Cricket vs V&A - 18th July 2021

On one of the hottest days of the year (woohoo) the Trade played their inaugural game against the V&A Cricket Club at Stonor Park. I think Stonor Park is one of the most beautiful grounds we have played on and let’s hope we have many more matches here in the coming years. We were wonderfully looked after by the V&A with a delicious lunch and tea. What is quite interesting is that they have a few wine merchants playing in the V&A. Anyone considering playing for WTC, this fixture is highly recommend!

The V&A won the toss and elected to bat led by Nick Constantine who played a very fine innings of 38 in far too short a time to set up their team. Christian Jonkers played the anchor roll with a classy 45 and no doubt suffered in the pub later for jug avoidance. The Wine Trade on their first outing in a few weeks were a little rusty but a fine spell from William Taverner (aged 15) on his debut with 2 for 39 off 6 overs and Ed Hume-Kendall also on his debut (not so young but he did do wild swimming in the Thames before the match) with 2 for 48 off 7 underpinned a resolute performance and set up a chase of 201 in 35 overs.

The Wine Trade lost by 12 runs in a very close game and everyone played their part in the chase that went down to the last over. The V&A were worried as we rallied from 66 for 5 to 172 for 7 thanks to 2 excellent partnerships between Sam Stobart (another debutant all-rounder who smoked 68 before being run out in his words “Knackered”) and our stalwart Christo Eliot Lockhart (he took a break from his new focus on baking to play) of 60 and with Steven Seaton (luckily, he runs a lot as well) of 46 to set up a finale that was gripping. Lusty blows occurred but sadly not enough to chase down the V&A.

So, we look forward to next year with hope in our hearts and Sancerre rouge on the table!

With thanks to Mark Leveson-Gower for the excellent match report & Kieran Gandhi for the pictures.