Rainham v Upchurch, May 8th 1920
After being suspended for the duration of World War One, Rainham were re-formed in 1920 and played a local derby against village rivals Upchurch in their opening game at Rainham Recreation Ground.
The newly formed Rainham team was not as strong as the pre 1914 side that had dominated local cricket for almost a decade and had won the Sittingbourne & District League in 1905 and 1906 under the captaincy of well known local landowner R. M. Wakeley junior but it still had some useful players. Walter Hunt and Harry Robinson were the only two players remaining from the pre war side but younger players like Alf Garnham and Alf Warner were developing under the captaincy of Maurice Kitney. The East Kent Gazertte of early May, 1920 reported the match as follows:
‘One would have to go a long way to meet with a better match than that played at Rainham on Saturday between the home team and Upchurch.’
Upchurch won the toss and decided to bat on a reasonable batting surface at the Scott Avenue end of the ground where the cricket square was located. Although they lost their first wicket due to a run out, ‘Three Sisters’ publican Bill Edmonds batted very well for 47 and in partnership with Alf Giles 21 took the score to 70. Although Rainham got a breakthrough with a succession of wickets in the second half of the Upchurch innings, Arthur Dartnell 30 held firm against the bowling of Harry Robinson and Frank Clark to advance the score to 130 at which point Upchurch declared with eight wickets down.
After losing both opening batsmen early to the bowling of Cecil Bishop, Rainham made a bid for victory with a good fifth wicket partnership between Alf Warner 46 and Harry Robinson 28 and at 85-4 were in a winning position. This was disrupted by the introduction of Upchurch bowler Arthur Dartnell who immediately caused problems and captured four wickets while Cecil Bishop tied down the batsmen at the other end. Although Rainham battled to the end they lost their final wicket four runs short of the required total to give Upchurch victory in a very closely fought and exciting match.
Although Rainham continued to play at the Recreation Ground until the end of the 1922 season they encountered problems with the public encroaching on the pitch and had a limited number of home matches due to sharing the ground with other local clubs. This changed in 1923 when they were given the opportunity to play at Berengrove Park which is where they have remained.
| Upchurch |
|
Rainham
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bishop |
run out |
12 |
Clark |
b Bishop |
1 |
Edmonds |
c Clark b Hunt |
47 |
Hunt |
b Bishop |
0 |
Giles |
b Clark |
21 |
Kitney |
b Kemp |
15 |
Kemp |
c Clark b Garnham |
4 |
Robinson |
c Giles b Dartnell |
28 |
Dartnell |
b Robinson |
30 |
Hunt |
b Dartnell |
13 |
Bishop |
b Clark |
0 |
Warner |
c Kemp b Bishop |
46 |
Clinch |
b Robinson |
0 |
Clark |
run out |
5 |
Bishop |
not out |
1 |
Kitney |
b Dartnell |
3 |
Dartnell |
b Robinson |
4 |
Packer |
c Kemp b Dartnell |
0 |
Brakefield |
not out |
1 |
Garnham |
b Dartnell |
0 |
Extras |
|
10 |
Clark |
not out |
1 |
|
|
|
Extras |
|
14 |
|
|
130-8 |
|
|
126 |
