The Cricketer Cup is underway! This annual competition, now in its fifty-ninth year, sees public school alumni cricket clubs face each other in a series of matches over the summer season.
The Radley Rangers have made a strong start, beating RGS Worcester in their Bye Round, and the Haileybury Hermits in Round 1. Their campaign ended in Round 2, despite a strong effort, against the Old Wellingtonians on 28th June.
Reports from Ollie Martyn-Hemphill (2012, F)
Rangers v RGS Worcester (Cricketer Cup Bye Round)
Radley Rangers won the toss against RGS Worcester and elected to field, with the threat of afternoon rain and DLS influencing the decision.
Jonty Robinson (2012, K) and Johnny Wright (2007, C) set the tone with the new ball, both bowling excellent long opening spells. Robinson finished with figures of 1-26, while Wright returned 1-38, giving the Rangers early control.
Through the middle overs, Henry Chapman (2014, B) and Ethan Berlusconi (2016, K) worked hard and were rewarded for their persistence. Berlusconi was the standout performer with the ball, claiming 4-38, while Chapman added 2-55. Backed up by some sharp catching in the field, the Rangers restricted RGS Worcester to 224 all out.
In reply, Ollie Martyn-Hemphill (2012, F) and Berlusconi gave Radley a fast start in tricky conditions, racing to 50-0 after seven overs as rain came and went. RGS Worcester fought back through an impressive left-arm spinner, who began to spin a web through the middle overs.
Martyn-Hemphill looked in good touch before falling to a sharp turner for 73, after which the Rangers slipped from a strong position to 111-6.
Chapman and Rollo Harrop (2017, F) then rebuilt the innings with a calm and effective rearguard. Chapman made a valuable 35, while Harrop produced a superb unbeaten 53*. James Cunningham (2012, G) added an important 15* late on to help guide the Rangers home.
Radley eventually reached 225-7, winning by three wickets with three overs to spare.
The Rangers now move on to face the Haileybury Hermits at Radley on the 14th of June.
Rangers v Haileybury Hermits (Cricketer Cup Round 1)
On a hot day at Radley, Haileybury Hermits won the toss and chose to bat first, but it was the Rangers produced the goods, securing a convincing seven-wicket victory with ten overs to spare.
The Hermits began positively, but Rangers’ attack soon found control. Wright bowled without reward but kept things tight, finishing with 0–48, while Chapman struck twice and ended with figures of 2–55. Kit Morland (2011, D) was particularly disciplined through his ten overs, returning 1–33, and George Reynolds (2019, J) added further pressure in the middle overs with 2–40.
The bowling effort was well supported in the field, with George Acheson-Gray (2017, F), Martyn-Hemphill, and Chapman all taking sharp chances as Rangers tightened their grip. Berlusconi then continued the squeeze late on, claiming 2–29 and coming close to a hat-trick. From 136–6, however, the Hermits’ lower order fought back well, reaching 234–7 from their 50 overs.
In reply, the Hermits opened with spin from both ends, but Rangers’ openers quickly took control. Martyn-Hemphill and Berlusconi batted with authority, putting on 120 inside the first 18 overs and breaking the back of the chase. Martyn-Hemphill made a fluent 52 after being struck flush on the grill by the Hermits’ only seamer, who was subsequently removed from the attack for a second no-ball.
Berlusconi scored an excellent 75, and Simon Butler (1998, G) batted well for 54. Rory Acheson-Gray (2019, F) then finished off the chase, finishing unbeaten on 39 as Rangers reached 235–3 with ten overs remaining.
It was a convincing all-round display from Rangers. They now move on to face the Old Wellingtonians on 28th June.
Rangers v Old Wellingtonians (Cricketer Cup Round 2)
Report from Angus Oliver (2009, A) – Times Sports Editor and Writer
Perhaps it was fitting that the day Ben Stokes retired from international cricket was also the day that Radley’s challenge in the 2026 Cricketer Cup came to an end. As England slumped to a 2-1 series defeat to New Zealand at Trent Bridge, the Rangers were eliminated in the second round having succumbed to a three-wicket loss at the hands of Wellington.
Stokes’s legacy will of course be his all-round ability, so it was also fitting that streaks of calculated batting, marathon seam-bowling spells and (occasionally) fine catching punctuated this Radley performance. There was a hundred for Ethan Berlusconi after Jamie Dalrymple (1994, H) fell in the nineties, Charlie Purton (2010, H) and George Reynolds (2019, J) bowled long probing spells with great precision, while debutant Angus Oliver (2009, A) took two high catches that Stokes may have been pleased with, only to drop two he would have lamented.
Ultimately, having fallen 30 runs short with the bat after a middle-order collapse – and after Ed Young capitalised on a stroke of luck with a brilliant 126 off 89 – Radley were left wondering what might have been.
Having elected to bat, the Rangers did lay the foundations for a match-winning total with a 167-run first-wicket partnership from Berlusconi and Dalrymple. Radley’s openers never allowed Wellington’s seamers to settle on a flat hybrid wicket, rotating the strike and punishing them when they strayed off their length, and the away side quickly turned to their battery of left-arm spinners.
At 167 without loss through less than 30 overs, 320 looked firmly in the realm of possibility but, after Dalrymple miscued to long off on 93, Radley’s middle order crumbled. In 18 damaging overs, the Rangers lost seven wickets for the addition of only 84 runs.
That they were able to salvage a total of 287 was down to the brilliance of Berlusconi. He played patiently early in his innings, then with calculated aggression, before striking 18 off the final over with two maximums. It was an exceptional knock that yielded no chance of note to Wellington’s toiling attack and was the first Radley hundred in the Cricketer Cup since Simon Dalrymple’s 108 not out at Bradfield in 2007.
An inspired fielding change brought Radley’s first breakthrough. With Reynolds pushing the ball in, Dalrymple moved himself from short mid-wicket to leg slip – and Wellington’s opener took the bait the very next ball. Attempting a heave through the area where Dalrymple had been positioned, the right-hander instead found Oliver at mid-on, where a decent catch above his head was taken.
Once Reynolds picked up another leg-before and Kit Morland lured Wellington’s other opener into a top edge also taken by Oliver, Wellington were 80 for three from 17.5 overs and Radley in the driving seat.
If the old adage that catches win matches is a cliché then the one about not giving good players a chance rang even louder in the ears once Young was set. Having been dropped at mid-on by Oliver, also off the bowling of Morland, the former Gloucestershire batsman struck 15 fours and three sixes for his 126.
It was a masterclass in sweeps, reverse-sweeps and lofted drives over extra cover against the Rangers spinners – and all while carrying a foot injury sustained when catching Dalrymple earlier in the day. With Eddie Campion making 64, Wellington’s fourth-wicket partnership was worth 171.
Reynolds finished with three for 48, James Cunningham capitalised on some pantomime fielding changes to claim three scalps as the game reached its climax, but it was all too little too late and the Rangers were defeated. Unlike Stokes, they will be back next year.
Stay up to date via the Cricketer Cup website, and follow the Radley Rangers on Instagram: @ radleyrangerscc
If you’d like to get involved in OR sports, take a look at the Clubs and Societies page and get in touch with us: radsoc@radley.org.uk.
