Badgers Cricket Club – Season 2026 Match Reports
This page holds the match reports for all games completed so far this season. It is my intention to post at least a summary report for each game, at the same time as the result for the game, with full reports becoming available as and when those designated for the task turn in their copy. The current report will always be available in the latest section of the results page but will also be available here.
The links below provide a direct route to the report for each game plus access to the reports for seasons from 2000 to the present. It is also possible to link to them from the associated rolling results page entries and I hope to extend that facility to include all of the historical results pages, once I’ve figured out the best method of doing so.
Unless otherwise noted both summary and full match reports are written by your host and webmaster, Steve Pitts, as are all editorial comments and statistical notes. For reasons that are now lost in the mists of time, the reports are laid out in reverse chronological order, but hopefully the links above make that an unimportant detail.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is little or no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: The aggregate score for this game was 503, only the sixth time that said total has passed 500, and in a strange coincidence the previous occasion on which it happened was the last time we played these same opponents, when the aggregate was also exactly 503 but went unremarked in the statistical notes for the game!? For the record the highest ever aggregate was in the game against Wallington in 2013 which remains the only occasion when either side racked up more than 300 runs in an innings.
Jake and Dean put on 107 together for the fourth wicket, the joint 13th highest partnership for that wicket whilst Jake’s individual score of 92 was the 56th time he has passed fifty, a category in which he is already comfortably ensconced in second place behind his old man, and the third score in the nineties on the day.
Darrell stepped out to play his 300th game for the Badgers, on which slate he is definitely sixth, albeit that four of the five ahead of him played in 1981 and thus have doubts about their exact number of appearances. However, club president Roy is at least 29 games ahead of him so this is not something I am likely to have to worry about before late in the 2027 season, at least.
Making his first appearance of the season, Wardy has now played in 25 consecutive seasons and batted in all of them. He is in joint 13th place on the seasons list (tied with both Darrell and Foxy, neither of whose are consecutive) and in joint 12th place on the batting list (tied with Mick Willmott, who played in one season where he did not bat).
Having kept score for our first match of the season, by walking onto the field for this game I played in my fiftieth consecutive season for the Badgers, already the leader in that category by some distance (Mark is second on 40). Since I was called upon to bat I have also batted in fifty seasons (although this time Dave Tickner is second on 39, since Mark did not bat in two of the seasons in which he played).
I should also have finished the day with the ignominy of having become the first Badger ever dismissed obstructing the field, but for some reason no one reacted badly to my knocking the ball away from the advancing keeper having taken a big swish at Mike Searby’s loopy leg side delivery and top edged on a gentle arc towards backward short leg. Whilst my reaction was instinctive in worrying about the ball spinning back towards the wicket, had the fielding side appealed I would have been given out (when I got down the other end two balls later I checked with Dean, who was umpiring, and kudos to him he would have put the finger up and sent me on my way had anyone appealed). In hindsight maybe I should have walked, but perhaps the home side were simply unconcerned, or too taken aback to react?
The 39 runs that Jake conceded in his six overs of bowling were sufficient to take him past Rob into ninth place on the list of all-time runs allowed, a ding-dong battle that could continue all season as they fight to become the first to pass Dave Tickner, currently 120 runs ahead of Jake and 135 of Rob.
View the detailed scorecard of this game
My apologies for the lack of a report for this game, but nothing was written at the time and there is little or no chance that anything will be now
Statistical Notes: There were three debutants in this game – Grace Selby, Jay (K) Patel and Jarryd Mcleroth – with Grace having the best first appearance of the three, hitting two lovely fours and opening the bowling with a tidy spell of leg breaks and her first wicket for the club. Hopefully we will see all three of them again in Badgers’ colours.
Joe recorded his best ever figures for the club, bettering the 4 for 53 he took in the final game of last season at Forest Green by some considerable distance. His last 23 balls saw five wickets fall for no runs, an almost Brian Moore-esque performance, during which span he also snared a key outfield catch off Darrell’s bowling to dismiss the opposition’s top scorer and start the home side’s plummet from 102 for 2 to 131 all out.
Jake’s innings was his 200th for the club, the 14th Badger to have batted that many times, whilst the fact that it was unbeaten represented his 50th not out over that span, on which list he is in tenth place. You might guess that 25% unbeaten is a high figure, and it is, but there are three others with more innings and a better ratio, including both his father (31.5%) and grandfather (28.6%)!? Of those with 100 innings or more Bill leads the way on 36.8% (42 of 114) with Mick Willmott in second on 32.9% (51 of 155).
Mark reached an arguably even more impressive milestone in this one, taking his 500th outfield catch for the club (to go with the 4 stumpings and 19 catches behind the wicket). One indicator of just how impressive a statistic that is lies in the fact that if you add together the number of outfield catches taken by the next three players on the list – Alan and Dave Tickner and Jake – the total between them is just 485.