As part of the 175th anniversary celebrations, the club held a Swindon CC versus British Rail memorial cricket match on Sunday 7th July 2019. The match, concocted by the club President Randy Roze, saw 24 players (not a typo!) selected to entertain the hundred strong crowd, made up of those spilling out of the pavilion following a two course meal and a number of former and current club members along with friends of the club.

If you just looked at the match scores, you may think that it was an uneventful game of cricket, but the match proved that run a ball matches can still provide box office entertainment, even in the age of 10 an over whack-a-thons. Randy’s selected skipper Liam Tucker started well, by winning the toss and having a bat, on what looked an O.K second day wicket.

The Swindon innings got off to a stuttering start, with B.R bowlers Beer (2-0-6-2) and Young (2-0-16-1) bowling tight areas and getting rewarded with the top three wickets between them, including a peach from Beer to dismiss Paul Paginton. This brought Harris and ‘Rinks’ together, who doubled the score before Harris (who had nearly been run out three times!) chipped to mid-on. What followed was what can only be described as a steady accumulation of runs……………….with ‘Rinks’ batting through the innings for a massive…………………35 not out! He was well accompanied by Wood who got 23. The B.R bowling honors were share around with Sansom, Flay and Leach all picking up wickets at less than 5 runs per over.

At the halfway stage the Swindon team were wondering if there score of 115-7 would be enough.

As the second innings began B.R started to cruise along towards victory, with only club President Randy Roze able to pick up the early wicket of Tilling, while Flay and Barr both going past the mid-twenties. There was to be a twist in the tale though, as Liam Tucker shuffled his bowlers and set smart fields to restrict the run rate and help pull Swindon back into the game. Tight spells from Rigali, Foreman, Mildenhall and (honorary) Aussie import Cock (4-0-19-11) meant that B.R, after a strong start, found themselves needing nine off the last over.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Tucker had saved the last over for Randy to make or break the game. The club stalwart (now into his 70’s!) held his nerve to guide Swindon to what had looked like an unlikely victory.

The game was played in great spirits, with everyone enjoying the beautiful weather. Some personal battles from the past resurfaced and were expertly commentated by Kevin Emery. Thanks go to club vice-president Richard Deacon, who supplied and awarded Randy with the '175 cup'. Thanks also to Keith Millar for scoring, Kev Thompson for preparing the wicket and all those in attendance who supported the clubs 175th anniversary celebrations.