The St.Cross Cup

Sunday, 24th September, 2023

The week building up to the inaugural St Cross Cup – our season finale T20 competition – was marked by storms and heavy rains; the end of a hurricane that wreaked havoc in the Caribbean.  However, as the weekend approached the skies lifted and the sun came out making this four-team tournament possible on the ever-delightful St Cross grounds.

We ended up playing two different St Cross teams in both the morning and afternoon matches; the format was much the same as our own King Alfred Trophy although nobody seems to really be a fan of the ‘10 overs in a row from one end’ amendment…

Unfortunately we lost the toss in the first match and were put in to bat on a still damp track that seemed to offer slow, loopy bounce that was extremely tricky to time any meaningful stroke-play on.

Despite starts from Dave (13) and the Skipper (12), Tom T shone the most with an attacking 32, including 5 well-stuck boundaries. Accompanied by a positive 10 from the President in the final overs, a slightly undercooked 85 was posted in our allotted overs.

In reply, our hosts soon got going on the drying wicket making good progress towards the target. Whilst we stuck at it, we weren’t able to defend our relatively modest score though it was great to see the ever-enthusiastic Charlie T take two St Cross wickets with some really controlled bowling from the Hospital end.

Unfortunately, the evergreen Sepia took a really nasty knock to a finger on his bowling hand which looked like it might rule him out of any further play for the day – but then you never know with our talisman of spin & guile…

(Match One: loss by 8 wickets)

Thus, after a pleasant samosa-based lunch, we moved on to the, frankly, much better wicket on pitch 2 for our contest against the other St Cross XI.

Winning the toss we took to the field with a spring in our step, on what was an increasingly humid September afternoon.

From the off we bowled and fielded really well as a unit and took 8 wickets as the opposition got to 139 in their 20 overs.

The pick of our attack was the President with an impressive 4 for 26; figures that cemented his place as our leading wicket-taker in 2023.

Despite the earlier injury there’s no keeping Sepia down (or quiet!) as he conjured up 2 wickets for 24 in his four overs of looping spin.

Tom & Charlie T were not rewarded with wickets but both bowled with good pace and control; a stumping by the excellent G (off the Skipper) and another run out by the same and a good haul was completed.

Mention must go to Flipper (aka Cris) for a must remarkable one-handed catch at long off. Very cool indeed! Jules also threw himself around in the field with great commitment.

And so to our reply…

The St Cross attack was young, quick and aggressive and we were sorry to lose our openers, Jon H & Head of Salmon, early on.

However, the classy Dave soon displayed his trademark attacking flair and quality hitting five 4s and three 6s in an excellent 50 (retired).

Supported by the Skip who struck two sweet boundaries in his 14 and the excellent Tom with two big sixes in another good innings of 19. and a successful chase looked on.

However, despite the best efforts of G, Flipper and the President and in the face of some very good bowling, we couldn’t quite make it over the winning line and fell just 8 runs short, as our overs ran out.

Well played all though – a valiant effort against a very decent opposition.

(Match two: loss by 8 runs)

The St Cross Cup day concluded with affable drinks and burgers by the welcoming clubhouse including a most deserved presentation of the two batting trophies (best innings and most sixes hit) to our own Dave F; a very nice moment for both him and the Racqueteers as we finished our excellent and highly enjoyable 2023 season in the sunshine of a warm, late September evening.