150 Years of Keble Cricket & Inaugural St John’s Match

Keble and St John’s before the inaugural George Richardson Shield match.

Samuel Clegg (2021 PPE), KCCC Captain, writes: 

It has been an honour to captain Keble Cricket Club (KCCC) in its 150th year. We were delighted to receive a characteristically amusing letter of congratulations and well wishes from Stephen Fry, President of the MCC, who had been informed of the landmark occasion. He was keen to emphasise the “extreme fun” and “enormous pleasure” one can derive from cricket in a world that can often seem “dislocated” and “fractious”. He also commented on Keble’s “fine cricketing heritage” as well as our “hilarious architecture”.

We were fortunate to be able to go into the historic season sporting a new set of whites, generously paid for by the Talbot Fund. Unfortunately, our first few games were called off due to lack of opposition players and rain, respectively. The latter cancelled game against Teddy Hall was replaced by a ‘Bowl-off’ in which star bowlers James Willy (veteran opening seamer) and Alexander Pitlarge (plucky fresher) convincingly defeated the opposition to earn maximum points for the team.

Our first competitive match saw us take on Somerville in a close encounter. After setting a very defendable total, we were soon staring defeat in the face as we struggled to remove the Somerville opening batsman. That was until newcomer, Alex Forster from the MCR, burst onto the scene, clean bowling the Somerville Captain. The rest was a formality and we cruised to our first proper victory of the season. A word must be said for Toby Drinkall who put in a heroic fielding display at Cows Corner, even attempting a backwards somersault over the boundary to knock a ball back onto the pitch, resulting in some temporary battle wounds, but everlasting respect from the rest of the team.

KCCC after the first competitive win of the season versus Somerville

Next up was a big game versus Oriel in a match that counted for both the league and Cuppers. The team were slightly worried going out to bowl after Oriel showed up in an assortment of colourful kit ranging from beautifully embroidered woollen jumpers to tracksuit warmup midlayers — not commonly seen in college cricket. Fortunately, Oriel’s cricketing ability was not quite so impressive as their dress sense and we kept Oriel to under 90, aided by the departure of their impressive number 3 who had to attend a tutorial midway through their batting innings, retiring on 50 not-out. Keble went on to successfully chase down the modest target, in part due to early contributions from Alex Buckley and Amos Sopher and finished off by Becky Kingsbury and ‘Golden Boy’ Noah Fletcher.

So far so good for KCCC, with a perfect record in the league and into the Cuppers round-of-16. The team marched on, with a double game-week versus a strong Lincoln team in the League on Saturday and Merton in Cuppers on the Sunday. With a number of key stalwarts unavailable due to exams, including James Willy, Toby Drinkall and William Parker-Jennings (Vice-captain), we were forced to call on a number of ‘friends of the club’ to make up the numbers. Despite Keble’s best efforts and worst chat in the field (thanks to social secretaries John MacGreavy and Jamie Fobel) we were comfortably beaten on both days, and the less said about our batting performance against Merton the better…

After being knocked out of Cuppers, Keble were devastated to hear that they had missed out on a place in the next round of the league by one bonus point, having finished as the fourth best group runner-up. This meant that we turned to the last competitive match of the season against St John’s in the inaugural annual George Richardson Shield Match. Both sides were keen to create a new cricketing tradition, building on the longstanding rivalry between the two colleges, so a new shield was bought and named after the first Warden of Keble to also have been a Fellow at St John’s — the late George Richardson CBE.

With the finalists returning from earlier in the season, as well as the homecoming of all-rounders James Milford and Josh Nurse, Keble named a strong side. The match started off about as badly as possible, with Alex Buckley (soon to be dubbed “Alex Duckley” by Club President Finn Nelson) falling prey to a ‘tempter’ from the John’s skipper off the very first ball as he played onto his own stumps. Keble soon found themselves 30-odd for four wickets, after losing the consistently good Alex Pitlarge, Josh Nurse, and “The Chosen One” Noah Fletcher, early on to a good university-level bowler. However, Milford soon came in to steady the ship and Keble ended up making a respectable total, just shy of 150, after some big hitting by Amos and Drinkall.

With the ball, James Willy did not mess about, returning the favour of a platimum duck, dismissing the John’s opening batsman off the first ball. However, despite several breakthroughs, notably from Forster who removed their other opening batsman, and John’s at one point needing 12-an-over, Keble were unable to get over the line and John’s ended up claiming the George Richardson Shield in its inaugural year in the last over of the match. We hope that this thrilling encounter will be the first of many between the two sides.

After a hard-fought season, KCCC were unlucky to not come away with any silverware, but a few breakout players amongst the freshers and the MCR give us hope that next year we can push on and go further in the league and Cuppers, as well as reclaiming the George Richardson Shield. However, it is the end of the road for a number of KCCC veterans. We will be sad to see the back of James “could-have-played-county-but-picked-up-an-injury-at-aged-13” Milford who notably starred in the legendary “Queen’s Comeback” of 2022; as well as Toby Drinkall, whose natural athleticism and love for the game will be sorely missed by all.

150 years: the Keble College Cricket Club in 1873

We marked the end of the season with the usual “Pimms” friendly versus St Catherine’s at Keble and St Hugh’s Sports ground (a big thank you to Ade and Dave for their efforts in keeping the pitch available as much as possible and in such good condition for the entirety of the season). It was a good opportunity to invite the rest of college down to watch, and we also welcomed back a few old faces such as last year’s captain, Finn Nelson, and 2021’s captain, Chris “Wilko” Wilkinson. Fun was had by all, with Louis Strickland Sweeney (2s Captain) showing his prowess with the bat and Wordsey (Vice-captain) unleashing some ferocious leg spin that wore the bowlers down, allowing Pitlarge to claim a hat-trick down the other end.

With the sesquicentenary of Keble Cricket Club coming to an end we leave the club in the capable hands of Alexander Pitlarge (Captain), Alex Buckley and “The Special One” Noah Fletcher (both Vice-captains) who can hopefully usher in a new golden era for the club as we close the chapter on the first 150 years of KCCC achievement and look ahead to 150 years more…