A Review of the 1973 Season
1973 was a strange season with the 1st eleven failing to win a game in the League , but going on a remarkable Kemp Cup run
Under Graham Lord only 2 Saturday games were won , with the League record showing a disappointing 8 draws and 7 defeats from 15 completed matches. Top run scorers were Mike Edmonds with 463, Graham Lord with 425 and David Rafis with 338. Amongst the wickets were the usual suspects, Basil Swaby with 32, Peter Brown 26 and Ron Lynch 23. Chingford came up against Graham Gooch twice in the matches against Ilford with Bryan Hart and Basil Swaby claiming the scalp of the future England Captain. Unusually David Rafis was given out obstructing the field in the game v Sawbridgeworth – does anyone know what he did?
Conversely Chingford went on a magnificent Kemp Cup run, only to be halted in late August in a 6 wicket home defeat by Highgate in the sixth round. Earlier Chingford had disposed of Old Clarkonians (incidentally in this game current President Bill Birch top scored with 36 against Chingford), Hornchurch, Ardleigh Green, Great Northern Athletic and Mill Hill Park.
In the Sunday As the best individual performance came from Peter Brown who took 8-54 v Twickenham. 4 games were won with 7 defeats with the ever-consistent David Rafis hitting 382 runs and Geoff Sandrock 253, while Basil Swaby was leading wicket taker with 25 .
The Bs under Jeff Runciman had a similar time with 5 wins and 7 defeats. The top scores with the bat were Jeff Runciman with 278 and Bill Jeffrey with 251 with again Ted Alston 23 (including 8-25 v Northampton Exiles) and Robin Runciman 20 leading the way with the wickets.
A rare occurrence happened in the home game v Barnet when skipper Jeff Runciman facing a 10 wicket defeat in the face brought himself on to bowl (for the only time in living memory)with the visitors wanting only 1 to win . It took him one ball to claim a caught and bowled, two balls later the game was over and Jeff brought his bowling career to and end with an average of two !
Sadly 1973 was the last year of the two day matches against Sir George Monoux School played on consecutive evenings. This fixture identified a number of future Chingford players, and the final game was no different with Stuart Tyrrell, Peter Barrett and Trevor Sharkey all turning out for the Monoux.
A proposal had been passed to extend the pavilion backwards so that the Bar could go along the back wall to where the sliding doors used to be.
Finally the Hon. Secretary wrote to T.A. Spencer
Bunny Swinfen continues to grace the Club with his presence , fields in the gully without bending down, bowls 10 overs or so each match and becomes infuriated with the younger members of the side who show their displeasure when asked to field three yards from the bat. In this respect I sympathise with the latter.