A look back, 2005

Broadhalfpenny Brigands’ 2005 season began gloomily. Heavy rain fell against IBM South Hants, the Brigands left staring at 111 all out and darkening skies.

Better times followed. In May’s thriller against Nonnunquam, there was a last-over finish: Mike Jarrett became the eighth wicket with five still needed from four balls, and Harry Bates arrived cool, calm, and collected. He blocked his first, pinched a vital single from the next and, in the scramble that followed, ensured the Brigands had enough control for Matt Sturman to finish it with a boundary and one ball to spare.

Ewan Lovett-Turner was the season’s star, finishing with 647 runs at an average of 80.9. In a remarkable sequence of seven consecutive fifties, he went one better against the Rioteers: in rain-affected innings, he watched partners come and go and finished 102 not out.

Inter-service pride also had its day in the “Battle of the Brigands” against the RAF. Extras top-scored for the airmen, but Mike Beardall’s early strikes and a late Polson burst kept the ‘junior service’ winless against the Brigands.

Graham Peach was the stand-out all-rounder, with 308 runs at an average of 26, and 24 wickets at an average of 18. Glen Duggan was solid at the top of the order, scoring 282 runs.

The season’s centrepiece, though, was the Herefordshire tour: three days that felt like cricket in postcard frames. Woolhope remained a stubborn tour nemesis as the Brigands fell 12 runs short after Chris Collins’ 44 and John Musters’ 27. Twenty-four hours later, Gerry Northwood produced a calypso 110 not out to romp past Dorstone, with Lovett-Turner the perfect foil in a season-high stand of 141. The tour ended with a gritty win over youthful Bartestree, built on multiple middle-order contributions and sealed by sharp fielding and Piers Collins at the death.

Rain still intervened, Billericay and Whitchurch were cancelled, even as the broader summer leaned drier in parts of the south, with drought measures already being discussed after an exceptionally dry winter. And as England reclaimed the Ashes in that 2–1 epic from July to September, the Brigands, too, found their own ways to win: by nerve, by nous, and by one cool head walking in when it mattered most.

Brigands Played 25, Won 10, Lost 6, Drawn or Abandoned 9

Northwood takes a wicket on tour, 2005

After an evening at The Bat & Ball, perhaps, 2005

John Musters had a fine season in 2005