Bedford School Cricket Club

Season 2012
Despite the appalling weather the 2012 cricket season turned out to be the School's most successful in recent history. The 1st XI won 13 of their 16 matches, the 15As lost only to Harrow, and the 14As were undefeated. Below these sides the win/loss was firmly in our favour. We reached the last 16 of the National Senior Twenty20 competition, and the last 8 of the U17 and U15 National competitions. The U14s won the County Cup. The term started with Alastair Cook opening the newly refurbished pavilion, and ended with Bedford School's most famous Old Boy leading England to a 4-0 series win over Australia, and the School XI defeating the OBs. In between there was some wonderful cricket played. The 1st XI stayed true to a energetic and inclusive brand of cricket that resulted in a tight-knit and hard-working team that proved very difficult to beat. In fact, in most games, they were difficult to get near. In one early season run they were victorious by 9 wickets over Haileybury, 8 wickets over Stowe, 10 wickets over Oundle and 110 runs over Uppingham. Good wins were also registered over Oakham, Tonbridge and Repton before the XI tasted defeat in a time game at Stowe. After losing to Felsted in the last 16 T20 match and to Dulwich in another time game, the 1st XI bounced back with big wins in its last 4 matches; by 4 wickets over St Albans, 130 runs against Harrow, 129 runs against Scotch College Melbourne, and finally by 48 runs over the Old Boys. The 1st XI built a fortress at home winning 10 of their 11 home matches. Charlie Thurston dominated with the bat, scoring 725 runs at 60.42 in all matches, or 606 at 75.75 in the longer forms. His 93 against Harrow was as good an innings as you could wish to see. He hit everything out of the middle and into a gap. Jonny McDuell hit 424 runs at 35.33 with four 50s, and Ed Wharton scored 408 runs at 31.38 with a strike rate of 115, including an incredible 19 6s in the season. Other notable performances with the bat were Tim Graham's 300 runs at 33.33 (his 64no off 41 balls at Oakham will live long in the memory - principally for the reverse sweep for 6 off the Oakham opening bowler), captain Vicram Sohal's 253 runs and first year player Paddy McDuell with 252 runs at 25.2. Paddy's opening stand with Charlie Thurston of 152 from 164 balls against Harrow set up the huge win in that match, and the 10 wicket win over Oundle was achieved with an unbroken stand of 113. In all matches this season they averaged 76.6 runs for the first wicket. The great news is that Paddy and Charlie will head up our order for the next two years!

Ed Wharton finished the season as the top wicket taker with 22 wickets at 18.27, and with his 408 runs took out the Cricketer Cup for the Best All-Rounder. Vicram Sohal took 21 wickets at 18.38 and took the bowling cup for the second year running. Tim Graham took 19 wickets with his off spin at 26.47, and George Humphreys claimed 17 scalps at 20.71. Ed Wharton took out the performance of the year award for his 86 runs off 52 balls v Uppingham. In one 5 ball onslaught he went 64446, and he put on 92 with George Humphreys for the 7th wicket from only 59 balls, helping us to a total of 279/9 from our 50 overs. The Twenty20 player of the year was Tim Graham, with 156 runs at 78 and a strike rate of 150 with the bat; and 6 wickets at 16.5 with an economy rate of 6.19 with the ball.