The 2020 Cricketer Cup final may not have been possible, but fifty-three earlier finals have produced some epic matches and memorable moments, recalled in this personal selection.

Which final produced the most epic match?

There have been several very close matches. In 1974 there was an extraordinary low-scoring match when Old Wykehamists made 109-9 in 52 overs against Old Alleynians, for whom Simon Dyson, in his time perhaps one of the best bowlers in amateur cricket took 4-11 in 12 overs, but the Alleynians could only crawl to 32-5 in 26 overs, losing on run-rate when rain finally ended play. In another rain-affected match in 1982 Old Malvernians declared on 104-8, believing they had to bowl Old Wykehamists out to win. The Wykehamists finished on 75-9 to win on run-rate. In 1989 Oundle Rovers won by only eight runs against Shrewsbury Saracens, but the closest result was in 1979 when in another low-scoring game, Uppingham Rovers , chasing Old Tonbridgians 151 all out, fell five runs short on 146-9 in 55 overs, as brilliant catching by Tim Chandler and three run-outs ended their hopes. Recent finals have been more one-sided, the closest coming in 2013 when Fabian Cowdrey batted through the Old Tonbridgian innings for 84 not out to secure a two-wicket win over Old Cranleighans.

As an epic match, fortunes changing by the hour, the 1973 final reigns supreme because it produced a match-winning innings completely out of character with the relatively sedate cricket of the 1970s. Old Tonbridgians were seeking a hat-trick of consecutive wins and were hot favourites against their opponents, Rugby Meteors, whose captain Ted Rose played club cricket with almost half the Tonbridge side at Limpsfield. Tonbridge batted first, Colin Smith and Richard Gracey putting on 77 in the first 20 overs, but then lost four wickets for 23. Tony Monteuuis and Peter Fuente built a dangerous partnership that had the makings of a match winning total, but, when they were out, the tail could add only 30 off the final 10 overs, 217 all out. Rugby made a steady start but the Tonbridge bowlers, especially Richard Gracey and Nicholas Heroys, kept tight control and, at 140-5 with only 8 overs to go, Tonbridge seemed to have the whip hand. At that point the unheralded Sandy Marshall came in at number seven to join Oxford and Surrey batsman John Cuthbertson, who had just passed his fifty. Marshall launched into the hitherto dominant Tonbridge bowling, scoring 56 out of 78 in only five overs, including four huge sixes, to sweep Rugby to victory.

Which has been the most commanding individual performance in a final?

There are many contenders including Jim Bovill’s hat-trick for Charterhouse Friars as they beat Old Tonbridgians at Roehampton in 2000, only six individual hundreds and eleven five-wicket hauls, the best of which was by Mark Rowland for Old Brightonians in 1969, who blew away the Stowe Templars batting with 6-18 as the Stoics succumbed for just 57. Alex Milton of Old Malvernians and Worcestershire showed in the 2016 final that wicket-keepers can also produce fine all-round performances by making 102 and then stumping three Old Cranleighan batsmen and catching another. Fabian Cowdrey added to his reputation as one of the leading Cricketer Cup players of his generation in the 2019 final by taking 2-19 in 10 overs and then making 74 not out to help Old Tonbridgians to victory over Oundle Rovers.

Three other all-round performances stand out, however, also by current or recently retired county cricketers. In 1994 Richard Ellison (Old Tonbridgians, Kent and England) took 4-30 and scored 55 not out in the win over Old Cliftonians. In 1983 John Carr (Repton Pilgrims and Middlesex) took 5-12 and then scored 60 not out as Repton demolished the Haileybury Hermits by seven wickets. Carr, the son of Donald, the first victorious Cricketer Cup captain, remembers the 1983 Final as ‘one of those days when things just went our way. I think Haileybury Hermits were quite reliant on my Middlesex and Oxford colleagues Andrew (Dusty) Miller and Richard Ellis for runs, but Ellis was refused permission to play and things very much went our way with the ball. My non-turning off-spin was usually just economical at best but having taken a caught and bowled with a full toss I ended up with a string of wickets without bowling anything very exceptional. 110 was a very modest target on a good pitch at Burton Court and I remember enjoying both batting and bowling with the band playing in the background. The most remarkable feature of the Pilgrims win that year was leaving Malvern at the end of a rain affected match against them (semi-final?) not knowing which team had won the match – I think most of us thought we’d lost and it was a nice surprise to subsequently find that we had gone through!’ Disputes about rules governing rain-affected matches were not uncommon in the days before Duckworth-Lewis.

An even more commanding performance had come in the 1977 final from Nick Pocock (Shrewsbury Saracens) who had made his Hampshire debut the year before. He took 4-16 in bowling out Oundle Rovers for 117 (Tim Lamb of Middlesex taking 4-23), and then made 96 not out in 118-1 as Shrewsbury cruised home. His captain on the day, Nicko Williams, remembers how Oundle froze on the occasion for ‘how else would you get out to Nick Pocock's unremarkable left arm over slow medium floaters? He finished with 4 for 16 in the full complement of 12 overs, and, as he says himself, he must have been pretty fit. Set to get only 118, the Salopian captain, in an unusual instance of inspired captaincy, for which he later received a congratulatory telegram from MJK Smith, managed to spoon a nondescript delivery to mid-on in the first over which brought in Pocock. From the very first ball in a flurry of magnificent shots all round the ground he put the Rovers attack, and not a bad attack either, completely to the sword and 23.4 overs later he had won the match with 96 not out. The ever-reliable Mark Thornycroft was left 22 not out.’

Good memories and let us hope 2021 produces another epic match or individual performance.

DRW