Played on Upper Club

The great banker Henry Tritton, son of John Tritton and Mary Barclay, had two sons Henry (born 1815) and Joseph ( born 1819)

Henry’s second son Edward was to be in the 1862 Eleven and one of the founding Committee of the Ramblers; six generations on Joseph’s linear descendant Felix caused havoc against the Ramblers on Upper Club, taking 5 for 26 after the Ramblers had won the toss and batted.

In his first spell he removed two Rambler Cricketer Cup batsmen and an apparently competent ringer (he made 0 so he was difficult to assess), and came back to remove the last two wickets.

Mercifully one of those last two wickets was James Warburton, one of the game’s more natural number elevens who, finding himself at the dizzy height of number nine, made more that all the Cricketer Cup batsmen put together – 59 – and at least made sure the Grannies had to chase 143 to win.

Ben Hope (63) and Sam Pougatch (48) made the target look minimal, but the partnership was broken just before tea – taken at 95 for 1.

After tea, however, spinners Josh Ballantine-Dykes (3 for 20) and Xander Watt (3 for 11) caused the Grannies to fall from 95 for 0 to 127 for 7, and the proverbial sniff of victory. However Tritton was not having his day ruined, and saw the Grannies home without further loss.

The Grannies have had an excellent decade in this fixture – albeit with the help of the weather – and the Ramblers have not triumphed since 2010. Roll on the new decade.