Bedford and Tonbridge to meet in Final

The final of the Beechbrook Capital Cricketer Cup will be between Old Bedfordians and Old Tonbridgians. This is a longstanding school rivalry as a two-day match has been played between the two schools every year since the Second World War, perhaps the longest surviving two-day match in the school cricket calendar. Bedford have never reached a final, while Tonbridge sit on top of the merit table but have lost the two previous finals.

In the first of yesterday’s semi-finals, Bedford continued their run of easy victories after two 10 wicket wins in previous rounds. Old Cliftonians won the toss and batted. They began strongly with a 60-run opening stand., Ollie Meadows making 35, but wickets then fell steadily, and Clifton could only struggle to 160 all out in 47 overs. Shaylen Tomlinson-Patel was the standout bowler with 4 wickets. Bedford then put on 92 for the first wicket, which effectively sealed the game. Zaid Faleel made 48, Charlie Thurston 41 and Shiv Patel 31 before Alex Wakely, who made nearly 7000 first-class runs for Northants and was now making his Cricketer Cup debut, made 22 not out as they cruised home by 7 wickets in only 29 overs.

At Tonbridge, in front of a good crowd, the home side chiselled out a gritty win against Old Millfieldians. Tonbridge won the toss and batted but lost two early wickets. Will Nolan held the innings together with 75 off 93 balls, and at 80-4 he had valuable help from Harry Bevan-Thomas who made 56. Others chipped in and Tonbridge managed to reach 223-9 off their 50 overs against a predominantly spin attack, Nick Pang and George Hankins each taking two wickets. Millfield made a good start, the first wicket falling at 47. They were always up with the required rate but perhaps tried to force the pace too much on a slow wicket with some turn for the Tonbridge spinners, and none of their batsman could play the long innings needed. Fin Trenouth made 43 and Luke Pearson-Taylor 47 at the end, but the innings subsided to 91-5, 142-7 and 174-9 before a late flourish took them to 200, 23 runs short but with four and a half overs in hand. The off-spin of Sam Hadfield with 4-40 and Tom Coldman with 3-32 did most of the damage.