We're On The Road To Lord's (We Hope...)

In 1972 "The Cricketer" magazine decided to start a competition, a sort of World Cup, but for village cricket clubs across England, Wales and Scotland with the tempting prospect of a grand final at Lord's. Blackheath, being one of the finest village cricket clubs in the world, was of course one of the very first clubs to sign up. By 1976 a thousand villages had joined in and that year we won the Surrey regional group and progressed all the way to round 7, the national last 16, before losing to Crockham Hill, the champions of Kent.

Little did those sepia-tinted Blackheath gentlemen of 1976 know, as they puffed their pipes and oiled their penny farthings in celebration of their adventure, that half a century later we would have been regional group champions a further 11 times, but that throughout those intervening years we would never have managed to get past the champions of Kent. Our best ever performance came in the 1990s when we progressed all the way to the national quarter finals, beating the champions of Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire along the way, only to lose to... you guessed it.

In total, our path to Lord's has ended at a Kentish road block on 8 occasions, and with current club members both old and young having played in all but one of those painful matches the mental scar tissue runs all the way to the Channel Tunnel! So, when Pete Melhuish and his 2026 team won the regional final against Surrey Championship side Chobham and set off for Whitstable last Sunday to play in the national round of 32 against Chestfield, the side who are currently top of Kent League Division 1, some of us were not holding our breath.

Paul Nash reports on what happened next...

Chestfield CC is a fine ground on which to play on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Blackheath won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked a good wicket.

After the early loss of Matt Jackson and against a tight opening attack and an excellent young fielding side, Luca La Costa and captain Pete Melhuish put on a 50 plus stand for the second wicket before the captain perished LBW, missing a sweep to a very straight ball, and it was left to his younger brother Will to join La Costa as they took the score on to 124. At this point we looked ready to post well over 200 but the loss of two quick wickets, including La Costa for an excellent run-a-ball 74, put the innings back in the balance before the middle and lower order managed to pick up the pace again. Eventually we posted a very respectable total of 201 with useful late order contributions from Archie Freeth (24), Adam Croutear (16) and Oscar Gilliam (10) to back up Will Melhuish's fine 31.

With 201 on the board the Blackheath travelling contingent (all 13 of us) were definitely feeling optimistic, but this was Kent and history is a cruel mistress. Things started well as Benji Arengo-Jones and Archie Freeth bowled tight opening spells, but the fall of the first wicket brought the Chestfield skipper Camp to the crease, probably their best batsman, and with him there for any length of time it looked likely that the years of hurt would be extended further. However, at 80 for 2 with the game in the balance the match turned as the skipper, looking very comfortable on 32, was called for a quick single by his batting partner. Calamity for Chestfield and elation for Blackheath as he was run out by yards thanks to lightning fielding by our own skipper Pete Melhuish, who sent his opposite number back to the pavilion and with him the main hope of the Kent team. This crucial run out was in part the result of pressure built up by an excellent spell from youngest player on the field Sam Behn, with figures of 8 overs 1 for 24.

From this point Blackheath remained in control for the next 45 minutes reducing Chestfield to 138 for 6 with some very fine fast bowling from one of Blackheath's other youngsters, Oscar Gilliam. The match was far from over though, and teams at this level don't go down without a fight. Chestfield's lower order took them to 178 without further loss thanks to some powerful hitting from the dangerous Bennett and Jordan-Smith.

When Jordan-Smith was caught on the boundary by Adam Croutear it looked like it was all over at 178-7. 14 balls left and Chestfield needed 24. The next 8 tense deliveries yielded a wicket (caught and bowled by Gilliam) and just 9 runs, so that with 6 balls remaining they still needed 15 to win, although at only 8 wickets down a tie would have sent Chestfield through having lost fewer wickets.

The first 3 balls of Archie Freeth's final over yielded 5 runs and it looked like a Blackheath win was a done deal, but no... disaster, as the fourth ball went for 4 byes and suddenly only 6 were needed off 2 balls with Chestfield's Bennett facing the penultimate delivery having already struck 6 powerful boundaries in his fine inning of 43 from only 26 balls.

What happened next is a bit of a blur. Bennett struck the fifth ball into the outfield and they cruised an easy two, but a vain and unnecessary attempt at a run out went wildly astray and suddenly they were going for a third run overthrow, only for the non-striker to be run out at the second attempt! Bennett found himself stranded at the non-strikers end, having to watch helplessly as the last man came in to face one ball, which had to go to the boundary.

It didn't... and finally, finally the Kent curse had been lifted. I can now cross safely over the Surrey/Kent border with a smile on my face rather than the usual stress induced twitch!!

It was a great performance by the whole team, with the match played the right way - hard but fair by both sides. Chestfield will come again I am sure but for now Blackheath, having laid to rest the ghosts of Kent, turn their attention to Reed CC, champions of Hertfordshire, who won the cup at Lord's three times in the 2010s and will be a very experienced and powerful side. Bring it on!!!

The match, the national round of 16, is at home at Blackheath on Sunday 5th July, 1pm start. The bar will be open all day from 12 noon and we're hoping to arrange mobile catering too. We need all the support we can get so we hope to see you there!