A closely contested game on a hot day at Arundel resulted in the Bradfield Waifs winning by 3 wickets with a couple of overs to spare. A large crowd of over 500 enjoyed an excellent day’s cricket in Arundel’s incomparable surroundings, an event supported by our sponsors Nicholson Gin.

Tonbridge won the toss and unsurprisingly decided to bat. The wicket was a bit slow all day without a lot of bounce. Of the twelve bowlers on show, eight were spinners who bowled three-quarters of the overs between them, although all three Bradfield seamers picked up wickets. Neither side made the best use of the favourable batting conditions, with no batsman on either side passing fifty.

Tonbridge squandered their good fortune in winning the toss in what were very hot conditions for the fielding side. In similar conditions in 2023 Old Malvernians racked up an unbeatable score of over 300 but this time Tonbridge could only manage 196 before they were bowled out in the final over. Seven batsmen reached double figures but they kept losing wickets at crucial moments. Freddie Geffen and Ollie Morgan put on 33 for the first wicket, but two wickets then fell at 66. It needed someone in the top five to put together a score of 80 or more but none of the batsmen was able to dominate a steady but largely unthreatening attack. Sam Hadfield played well for his 49 before wafting at a wide one at 157-5, and Harry Bevan-Thomas departed two runs later, the innings then slowly succumbing. Medium-paced seamers Finn Brabham, Tom Ettridge and Jack Bransgrove took five wickets between them for only 70 runs, and Charlie Gwynn was the best of the three slow left-armers with 3-31 off his ten overs. The fielding was sharp and school leaver Andrew MacEwen kept wicket well in his first Cricketer Cup game.

The cognoscenti in the crowd reckoned the Tonbridge score was at least thirty or forty short of something defendable and so it proved. Bradfield reached 64-1 when the dominant opener Hugo Darby holed out at deep mid-wicket and they stuttered at 87-4 and 145-6 when Crofton Keyes was dismissed by Tom Coldman, having held the middle order together with a careful 44 off 79 balls. Tom Ettridge now came in at number eight to seize the moment and his 34 not out off 28 balls (the only innings in the match at better than a run-a-ball) sealed the game and won him, together with his bowling, the Nicholson Gin Man-of-the-Match award. Tonbridge were reliant on spin for all but three overs and they toiled valiantly in the heat, but Bradfield were never under scoreboard pressure and could pace their innings accordingly. Off-spinner Tom Coldman with 2-30 and slow left-armer Bevan-Thomas with 2-37 off their 10 overs were the pick of the bowlers and the fielding was generally good as befits a young team. Finn Brabham came in to help Ettridge put on the necessary 19 for the eighth wicket and the Waifs were home.

The presentations were made by Mike Johns, father of Alex (Nicholson CEO) and a former Cricketer Cup player himself for Marlborough, and by the Cricketer Cup President Nick Pocock. The man-of-the-match award was made by Roger Tolchard, one of the umpires on the day, who played for England, Leicestershire and has played more Cricketer Cup games, as an Old Malvernian, than any other Test player.