A Hot Day at the Big Bash

Grosvenor Googlies raise the Big Bash trophy

We started promptly at 1030, with a very close game in which last year’s winners Ed Hobbs’ Wardour Warriors beat Matt Chapman’s Tisbury Full Tossers by a solitary run.  Wardour were then beaten by newcomers the Grosvenor Googles led by Henry Comyn, who then beat the Tisbury team to head the group.

In the other group, Ewen Moore’s Park Bottoms needed only 2 overs to comfortably defeat Jim Chetwode’s Dorset Knockers, only to succumb to the energetic Old Fonthillians  who posted a formidable 78 off their 6 overs, which they could not match. Captained by Jolyon Medlock in his first outing of the season,  Old Fonthillians (four times previous winners) also beat the Knockers to top the group,

Tisbury Full Tossers - Wooden Spoon winners

Then  there was the play-off between Knockers and (Full) Tossers for the Big Bash Wooden Spoon trophy.   A very close contest with the teams separated by only one run after a very close 6 overs, finished in Tisbury’s favour leaving them winners of the spoon for the second year running.

In the semi-finals the OFs perhaps surprisingly beat the Wardour Warriors (67-2 vs 46-5) with big-hitter Ed Hobbs cut short caught on the boundary by young Fonthillian Freddie Power.   Comyn’s Googlies beat Park Bottoms, scoring a huge 81-0 and limiting their opponents to 54-3 to set up a classic final of old versus new. 

Comyn can't believe he has been hit for 5

Old Fonthillians batted first and got off to a very poor start, but recovered to present Googlies with a target of 50.  The highlight of the innings was the final over when Henry Comyn went (expensively) for 16 without the batters troubling the boundary line thanks to some exceptional running from Tim Jones, Leigh Godfrey and Freddie Power, including a 5! Non-striker Jones started his run some 10yds behind the wicket meaning he was travelling at the speed of Linford Christie as he backed up.   However the Googles emerged triumphant and were deserved winners of the trophy, now in its twelfth year.

Big thanks to Peter Catarinella for managing the number-crunching and doing most of the scoring and of course to everyone else who helped make it all work.  The Club would also like to thank all the players for playing their matches in such good spirits despite the heat, and for their £10 match fees, all of which will go to charity.  Added to that are £215 from the raffle and a further £100 form the barbecue, making a grand total of £795.   Many thanks too to those who generously donated raffle prizes, to Eric Tracey, Howard and Alison Smith and John Grinstead who worked tirelessly behind the bar to and to those who mucked in at the end to help clear up.  The money will be donated to three local charities: the Wilts and Bath Air Ambulance Charity, Seeds4Success and Solent Mind.

Grosvenor Googlies and Old Fonthillians shake hands after the final

Pictures by Nic Jones and Nic Jones.