trade, John Davies top scoring with 50. But the highlight seems to have been the tea and the arrival of the opposition fast bowler's girlfriend. She seemed to put our bowlers off and the captain Mark de St Croix pulled his hamstrings as he watched the bowling flogged to all parts. The spirit was good, but the Wine Trade eased home by 7 wickets.
After a false start with the Oxford and Cambridge Golf society, we had an exciting draw at Tulls. Mark Pougatch took advantage of some tiring bowling by hitting 58 down the order in our 228-7. Dom Ely then took 4 wickets in 2 fine spells but though never in danger of losing we still needed 2 wickets as the last over began. Rob Waddington managed two of them but we just came up short on a lovely, typical Grannies day in Hampshire.
An Australian opener guided The Armadillos to set us a stiff target of 261 but we kept losing wickets at the wrong moment. There were 30s and 40s but as Sir Geoffrey Boycott says 'those sorts of scores don't win you games'. And they didn't in this case.
The Demijohns was rained off and Harveys was back on tap at The Griffin, which is frankly more important than the result. The home side declared on 179 for 7. Adrian West made 51 in reply and Richard Snowden made a second outing in three years, with a bat this time, to hit the winning runs as we won by 5 wickets and then got on with the business of enjoying the best bitter Sussex has to offer.
The Grannies could only muster seven players for the Brigands game but, astoundingly, they won. Father & Son Bob & Dominic Robinson opened the bowling, Alex Rushent took 4 Wkts, James Scott 5 Wkts and the Brigands were in a state of shock to be dismissed for just 92. There was a degree of irony and humour in that 3 catches were taken by Brigands fielders. Alex Rushent with 38 underpinned the reply and the Brigands were gracious in defeat as the 'Seven Heroes of Hambledon' celebrated.
Parham Park lost their three best batsmen to a fine opening spell by the Walden brothers, with Oli taking 3 for 24 off 10 overs with in-duckers and Frank, 1 for 24 off 7 with away swingers. Then a long partnership followed which we could not dislodge until the old Pro, Bagley, snaffled a wicket in his eight over spell (one too many!). Parham declared their innings at tea at 202 for 5 after 45 overs. In reply, Ashley Butterworth squirted an entertaining 40 and a breezy 47 by skipper, Draff, gave us a glimmer of hope but we ended up 59 short with the final pair defiant to the last.
The Bluemantles match was a sensational game. Ed Warner made a fine 75, skipper Paul Knight weighed in with an unbeaten 51 and Sam West Simons 41 as we totalled 263 for 5. 15 year old Mark Lesniak bowled a super spell, Sam took 4 wickets, Martin Bagley used all his experience in picking up three and amid great tension and excitement James Phillpott ran out number 10 and then Sam cleaned bowled number 11 to give us victory by 2 runs. Mr Bagley bowled 12 overs in a row. Good effort!
Our 202 against the HAC at Shenley was dominated by 90 from Sam Weston Simons; all this against the backdrop of a wedding which was also taking place on the grounds. We were always going to struggle with only a 4 man bowling attack, and so it proved as the HAC comfortably got home. With luck the 2009 fixture will take place on the HAC ground itself!
The Mallards game was cancelled and the Stragglers game rained off and we kept the Ramblers down to 208 for 8 which was very pleasing. But at 98 for 4 and well placed the rain came and washed away our chance.
We're still awaiting the match report for the Old Amplefordians, and the Malvern weekend was a complete wash out. Falconhurst made 203, the highlights being 5 wickets for Ed Gardiner Hill (were we short of bowling, skip?) and a fabulous leg side stumping from the Chairman. The Grannies collapsed to 42 for 5 before EGH stabilised the innings with 60 and Hugo Llewelyn finished 88 not out - a very good effort considering that he canoed from Dover to Calais on Friday!
Kilndown didn't happen, rain put paid to the Chelsea Arts Club and Tarbarrow didn't materialise but even without MM Jim Streeter who went off on his 40th for a weekend of excess we eased past Odiham and Greywell and the season ended at Leigh. The Grannies having posted 200, Leigh were 197 for 9 as the last ball of the season was bowled by Martin Stringer. Sharp Grannies fielding limited them to 2 byes and everyone retired to the pub. Ashley Butterworth made 81, Hugo L. had a hangover and the Chairman's executed another leg-side stumping. Does that not sum up The Grannies as we look forward to 2009.