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With the club having made the South of England Finals day in 1983 the Tilehurst u13s of 1984 must have felt some pressure to perform.  That they outdid their predecessors was a very fine achievement.

One thing had changed though between the 1983 and 1984 seasons.  In 1983 colts’ matches were played as 20 overs a side, the format we are very familiar with today.  However, in 1984 a new format was introduced.  Teams had 8 players and the score started on 200, each innings lasted 16 overs with each pair batting for four overs, 8 runs were lost each time a batter was dismissed and everyone except the wicket keeper had to bowl at least one over.  It was much closer to the format of kwik cricket.

As anyone that has scored a kwik cricket match will know the scorecards aren’t really capable of being reproduced so we can only include the match summaries below.

Berkshire Final

Finchampstead CC: 227 (4 wickets lost)

Tilehurst CC: 252 (2 wickets lost)

In the Berkshire Final Tilehurst played against Finchampstead at Windsor CC on 6^th July.

The match was a low scoring affair with all the Tilehurst bowlers keeping it tight as Finchampstead batted first, the pick of the bowlers was Paul Lockyer who took 1-8 from his three overs. 

In reply the Tilehurst approach seems to have been to not lose wickets and this worked well with only the second pairing of Lockyer and Kupiec being dismissed once each.  It was left to the final pairing of Martyn Pyke and Justin Wiggins to see out the last four overs already being well clear of the final Finchampstead score.  So, for the second year running Tilehurst CC were perhaps the unlikely winners of the Berkshire u13s competition.

County Play-off

Guildford CC: 255 (6 wickets lost)

Tilehurst CC: 288 (2 wickets lost)

In the county play-off game Tilehurst travelled to Horsham on 23^rd July to take on the Surrey champions Guildford CC in a game now played over 20 overs with each pair batting for five overs.

The Guildford batters had a much more attacking approach than Finchampstead and their opening pair, which featured future Surrey captain and England player Adam Hollioake, got their innings off to a very good start.  However, as the later pairs came in to bat Tilehurst got back in to the game as wickets started to fall and the runs started to dry up.

The Tilehurst reply was led by Paul Lockyer who scored 34 albeit being out once in the process.  Having got in front it was again left to the final pair of Martyn Pyke and Justin Wiggins to see out the last five overs; no runs were needed, they just needed to avoid getting out.

In the end this was a game decided by wickets lost as whilst Tilehurst only scored one more run off the bat than their opponents they ran out relatively comfortable winners by 33 runs.

South of England Final

Tilehurst CC: 316 (0 wickets lost)

St Lawrence CC: 231 (12 wickets lost)

Having beaten Guildford in the morning in the afternoon Tilehurst faced St Lawrence CC from Kent in what seems to have been an extraordinary final.

Batting first Tilehurst scored 116 runs without any of their 8 batters being dismissed.  Leading the way with the bat was Paul Lockyer who made 28no and wicket keeper Martyn Pyke who made 26no. 

Faced with what must have been the daunting prospect of having to score at six an over without losing a wicket St Lawrence seemed to have remembered the need to score quickly but not the bit about keeping their wickets intact.  They scored 127 runs in their 20 overs but as there were 12 dismissals they ended up a long way short of their target.  Their state of mind is perhaps apparent in that 7 of the dismissals were run outs; the leading bowler was Justin Wiggins with 3-13 from his three overs.

So, the new team had gone one better than the team the year before: they’d won the South of England regional competition and made it through to the National Finals week.

National Finals Week

The national finals week was held at Sherborne School in Dorset starting on Tuesday 7^th August (another summer of re-arranged holidays?).

Tilehurst played 3 games that week with the scores as follows:

Match 1

Tilehurst CC: 226 (5 wickets lost)

Wanstead CC: 251 (2 wickets lost)

Match 2

Cherry Tree CC: 288 (2 wickets lost)

Tilehurst CC: 267 (3 wickets lost)

Match 3

Tilehurst CC: 234 (5 wickets lost)

Sheffield Collegiate CC: 260 (3 wickets lost)

Whilst not winning a game to make the national finals week was a tremendous achievement.  What’s more all of the games, including the one against the eventual winners Sheffield Collegiate (featuring future Yorkshire, Essex and England ODI player Paul Grayson) were close matches.  

Paul Lockyer was the star performer during the week for the Tilehurst side.  In that match against Sheffield Collegiate he scored 35no and that came on the back of 23no against Wanstead and 20no against Cherry Tree. 

Thanks again to Alan Pyke who managed and coached the team for providing the scorebooks for the above matches.