Memories 9 - Brentham v Ealing Dean, Gravesend & Barnes

Bank Holiday Weekend May 1964

This is not so much a memory of a match, although it involved “the Gravesend match” dealt with elsewhere, as a whole weekend. It is not often that everything clicks for a team but it is arguable that this occurred over the whole Bank Holiday in May 1964.

The Saturday game was against Ealing Dean and was probably the last time this 
time- honoured fixture was played. By this time, they had left their ground at Perivale 
and after moving to Osterley, were now sharing the ground with Old Actonians. We won the toss on a very hot day and David Vincent and Joe Misso opened the batting. What is more they also closed it. Ealing Dean bowled 43 overs from which Brentham amassed 244 without losing a wicket. David had compiled 124 not out and Joe 113 not out. It was not altogether surprising that the Dean failed to measure up. They totalled just 52 but off an amazing 36.3 overs. John Swann took 5 for 22 off 12.3 overs, whilst David Norman, 4th change, had the startling figures of 3 for 3 off 6 overs.

Sunday brought the trip to Gravesend and, suffice it to say elsewhere, Brentham declared after 58 overs in 174 minutes at 364 for 4 with Misso contributing the lowest score of 30. Despite `bowling 73 overs in return in 195 minutes, Gravesend held on for a draw with 8 wickets down but with a total of 259.

Monday saw the team with only 3 changes at home all-day to Barnes. David Vincent won the toss again and batted. It was not quite the same run feast of the day before but the declaration came after 59 overs at 237 for 5. Horace Brearley had contributed 67 to follow his 91 the day before, Roy James 66 not out, and David Vincent a further 47 to his hundred on Saturday. The reply from Barnes was almost a mirror image of the Dean on Saturday. They were bowled out for 103 in 46.4 overs with Bishop making 55, over half the total. Brian Reid returned 4 for 53, David Norman 4 for 11 off 8 overs and Brian Mead 2 for 36 from 15 overs.

Seen as a weekend as a whole, Brentham had scored 846 runs for the loss of 9 wickets and the opposition, in reply, had lost 28 wickets in scoring 416. 2 matches were won comprehensively and the third nearly so on as flat a wicket as there can have been. In 2 innings Vincent had added 171 runs to his aggregate and Brearley 158, whilst Misso for once out, made 160. Norman bowled only 14 overs but returned 7 for 14. It was a very productive weekend for the team but especially for a few players.

by David Bloomfield
President
Captain 1970-1972 & 1979-80