On an unusually warm and sunny April afternoon back at the home of cricket, the Gerries faced another familiar opposition in the form of Cheriton Fitzpaine CC. A lovely club and one who play the spirit of cricket to the max. A proper game was on the cards.
30 overs was agreed, and Skipper Beano refreshed from his pre-season ‘intensive training’ to the Spanish Costas was full of confidence. Even losing the toss and being put into the field was all part of the gameplan [ED – we’ll believe anything sometimes].
Deep in the deep
With the grass now with an additional week of growth under its belt, the field was offering a 12th, 13th and even 14th fielder on what some described as a slow, April outfield… but nonetheless Beano stuck to his task and opened with our now world renowned teenage pace sensation Ahmad Hilal and Anthony ‘AB’ Boughton our once teenage, seam specialist.
JP Sewell donned the keeping gloves to start after a late switch around, after which Hamish Adam picked them up with aplomb and produced a superb display behind the poles, an exceptional performance.
Both opening bowlers faced a serious challenge against the Cheriton opener, clearly getting his eye in for the forthcoming league season. A change in bowling saw Dom Baker (1-20) take up the Hall End, keeping it really tight he soon made his impact, clean bowling the other opener for 21.
Butterfield made his way to 60 before retiring himself, bring about a bowling change in the form of our Chairman Jon Smith (0-20). Bowling quality line and length but on the last ball of his second over, and by saving three runs (or putting his hand in the way of a huge straight drive – depends who you ask), he took a nasty blow which saw him end up in A&E on Monday [ED – update is good – no broken bones and he’ll be fit for tour!).
This forced Skipper Beano into another bowling change and bought in club legend, and future hall of famer, Mike Giles (0-29) from the City End who bowled with his usual guile, keeping the runs down, but just couldn’t make the break through. The efforts in the field continued, the Gerries never stopped chasing – not a lot of choice to be honest, the ball never made it through the grass to the boundary half the time!
After another couple of Cheriton self retirements, JP Sewell (1-26) took over the bowling from the Hall end and was unlucky not to take a couple, but helped restrict the total and finally managed to take a wicket, bringing the score to 154/2. This was feeling ominous.
However, the combination Simon Musannif (0-25), and Skipper Beano (1-16) who took a wicket with a catch from Ahmad helped bring the innings to a close with the Gerries needing a reachable 173 to win.
1s or 4s was the call
So to the chase. Opener Hamish Adams (4) donning his second pair of pads of the day, and John ‘Kiwi’ Wright (4) waded through the long grass to set about their work. Run the 1 or get it over boundary – there weren’t many 2s on offer today.
After a solid start, Kiwi was unfortunate to be bowled by their opener, bringing Skipper Beano (17) to the crease to make, what in July would have been a run fest. Hamish was then unlucky to be caught after a tempting delivery made him try and get it over the outfield. With the score on 17/2. Ahmad Hilal (29) strode in next, and did what he does best, and along with Skipper Beano moved the score very quickly past the 50 mark.
Ahmad didn’t hold back until he was caught in the deepest of the deep. Fresh from his captains innings last week, Andrew’ Padders’ Padfield (20) made his way out. His form continued with a sound knock. Beano was eventually bowled, bringing our ex-teenage sensation AB (11) to the crease. A forceful display that took on the middle order bowlers, moving the score to 94/5 before being another victim of a team that could catch. This was going to be close.
An out of form JP Sewell (46) was next in, hoping to make up for his opening game single. Surviving a first ball appeal he started with intent, and didn’t really stop. Padders was slickly caught and bowled after a great knock, and was unlucky not to score more. This made way for Mike ‘Gilo’ Giles (17), who for someone with a self declared ‘lack of timing’ hit a 4 and a 6 like a metronome.
JP was not in the mood to hang around, hitting 5 fours and 3 sixes in a knock that saw him and Gilo take the Gerries cross the line with two overs to spare. JPs best performance of the season [ED – he requests that no other games or scores are taken into consideration from this point – just leave it there].
With the Gerries scoring 175/6 to take the game, they bagged the first win of the season.
A brilliant team effort, with some great individual performances, played in a great spirit and summing up exactly what Gerries cricket is all about.
Special thanks
As always a huge thanks to Mrs JP and her scoring exploits – by all accounts she is almost enjoying herself!
Thanks to all those to Gerries and non-Gerries alike, it was great to see some of those playing in upcoming games there to support.
Player of the day
In a continuation of the new for 2026 player of the day, the Chairman saw fit to point out many outstanding performances that could have taken it, but hitting the winning runs will always get you in with a shout. The player of the day went to JP Sewell.
Hall of Fame – a moment of Gerries history
Post match saw a genuine moment of Gerries history being made, as club legend, all time run scorer and wicket taker supreme, longest serving and just all-round wonderful person Mike ‘Gilo’ Giles was inducted by the Chairman into the Gerries Hall of Fame.
A huge congratulations Mike, from the whole Gerries family!
Coaver Gerries Cricket Club 
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