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Last of the summer wine

On a glorious afternoon, 2nd October, eight of us played golf in shirtsleeves at Broadstone.

It was generally agreed to be a great course and sufficiently attractive to encourage Luke Fenwicke-Clennell and Mike Chattey from many miles away. Ignoring a couple of low scores most made mid 30s stableford scores while Andrew Hussey played the course to 3 over for a 41 point win. Congratulations and the cash to Andrew. His week of practice in Portugal paid off. Others, noticeably Hutch and Adrian Wright, were showing rather less respect for the event by using it as a warm up for their Spanish tour. Although the President was kind enough to give Charles O’Reilly a fiver in pursuit of rather preposterous and unlikely bets.

A few more would have appeared if we had planned a little further ahead, and not chosen a school leave weekend, but enough fun was shared for all to agree that we should have two golf fixtures per annum; one near London and one in Dorset. Furthermore the dates should appear in the fixture card so that everyone has the opportunity to take part.

This match was the return leg of the game played by the Fantasians against the Suffolk Allsorts two years ago at Iwerne Minster. Many Fantasians may remember that the previous match was abandoned at lunch owing to a downpour which may have been provident as we were 92 for 6 at the time!

This year’s match was played on the Framlingham College 2nd XI pitch, beautifully situated in the lee of Framlingham Castle. Our team did not consist entirely of Fantasians but Ian Hepburn, Julian Hill, Jonathan Howard and three Husseys were all bona fide Fants. Messrs N Fenwicke-Clennel and P Nicholls, who are both Fantasians were playing for the opposition but were not fined purely because of the innate decency of the Fantasians captain!

The Fants won the toss and batted first in a 40 over match. The main contributors with the bat were Richard Davey (66), Tom Hussey (32), Ian Hepburn (23) and a cameo innings from Jonathan Howard towards the end scoring a quickfire 21 off very few balls. The final score was 212 for 9 at the end of 40 overs.

As usual, the Fants attack consisted of various creaky middle aged medium pacers of many years experience! This did not seem to deter Mark Nicholls, brother of the aforementioned Paul, who scored a rapid 79 before being caught by Edward Hussey at cow corner. Sadly, the Allsorts prevailed in the 34th over with 7 wickets down. The pick of the bowlers for The Fants were Hugo Johnsen, brother of James, with two wickets and Rupert Ashe with respectable figures of 3 for 34 off 7 overs. The captain took one wicket thanks entirely to a spectacular catch by Ian Hepburn!

It was a most enjoyable game played in good spirit by both sides and there was even a moment when a Fantasian victory looked probable.

Andrew Hussey

It may well have been proven that I can organise a piss up in a brewery but it is definitely not proven that I can raise or motivate a Fantasian side to beat Palmers Brewery at cricket. To make matters worse we ended up paying for their beer at The Square & Compass.

The truth is that Palmers are a very handy side and whilst we had a very strong team of Dorset Fantasians there was no disguising that our own ale doesn’t travel or age so well. The artificial strip played well and was scarcely noticed when the wonderful views to the Isle of Wight were there to distract you.

However when we batted first timing the ball did not come easily to us and we struggled to get any good rhythm or prolonged partnerships going until the wiser heads of Andrew Hussey and Richard Arundell pushed us along at the end against some very seasoned T20 campaigners. In reply there was some excellent bowling from Mike Chattey who broke their captains bails as well as spirit, unusual dedication from Andrew Younger who was playing on his wedding anniversary but a couple of overs got away from us. Their experience of the format, some 15 or 20 T20 games each season, made it difficult for us. Apart from Mike Chattey’s debut Tim Evans showed us some very un Fantasian excellence in the field. They are two cricketers that should appear on every match managers radar.

I think we managed to drink our way back into the fixture and we shall try to play next year at Winfrith being a more central point to play

Charles O’Reilly

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Sadly the original score book recording the early years went missing. We do know however that past centurions include Philip Davies, Andrew Brettle, David Reid, Ian Hepburn (108 n o at Fonthill in 1996), Rob Bradley (104 n o v Butterflies in 1997), Alexander Ball, Luke Fenwicke-Clennell (well 95 n o is worth a mention!) and Matt Cooke (a ringer from Gemini!) who racked up169 versus The Hurlingham Club in 2006, the highest known individual Fantasian score.

Simon Maxwell possibly the finest all rounder in the club in the early years (Rob Bradley might have something to say on this one) was another centurion and on one occasion he carried his bat having opened with Adrian Wright at Settrington Hall in Yorkshire in 1988. This was a good result for Simon as he was hard up at the time and Adrian offered him £1 for every over he stayed in after Adrian was out. A £ was worth a bit in those days and it was an all day game!

The key bowlers in the early years included Nick Lunt, Guy Jenkinson (Even Mike Dudley-Jones, a near permanent fixture at keeper stood half way to the boundary for Guy),  Phillip Davies, Nigel Peyton, Simon Maxwell, Tom Rowe, Nick and Luke Fenwicke-Clennell, Rob Bradley (6 for 26) versus Butterflies in 1999, Andrew Saunders, Oli Tress and the dead eyed Tim Bidie. The more recent Dorset years featuring more of Tim Bidie and Philip Davies, both Balls – Simon and Alex, the ever reliable Richard Arundell, Andrew Hussey, Jonathan Howard and the tweakers Guy Lintott and Julian Mathews amongst others.

Notable wins included the game against the Canbashers at Ashmore in 1998 when David Reid knocked up 115 n o chasing 241 to win with 1.5 overs to spare. The first win V Hurlingham was in 1987 and definitely down to Mike Dudley-Jones’ well known leadership skills in continually topping up the team with very non vintage port delivered personally on a silver salver. It worked: Maxwell taking 7 wickets and Charles Bromley catching anything and everything that appeared on his radar screen.

Boys cricket, above the age of twelve and sometimes combined with adults/fathers, has featured considerably in the fixture list in Dorset in recent years and has resulted in a number of talented players now playing in the adult fixtures. The names Ball, Ledger x 3, Hope, Irwin, and Hepburn spring to mind as a sample.

At The Hurlingham Club in 2007 The Fantasians won the toss and put Hurlingham in. They batted for 55 overs declaring with 277 for the loss of eight wickets. Andrew Broderick and Charles Stockbridge opened the batting for the Fantasians and 35 overs later at 6:58 pm the Fantasians captain Andrew Bell and David Merrifield returned to the pavilion with 80 and 60 not out respectively to win with only three wickets down. Some run chase!

The clubs highest Known score being at Hurlingham in 2006 where The Fantasians scored 330 for 8 declared. Some economical bowling by John Reid (Son of David playing in the same game), Oli Tress and Joe Lewis keeping the Hurlingham down to 300. Another great win.