Beechbrook Capital Cricketer Cup Second Round Preview

Eight matches in the second round of the Beechbrook Capital Cricketer Cup will be played next Sunday 29 June. The vagaries of the draw mean a great opportunity for the eight sides in the top half as the bottom half contains all the remaining winners and finalists from the last five years of the competition.

In the top half Old Cranleighans are the only club left in the competition to have won the cup in the last twenty years. They travel to Radley to meet an increasingly competitive Rangers team who are hoping to make their first final since Ted Dexter led them in the inaugural 1967 cup. Radley will be hoping that Hampshire’s Nick Gubbins will be available again. Charterhouse Friars, who last won in 2000, travel to Stowe, whose only final was in 1969. Sherborne Pilgrims host Old Bedfordians, who have made a habit of reaching quarter and semi-finals in recent years without quite taking the last step, while Old Cliftonians, who last won in 1993, travel to Eastbourne, whose only final appearance was in 2017. So opportunity knocks for one of the less fancied teams to make it to the Arundel final in August.

The bottom half of the draw is fiercely competitive. Malvern stages a re-run of the 2023 final when they host Old Tonbridgians, historically the two most successful sides in the competition with 27 winning finals between them. The winners of this game will play away against either Eton Ramblers or Repton Pilgrims, who meet at Eton. It is 10 years since either appeared in the final, but both have strong sides who won easily in the first round. Holders Bradfield Waifs travel to play relative newcomers Old Hamptonians, and the winners of this will host either 2021 winners Old Millfieldians or rising stars Old Cheltonians, who have shot up the merit table in recent years. As ever availability of a club’s best players might dictate results, but hopefully a dry weekend will allow all the games to be completed.