Tonbridge 312-8 (55 overs)
Charterhouse 234 (Gonszor 88) Tonbridge won by 78 runs

From the moment Fabian Cowdrey crashed the first ball of the match through mid-wicket for a peerless boundary, it was clear that Charterhouse would be in for a long day. They were given hope when Charlie Kimmins picked up the other opener, King, in the second over but this only served to introduce Harvey to the fray and the pair put on 140 runs before Charterhouse were to taste success again. Harvey fell in the 30th over for a well made 62 and was replaced by the Surrey Colt, O’Grady. He and Cowdrey took the score to 207-2 by lunch and, with fifteen overs still to come Tonbridge looked set for a big total.

To Charterhouse’s credit, they continued to battle throughout and picked up wickets steadily as Tonbridge launched their final assault. Cowdrey finally departed for 130, caught off a rare miscue off the bowling of Kimmins. It had been an excellent innings of real maturity and included 14 fours and two sixes as well as countless well judged singles. Kimmins was the pick of the Charterhouse bowlers finishing with figures of 4-45 which scarcely did justice to an excellent spell of pace bowling.

Charterhouse’s reply was almost over before hit had began. In a bizarre first eleven overs, Tonbridge bowled nine wides and two no balls, conceded 63 runs and took five wickets. Harvey claimed them all, one bowled, three caught brilliantly in the slips and one stumped off a wide. The Tonbridge slip catching was quite outstanding with Cowdrey’s grab to dismiss Jack Ryder-Smith bringing gasps from the crowd and leaving the Tonbridge coach claiming it was the best slip catch he had ever seen on The Head. All this was little consolation for Charterhouse whose hopes of chasing down a huge total had been torn to shreds.

Jonny Gonszor and Tom Gordon-Martin had other ideas as they steadily rebuilt the innings in their different ways either side if tea. Gonszor batted with real positive intent, while Gordon-Martin was more circumspect. Ironically, it was an aggressive strike for the latter which brought about his downfall. He stepped down the wicket and struck the ball sweetly to mid-off, who promptly threw down the stumps with Gordon-Martin well short of his ground.

The two had put on a dogged 59 and the trend had been set. Robert Carnegie-Brown joined Gonszor in another fifty stand and Chris Drakeford-Lewis and Marwan Mohammed also chipped in to reduce the margin. The departure of Carnegie-Brown signalled the end of any real hope of victory, however, and it was really a matter of playing for the margin of victory and trying to nurse Gonszor to three figures. In the end he was last out caught in the distant deep trying to strike another boundary.

It had been a gallant effort but the challenge was too great. Tonbridge had batted very well to set a target which was out of reach and, despite somewhat erratic bowling, they had fielded well enough to ensure that Charterhouse were always kept at arm’s length.