Minor Counties

Devon, by far the most successful minor county in the past 15 years with seven outright championship and one-day titles, face the possibility of failing to reach the last eight of the restyled MCCA Trophy (Michael Austin writes). Again led by Bobby Dawson, they need to beat Cornwall, in St Just on Sunday to prevent their arch West Country rivals from going through from group three with Berkshire, who have already qualified.

The reintroduction of quarter-finals has sustained interest to the final round of group matches, with only Lincolnshire, who won all four of their matches, and Norfolk, along with Berkshire, being assured of a place in the knockout stages.

Roger Tolchard, 61, a Devon wicketkeeper at the age of 16, who went on to represent Leicestershire and England, has joined the minor counties umpires’ panel, along with Steve Malone, the former Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire fast-medium bowler. Malone, 54, has been appointed to the first-class reserve list.

Women

A partnership of 168 for the first wicket between James Hockley, who made a century, and David Thompson enabled Hartley Country Club to reach a total of 324 for nine in the first round of the Cockspur Cup (Ivo Tennant writes). In reply, Linden Park, for whom Tom Williams took five for 38, were dismissed for only 42. Thompson, who had struck 68, took four wickets at a cost of only eight runs and Andrew Tutt returned figures of five for 21.

A considerably closer contest was staged between Great Ayton and Thirsk, who won by one wicket with three balls to spare. The Grainge brothers, Jon, who made 68, and David, 43, put on 101 for Ayton’s third wicket. A total of 34 extras, including 19 wides, enabled their side to reach 202 for seven. Anth Doyle and Colin Murray then took three wickets apiece, but contributions by three members of the McKendrie family sealed victory. Other matches in the first round had to be decided by a coin toss because of poor weather.

Schools

What is a good cricket school? The thought is prompted by two occasions recently when, in a block fixture (all levels), School A won the 1st XI match but School B won all the others (Douglas Henderson writes). The difference is usually that School A has cricket scholars who may play for four or even five years in the 1st XI, by-passing the younger groups. School B does not have cricket scholars but develops its own players from its normal intake of pupils.

In recent years this polarisation has become more marked. There are, of course, schools which have a healthy balance of the two. The argument for academic scholars is that they raise the level of intellectual endeavour in the less bright. The argument for cricket scholars is really only that they make your 1st XI consistently strong. We may soon get to the stage where every cricketing school has to offer cricket scholarships because all their competitors do. That has long been true of academic scholarships.

Bill Frindall was the guest of honour at a ceremony to unveil a new electronic scoreboard at Dauntsey’s. It was dedicated to the memory of Hugo Halkes, a promising cricketer aged 12, who was killed in a road accident earlier in the academic year. Skipper Jon Lodwick marked the occasion by scoring his maiden century (112 not out) to defeat MCC by six wickets.

Bedford and Tonbridge were due to play their traditional two-day fixture, but a poor weather forecast led them to decide on two one-day matches instead. Not a drop of rain fell on either day. Both matches were won fairly comfortably by Tonbridge.

Results