'A trip down memory lane...'

Averages

Historical Photographs

Previous facts of the week

As a lot of people involved with the cricket club know, Grafton Cricket Clubs history is a little patchy. With this section of the website not only do we want to find out interesting facts but it will also help us to piece together the history of the club. Not only that, it will be a sound place to keep an ongoing record of facts and statistics to do with the club helping maintain a comprehensive historical background for years to come.

 

Fact of the week 1 (appeared week ending 26/7/01): Low scoring

On the 29th of June 1972 chasing a total of 135 for 4 dec set by Lambournes CC, Temple Grafton got bowled out for the measly sum of 33. 27 of those runs coming from Pete Gregory. Interestingly there were 8 (yes eight) ducks for the grafton team which i do believe has still to be beaten as a grafton record!

Fact of the week 2 (appeared week ending 3/8/01): For the dedicated spectator only

On the 21st May 1972 visitors Cranleigh, batting first, were 101 all out after 42.2 overs. In reply, Temple Grafton managed 41 all out off 30.3 overs. That Reg Stanley bloke top scored with 17. That makes the run rate for the entire match 1.95 runs per over.

Fact 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& ..

Fact of the week 5 - “Stratford Stuffed”  1st September 1973 ( Robin’s 18th birthday)

After losing to The Martins the previous week, Grafton were looking for better things against Stratford “A” XI.  

No record of weather conditions, who won toss etc but Grafton were batting first and struggled early on to cope with the bowling of Dawes and Bayliss, losing D Garside and Rimell with the score on 12. Barry Juckes and Pete Cooper repaired things but with Barry out for 14, Dave Beech for 11 and then Pete Cooper for 33, TG were 77 for 5. After this, nobody but Mike Hancock (11 n.o.) could manage double figures and Grafton were all out for 114, which included 19 byes! The innings lasted only 27 overs, Bayliss taking 5 for 29 off 10 and Hanks 4 for 13 off 7. Temple Grafton must have been dissappointed with this, particularly as Stratford only had 10 players. 

They need not have worried, however, as Barry Juckes and Mike Hancock set about the Stratford batters, rapidly reducing them to 19 for 5 with the dismissal of T Whiteside (later to be a Bards player). However, already installed at number 6 was Bill Winter, a Grafton favourite if ever there was one, but probably the man to salvage something from the game. Perhaps he might have done if anyone had stayed with him. Stratford lost their remaining 3 wickets in 5 overs while only managing to score 5 runs – all out for 24 and poor old Bill Winter stranded on 4 n.o. Bowling honours were shared, B Juckes jug avoiding with 4 for 11 and M Hancock jug buying with 5 for 9.  

6 out of 9 dismissals were bowled and a word for Grafton’s keeper (Ray Huckvale?) who only let 4 byes through. The innings lasted just 17.4 overs so if they were drinking at Grafton Court in those days they would probably have found it shut!

Postscript

As this will (for the time being) be the last of these little forays into the past lives of Grafton cricketers, I felt I should add something to the above story……….

The very next day, Sunday 2nd September 1973, TG played host to Bohemians. Now while I personally would have been busy the previous day celebrating the fact that I could drink legally, a certain Phil Stanley was equally busy celebrating his 16th birthday. As a present, he was given the number 11 slot in the Grafton Sunday side and put on 16 runs for the last wicket (with Mike Hancock) before being bowled for 7, 6 more runs than his dad got that day! Rather spookily, TG scored 114, exactly the same as the previous day…………..

With messrs. Juckes and Hancock still relatively fresh from the Saturday game, plus also having Pete Gregory and Reg Stanley to bowl, Bohemians stould no chance. Pete and Reg took 6 for 29 between them and they were bowled out for 71 to register a second fine win of the weekend. Interestingly, Bohemians had a player called Cox and two called Sheath in the side…….   

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