Back in April, 347 teams spread across England, Wales and Scotland began the cricket season with the dream of walking out onto the hallowed turf at Lord’s. Nine rounds later, just two remain. And on Sunday, September 19, 22 cricketers representing Calmore Sports Club and Alvanley CC will do battle at the Home of Cricket in the 50th Voneus Village Cup final.
Should Calmore lift the trophy, it will complete a fairy tale debut Village Cup campaign for the Hampshire side, who decided to enter the competition after watching neighbouring club Liphook & Ripsley reach the 2018 final. “They said how good [the cup] was so we thought we’d give it a go, see how we got on and here we are at Lord’s!” laughs captain Mark Lavelle. “There was quite a big group in Hampshire and some really good teams, so we knew it would be tough to get through the regional rounds. When we got to the national rounds and won a couple of close games, it felt like fate, like we were going to go all of the way!”
The Hampshire champions made hard work of reaching the final, completing final-over victories against Sparsholt and Cookham Dean before edging past Goatacre on fewer wickets lost in the last 16. “There’s a local thing called the ‘Calmore collapse’ where we take a game we’re going to walk and all of a sudden it turns into a contest, and we had that in the Goatacre game,” continues Lavelle. “But we’ve taken the experiences from those games where we just got over the line and they hold us in good stead.”
One match stands out for Lavelle: Calmore’s semi-final demolition of Buckinghamshire champions Stoke Green. “When we beat Goatacre we started to believe but to beat Stoke Green by 10 wickets in a semi-final when we’ve been through the experience of winning on fewer wickets, winning by one wicket, winning in the last over three or four times… to have left the most convincing victory until the semi-final, we couldn’t believe it,” he recalls. “Even with four or five [runs] to win, it was difficult to believe it was happening and we’d won by 10 wickets.
“The semi-final was more of a final, it’s the one which got us to Lord’s. My nerves were shot to pieces and there’s a few of us who are terrible watchers, so even when we were 90 for 0 chasing 120, we were still nervous!”
Calmore’s Road to Lord’s
Round 1: Langley Manor (conceded) lost to Calmore
Round 2: Paultons (186) lost to Calmore (190/6) by 4 runs
Round 3: Calmore (150/3) bt Sarisbury Athletic (149) by 7 wickets
Round 4: Calmore (202/6) bt Sparsholt (201/7) by 4 wickets
Round 5: Cookham Dean (120) lost to Calmore (123/8) by 2 wickets
Round 6: Calmore (133/8) bt Goatacre (133) on wickets remaining
Quarter-final: Calmore (205/4) bt Rockhampton (167) by 38 runs
Semi-final: Calmore (118/0) bt Stoke Green (117) by 10 wickets
Alvanley are similarly surprised to be playing at Lord’s this season, having only reached the national stage for the first time in 2020. “I think just to win a game in the national rounds felt like quite an achievement,” admits captain Michael Rowlands. “The aim was to get to the area final and having seen the draw, we felt pretty confident we’d get to the national stage again. But to get to the final, it’s a bit hard to put into words.”
On paper, Alvanley have had one of the hardest routes to the final, facing four former champions – Caldy, Woodhouses, Folkton & Flixton, and Houghton Main – in a row, playing away from home since round three, and embarking on a 350-mile round trip to South Wales for their semi-final against Neyland. However, batting first in all seven fixtures, Alvanley have successfully defended every total from 274 down to 128 while their smallest winning margin is 28 runs.
“We just want to put runs on the board and look to apply as much pressure as possible in the run chase,” says Rowlands. “I think the one thing opposition teams have been expecting is that our change bowlers aren’t going to be quite as good. They’ve waited for [them], trying to get a few easy runs, and it hasn’t happened. We’ve been able to keep applying the pressure and strangle teams.”
Picking out individual matches, he continues: “Winning at Woodhouses in the national round gave us the belief we could go far; a lot of the lads feel Woodhouses were the strongest team [we’ve faced]. And then to beat Folkton & Flixton, who were the most recent previous winners we’ve come up against, that was when I knew we had every chance of going all the way. They had their eyes on winning it again, and when we played them at home it was clear in the way they went about their fielding, it was a step up and one we had to make. But what’s been really good is after each win, the opposition and supporters have complimented how good of a team we’ve been and given us a lot of belief that we belong [here].”
Alvanley’s Road to Lord’s
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: Alvanley (224/7) bt Halkyn (131/9) by 93 runs
Round 3: Northop Hall (152/8) lost to Alvanley (202/8) by 50 runs
Round 4: Caldy (198/9) lost to Alvanley (243/8) by 45 runs
Round 5: Woodhouses (148) lost to Alvanley (179) by 31 runs
Round 6: Alvanley (274/9) bt Folkton & Flixton (149) by 125 runs
Quarter-final: Houghton Main (100) lost to Alvanley (128) by 28 runs
Semi-final: Neyland (102) lost to Alvanley (188/9) by 86 runs
Looking ahead to Lord’s, Rowlands is determined to play the Alvanley way, stating: “We’ll just react to the players we come up against and stick to our own game plan. Most of the teams we were up against we knew very little about and the lads have enjoyed that. There’s less to worry about then.”
And his opposite number echoes this attitude. “Our game plan is very simple and that’s something we won’t look to change,” says Lavelle. “We’ve always gone in with the same plan and it’s worked this far. If it’s good enough come five o’clock on September 19 then brilliant; if not, then hats off to Alvanley because they will have played a good game to beat us. I like the idea of going into the unknown and having a final in front of a decent crowd, 40 overs and may the best team win.”
Calmore will play Alvanley at Lord’s in the Voneus Village Cup final on Sunday, September 19, with play scheduled to begin at 11am. Tickets are available here.
Keep up to date with the Voneus Village Cup by following the competition on Twitter (@TheCricketerNVC) and Instagram (@villagecup)
