Wiltshire Queries vs King’s School Bruton 1st XI – Sunday 22nd June 2025
Result: King’s won by 16 runs
The Queries were hit on Sunday morning with the ‘Match Managers curse’ an injury to a player from the day before which had not responded to treatment resulting in an understandable withdrawal. Having been at a full XI several times during the preceding weeks with some dropping out owing to a change in plans the 12th man had long since been used. So, the ten of us met on a day that was much cooler than the previous week, indeed rain looked imminent. As we took to the pitch Mr Aitken managed to spot a ‘likely looking youth’ and inveigled him into playing – so we did finally end up with a full XI.
The Match Manager’s early concerns about the quality of bowling attack were eased in the first over when the Candidate Marcus Williams had one of the school’s opener caught behind by the ever green Sean McClure. King’s then set about accumulating runs at a rate not unfamiliar to the advocates of ‘Baz Ball’. Candidate Marcus Williams bowled 13 overs straight (with three breaks owing to the weather and lunch) but took 4 wickets for 77. Tom Churchill couldn’t quite find his length and his seven overs went for 65 but he did claim an important wicket. Nick Bunday’s six over spell cost 35 but was wicketless.
After a very good lunch and a switch to the spinners, King’s rather imploded. Jack Grant took three good wickets for eight runs whilst at the other end Jake Bunday took two more at a cost of 23. King’s therefore finished 217 all out in the 32nd over.
The Queries response began brightly until Jack Grant was removed with a diving catch at third slip which was very much the ‘grab of the day’. This brought Tom Churchill to the crease to join James Roue. James cleverly rotated the strike to give Tom free reign to strike the ball which he did to devastating effect. Tom was clearly seeing the ball well as the spectators watched the ball being dispatched to all parts of the immaculate ground, included a huge six onto the changing room roof. As Tom closed in on his century, he hit one not as cleanly as he had hitherto and was caught on the boundary. He had made a fine 94. James Roue was out (caught behind) for a carefully crafted 19. Several other batsmen (namely Candidates Ed Gairdner (11) and Marcus Williams (27)) got starts but could not push on and get us across the line. The final wicket went down with just four balls of the match remaining.
Once again it was an exciting end to a match that had swung each way – by the penultimate over there were three separate outcomes still possible. Last year’s heroics where we hung on for a draw when perhaps we did not deserve to were not replicated in this match where we were much more competitive, indeed arguably we should have won. Make no mistake this King’s team is pretty good having beaten the MCC for a second year running and having put the XL Club to the sword by a large margin, so we did well to stretch them as far as we did, but it was a shame not to have won.
Thank you to all those who made the journey to Bruton and represented the Queries so well. Thank you to King’s for their very generous hospitality and of course to Mr Aitken for umpiring for us.