Highlights from Cricket Archive - Cricketer Cup All-Rounders

All-rounders have always been worth more than their weight in gold in the Cricketer Cup and three of them stand out pre-eminently in the statistics to be found in the Cricketer Cup pages in Cricket Archive. Two of them unsurprisingly come from successful Old Tonbridgian teams. Richard Gracey, one of the great rackets players of his generation, scored 1072 runs and took 107 wickets with his off-breaks in 62 matches between 1967 and 1989 (his last appearance when he was 53 years old). Ali Owen-Browne had similar longevity, playing for 25 years between 1991 and 2016, scoring 1712 runs and taking 104 wickets with his slow left arm. Pride of place must go, however, to Peter Edwards of Oundle Rovers, whose father was incidentally a housemaster at Tonbridge. Peter played 86 matches for Oundle between 1974 and 2012, a playing career of 38 years which is one of the longest in the history of the competition), scored 2386 runs and took 134 wickets with his medium-pace cutters a la Darren Stevens. In the shorter playing careers that characterise the Cricketer Cup today, it is doubtful that anyone will again achieve the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets. Of those still playing, Seren Waters of Old Cranleighans comes closest, scoring 1141 runs and taking 58 wickets in 32 matches so far.

Peter Edwards seated left in the Oundle Rovers team in the 2010 final

Richard Gracey batting for Old Tonbridgians in the 1973 final