Devon Dumplings v ANNUAL REPORT

Friday 18 October 2013 at AGM

P 29 W 5 L 10 D 1 Can/Aban 13

 I am pleased to be able to present my second report as Keeper of the Records. I am only sorry that the news is not better. 
Out of the 29 fixtures only 17 were played with one of those abandoned as a draw because of rain. The 12 cancelled matches were not played because of: rain (4); opposition unable to raise a side (4 but with a subset of 1 being because of exams); a critical illness in a team organiser (1); and, finally, because of the cancellation of the Oxford tour (3). As we play in England one can never complain about games being lost for rain, nor because of critical illness, but the loss of matches from the inability of clubs to raise sides and the inability of an Oxford College properly to plan their Pavilion refurbishment are fair game for complaint. I know all too well the difficulty of raising sides outside of weekends so have empathy for those struggling to find living, breathing bodies but I have little sympathy for any organisation that should really know better! Perhaps we should try Cambridge next year! 
Of the 7 all-day, declaration games that were played 2 were won, 1 drawn and 4 lost. In all 7 matches Dumplings won the toss and batted before declaring in six of them with a good score, but in four games insufficient to take it out of sight. One might argue that the skippers gave themselves plenty of time to win! Only against SOA were we dismissed. 
There were only 5 centuries this year and only the 1 for a Dumpling. Blake Reed made 169* vs. West Buckland School. His aggregate was 182 off two innings. Two young Blundell’s openers made centuries in the School match although one profited from 7 dropped catches before he succumbed!
 23 half centuries were scored by Dumplings but by so many individuals that the highest run aggregate was 214 by Marnus Labushange in 4 innings with three half-centuries. Other than Labuschange and Reed above only Jamie Tapper scored more than 150 runs with 181 off 6 innings with two half-centuries and two ducks! Famine or feast but the feasts were very entertaining! 
In all matches there was only the one 5 wicket haul – P McGahey taking 5 for 42 in a losing cause for Dumplings against Kelly College. Only Bernie Wilson (66 – 5 – 360 – 11) and Jamie Tapper (39 – 7 – 192 – 12) took more than 10 wickets and only Paul Berman (30 – 2 – 179 – 5) and Jack Stirling (36 – 4 – 180 – 5) also bowled 30 overs or more.
 Of special note is a rarity for Dumplings in recent years with a Dumplings wicketkeeper taking 5 victims (3 caught and 2 stumped). This was achieved on debut by Scott Schaw against Arden Taverners who were new opponents this year. Sadly coaching duties prevented him playing more than the one match. 
Exactly 100 players turned out for Dumplings this year with 68 of them playing only one match. Only 7 played 5 or more matches with a maximum of 12 matches. This perhaps marks some of the, at times, extreme difficulty Match Managers have had in gathering 11 to a match. The good news is that 100 different people accepted invitations! 
Finally my highlight of the season was the debut of 13 year old Tom Lammonby against Old Broxfordians where he shared a partnership of 162 with his skipper Graham White and scored an excellent 71 runs. I believe he is the first of that age to score a half-century on debut! Unless anybody knows better of course…