New Merit Table published

The Cricketer Cup Order of Merit has been updated by Charles Fellows-Smith, one of our Vice Presidents, and is published below. All 2026 results are included. The biggest risers are Old Monmothians, albeit on a short span in the competition, who, by dint of reaching the quarter-finals, went up seventeen places. Old Cliftonians move from 16th to 15th.

A feature of the Cup in recent years is that there have been eight different winners in the last nine years since 2017. Only Bradfield Waifs have won it twice in this period. By contrast, in the previous nine years 2008-16, Old Malvernians won it five times, Old Tonbridgians twice and only Old Cranleighians and Shrewsbury Saracens broke this monopoly with a win each. In the previous fourteen years 1994-2007, Old Tonbridgians won it seven times, including an unprecedented hat-trick 2002-04. This levelling of the playing field, and the increasing competitiveness of many clubs, has contributed to a much wider interest in the competition. Seventeen different clubs have won the Cup in its fifty-nine seasons and only eleven of the thirty-five clubs currently playing have never reached a final. 2027 beckons.