Quarter-Final Preview - Nicholson Cricketer Cup

Of the eight sides into the quarter-finals, six are previous winners with only Lancing Rovers and Old Cheltonians yet to reach a final.

Old Cheltonians make the journey to Shrewsbury, buoyed by away wins at Ampleforth and OMTs, where they impressively chased down 330. Ben Ringrose is in flying form with a 90 and an 80, while the three Jameson Black brothers are a key part of the team, all bowling spin and batting in the top/middle order. The introduction of Jacques Sharam and Jason Soames is exciting as they have been unable to play previous rounds. Despite not being a school that boasts many pros Cheltenham have a strong hand of all-rounders with 8 bowlers along with 10 genuine batters who get on really well together. The Saracens’ Ruaidhri Smith (Round 2 centurion) is back on Glamorgan duty but will be replaced by Joe Carrasco who has been enjoying a rich vein of form for Shepherds Bush in the Middlesex Premier League. Olly Westbury, recently of Worcestershire, looks set to return to the Saracens at the top of the order, while the opening bowling duo of Stephen Barnard and Alasdair Pollock are excited to get back to work after their devastating opening spell in Round 2 which saw a strong Harrow batting lineup reduced to 27-7. The Saracens entertain Old Cheltonians for the first time in the history of the competition (the two sides having played each other only once before at Cheltenham in 2006). Cheltenham College were evacuated to Shrewsbury School for two terms at the beginning of the 2nd World War although no cricket was played. The weather was so cold that the cricket field was the venue for an ice hockey match which was won by Cheltenham. The forecast for Sunday is for sunshine!

Lancing will be hosting Bradfield Waifs for the Rovers' first Cricketer Cup quarter-final in around 40 years. Progress to this stage has come courtesy of two small, yet nail-biting run chases. First against Old Tonbridgians, where a collective bowling display - led by Henry Gane's 4-25 - restricted OT to 127, before Worthing's AJ Wood's 50 guided the run chase. And secondly, an all-round display by England and Hampshire leg-spinner, Mason Crane (3-16 and 79*), saw the Rovers score 130 to beat Old Cliftonians. Wood and Gane (the tournament's joint leading wicket-taker) will face up against the Waifs, and we hope also to secure the services of Crane, county-dependent. Bognor's Ryan Maskell, triple-centurion from the 2019 Cricketer Trophy final, once again takes the gloves alongside club teammate, Nick Ballamy, the stand-in skipper for the first two rounds. Regular captain, St James's Montefiore's Hector Loughton, returns to captain the side. Bradfield Waifs travel with good wins under their belts against Marlborough Blues and Eton Ramblers and will be hoping that their captain Harry Came will be released by Derbyshire to continue his rich vein of form which brought him an unbeaten hundred against Eton. They will also have two school leavers in Sheridan Gumbs and Zach Lion-Cachet, as well as Imran Malik who scored 146 in the first round at Marlborough.

Oundle Rovers are eagerly awaiting the visit of Old Millfieldians who defeated them in last year’s Arundel Castle final. Captained by Greg Smith, Oundle plan to play a largely unchanged side, albeit with Ben Graves, Nicholson Man of the Match in the first round, returning at the top of the order. Oundle’s middle order will include James Esler and Tommy Simeons, their two youngest players, whose 7th wicket partnership in the second round at Rugby turned a very tight game in the Rovers’ favour. Will Street, Oundle’s number one off spinner has now passed 50 Cricketer Cup wickets, placing him third in Oundle’s all time wicket taking list. Old Millfieldians are looking very strong again. They have had good availability for the three games played so far, perhaps even benefiting from the extra game at Malvern in the preliminary round. They have a big potential pool of players and have used eighteen so far. The stand out performers have been Tom Bevan and Ed Wade at the top of the order but Tom has probably now played his way into the Glamorgan 1st XI for the remainder of the summer. The Ellison brothers are both in excellent form, Harry batting superbly in the middle order and Charlie bowling with good pace. The experience of Rory Hamilton-Brown was a useful asset in the previous round and there are some exciting school leavers who will immediately come into consideration for the game at Oundle.

Old Wellingtonians have Adam Dewes and Pete Young in good form from the previous round when both scored 50s, and the batting will be strengthened by the inclusion of Ed Young and Northants player Ben Curran. New players also include two 2022 leavers, Sam Daniel and Joe Lewis, who have both played for the 1st XI this year and bowled good left arm and opened the batting respectively. Mike O'Donoghue plays having taken a classy 4-25 against Hurstpierpoint in the last round. For a variety of reasons only five Cranleigh players survive from the close run victory over Uppingham. Jack Scriven (who has won both MOTM awards in the previous rounds) continues at the top of the order with his brother (and captain) Brad. They also open the batting together for Cranleigh village who lead Division One of the Surrey Championship. The middle order is strengthened by the first appearance of the season of Angus Dahl who joins Alan Cope and two other previous winners of the cup in brothers Tom and Matt Crump who also make their first appearance. Experienced keeper Will Howard (who shepherded us to the win in the last round) happily moves aside for Sachin Shanmugavel who is fresh from a century against the old boys in his last innings at the school last week.