Blackheath 234 for 6 (40 overs, Flavell 51, Carson 2 for 30, Yeldham 2 for 40) beat OCCC 103 (29.4 overs, J Arnego-Jones 4 for 9) by 131 runs
Although the season ended with a heavy defeat there are worse places to received a drubbing than the beautiful Blackheath on a sunny Friday in August.
Blackheath won the toss and scored steadily to reach 234 for 5 in their 40 overs. At the halfway stage the hosts were 113 for 1 but the OCs (with a good smattering of current and former Blackheath OCs) kept to the task and took wickets steadily to ensure the score was kept within reach. Ed Carson worked out the best way to take wickets was to encourage batsmen to try to clear Jonny Haynes at long-on, finishing with 2 for 30, while Freddie Yeldham took 2 for 40.
Losing Luca La Costa to the fourth ball and Haynes soon after, we recovered to 65 for 2 before the wheels loosened and then came spectacularly off. Jasper Arengo-Jones, who made his Cranleigh 1st XI debut in the last match of the season, took 4 for 9 in 6.4 overs, a return marred by his failure to dismiss his older brother, Benji. Only one from numbers 5 to 11 reached double figures – surprisingly that one was Archie Freeth – and we just scraped three figures. More importantly, we kept going long enough for the BBQ to be ready.
A lovely day where the cricket was almost secondary to the backdrop and the friendly spectators. We are already looking forward to our return in two years’ time.
