On Sunday 13^th July Caterham School opened its cricket ground to some Surrey Legends and a Caterham Cricket XI in order to encourage a paying audience to raise funds for St Catherine’s Hospice. Rain had been in the air earlier but the people turned up and were treated to some star turns with bat and ball. David Ward, skippering Surrey, won the toss and elected to bat. The public was appraised of this and other titbits throughout the match by Nick House who added to the entertainment with a mixture of knowing jibes and trivia. Rolling back the years the Captain (54) and Ali Brown put on 100 for the first wicket. After a relatively circumspect start the ball was regularly hit to and over the boundary and it wasn’t until half the innings had been played that the first wicket fell as Ashley Watson (1 for 33) clean bowled Ward. The run flow did not ease up as Chris Thompson (40) put on 78 with Brown for the second wicket before Brown (86), with a century in reach, was finally caught in the outfield off the bowling of Jon Crisp. Indeed the bowler Crisp (3 for 24) ensured the target was just a smidge above 200 with the additional wickets of Thompson and Scott Newman (14), leaving Gary Butcher stranded on 0 not out. The legends had hit 10 sixes and 16 fours much to the delight of the crowd.

After the spectators (and some players perhaps) had treated themselves to pulled pork rolls, cake and various liquid refreshments, whilst being entertained with a high catch competition and the tuneful strains of the Valley Primary School Orchestra Bromley, the action resumed. Chasing 202 to win Caterham made sure they didn’t lose early wickets and seemed untroubled as the seam of Joey Benjamin and Neil Saker was milked for 49 off 6 overs. But then spin was introduced. With the score on 60, and having hit some noteworthy lusty blows, Sunny Patel (35) fell to Simon King (3 for 18). Patel’s dismissal instigated a procession of wickets as Caterham batsmen sought to keep up with the steeply climbing required rate. Only Reavell (26), Armitage (28) and Parrett (10) were able to reach double figures as Newman (3 for 18), proving he can bowl as well as bat, Paul Atkins (2 for 10), Thompson (1 for 9) and Brown (1 for 22) all got their names in the wicket column partly due to Chris Bullen’s work behind the stumps and safe pairs of hands in the deep. So in the end Caterham fell 66 runs short. The result, of course, didn’t really matter but the fact that players had entertained the crowd and raised money for such a worthy cause certainly did.