Fact of the week

So after a long break for the winter period the fabulous Grafton Fact of the week has made a welcome reappearance. As voted for by you we have the interesting tale of 3 Gregory's on tour...

Fct of the week 4 - The 3 Gregorys on tour – 6^th June 1977

The famous Temple Grafton CC 1977 "centenary" tour of Hampshire rumbled on. Having already visited Nursling & Rownhams and Littleton on the previous 2 days (both games won handsomely), our intrepid players arrived at Sarisbury for the final match. This tour was notable for being the first occasion that all three Gregorys played together (unless another scorebook turns up to prove me wrong). In fact they all played in all 3 games – life was tough on tour in them days……………..

The match was to be a 2 innings affair, the first innings being 25 overs and the second unlimited. Temple Grafton batted first, so we assume they lost the toss. Geoff Calcutt (yes him) got things off to a brisk start despite losing Dick Hodges quite cheaply. Geoff himself was 2^nd wicket down with the score on 70, of which he had made 56 believe it or not. Chris Juckes and Barry Timms went almost immediately leaving Barry Juckes and Pete Gregory to stage a recovery. Pete scored 13, Mike Hancock 0, Simon Gregory 0, Malcolm Ranieri 0 n.o. and B.J. undefeated on 45. Jason Gregory was next to come in, sitting there quaking in his pads probably….Anyway, a total of 128-7 no doubt seemed respectable.

Sarisbury struggled in reply, tight bowling restricting them to 13-3 off the first 8 overs. This pattern continued and only T Banks offered resistance – eventually being LBW for 32. This was Pete Gregory’s 2^nd victim. After that Sarisbury crumbled to the sorry state of 45 all out, only using 20.2 of their 25 overs. T Banks’ 10 colleagues had managed a fantastic 11 runs between them. Pete Gregory ended up with 10 overs, 3 maidens, 7 for 19. In fact in one 3 over spell, he took 5 wickets for 4 runs. Mike Hancock took the other 3 wickets. A certain J Gregory was credited with 2 catches, no less.

The second innings would require a well timed declaration but with a lead of 83, Grafton were well in control……………that is until both openers were back in the pavilion with no score on the board. The Juckes brothers repaired things with 13 and 22, but when they were out the 3 Gregorys were more or less on their own, Jason got 13, Pete 2 and Simon 1. All three were bowled. Grafton declared on 58-8 and Sarisbury needed 141 to win.

History does not relate how much time they had to get these runs but our hosts evidently batted much better and at 59 for 1, Grafton must have been just a tad worried. Time was obviously a factor though, and the match ended in a draw with Sarisbury on 98-6. Pete Gregory chipped in with another 3 wickets so he had 18 in total on the tour. Oh, and Simon Gregory took a catch, something he does quite well to this day…..