The Mighty Greys 2010 – 19
2010: Played 18 Won 7 Lost 9 Drew 2
With match reports now regularly being posted on the website, the history of the Greys no longer depends on piecing things together from scraps of yellowing paper.
Having said that, we know that Jerry scored a century this year but, once again, not even he knows who it was against (it might have been Cuckfield!) and went on to win the batting trophy with 593 runs. Dave Day and Ibrahim Azami shared the bowling with 23 wickets each.
Wins were recorded against Bodle St (when Alan Gallagher scored six 4s in an over), Brunswick Village, Sidbury, Zambuca Tigers, Streat, Firle and Brunswick Village (again), although they also lost against Cuckkfield, Twineham, W.G. Gracefully (twice), Luppitt, Ashurst, Warninglid and Poynings.
Party Seven Moments had now become an integral part of a day out with the Greys. Dave Day won the match award in the lost game against Luppitt for the first ball wicket that saw him bring up 200 wickets and 2000 runs for the Club. Here’s the Greys after their second win against Brunswick Village.
Back Row: Robbie Hoare, Ian Sewell, Ben Burbridge, Dave Day, Tim Greaves, Alex Fenton
Front Row: Alan Gallagher, Jerry Brasher, Biff Line, Ibrahim Azami, Derek Covill
2011: Played 23 Won 12 Lost 5 Drew 3
After Robbie’s inconsiderate and unauthorised decision to sell the Hartington, the Greys made the Constant Service, on Islingword Road, their new home.
It was during this season where EO, batting with Delbert at Hammerwood, found himself facing the final over with 13 needed to win. Rather than leave it to Del, EO smashed consecutive boundaries and finished it all by himself, sparking raucous scenes on the boundary. It also won him the coveted PSM of the Season award.
You can read Ian’s account of the game played near to the house once owned by Led Zeppelin here: https://mightygreys.com/2011/09/20/tmg-vs-hammerwood-sep-2012-by-eo-a-k-a-hero/
Ian also won the Greysman of the Year award.
Even though the tour to Devon had become a staple fixture of the Greys’ season, the Saturday match was played against Not the MCC at Sidbury (narrowly lost), while the game against Luppitt was rained off. It was nevertheless a strong year for the Greys, with a win: loss ratio of 12:5.
| Dave Hadrill
Played 31 Runs 86
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The most occasional of Greys’ occasionals, Dave would surely have played many more games for the Greys if Ibu landed on top of him up at St James’s. A batsman rather than a bowler who is hard to beat in the field. |
Ibrahim Azami won the bowling with 30 wickets and Derek Covill won the batting with 717 runs.
2012: Played 14 Won 12, Lost 2, Drew 1
In 2012, the jet stream decided to park itself on the Sussex Downs, meaning that the first seven games on the fixture list were all rained off. No matches played before 10th June, when the Greys beat Brunswick Village by four wickets, in a rain-affected match. The Greys then only lost two games, one of which was a T20 at Isfield and the other the traditional defeat to Luppitt on the Sunday on tour. Depending on how its calculated, this is probably our most successful year.
With the Disco Tent destroyed in a gale the previous year, camping on tour was finally abandoned, and the house at Kentisbeare rapidly becoming a firm favourite. Ricky celebrated the occasion by pissing in DD’s shoe while he was asleep.
The low point of the season occurred when Ibu attempted a slip catch at St James’ and instead landed on Dave Hadrill, sending him to A and E with a broken collar bone.
Jerry Brasher passed 5000 career runs this year. Terry Burgess passed 4000 runs and won PSM of the Year. Dave Day was made Greysman of the Year.
Robbie Hoare won the bowling with 28 wickets and Jerry won the batting with 446 runs.
2013: Played 22 Won 9 Lost 9 Drew 4
After losing only two games in the previous year, the Greys won as many as they lost in this year.
Match reporting was taken to a new level when we played Forest Row and Alex wrote a match report in the style of AA Milne. Have fun working out who each character is Greysmen! Read it here: https://mightygreys.com/2013/06/04/tmgs-vs-forest-row-june-2013-by-alex-fenton/
A new dance form was invented on tour. Look carefully and you can see bits of smashed plate on the floor.
Back on the pitch, the Greys suffered the near-ultimate humiliation of losing to Bodle St, with young Tom steering them to victory with surprising maturity. We took it out on Denton the next week by smashing a draw against them.
Biff Line passed the 5,000 run milestone this year.
Derek Covill won PSM and Alex Fenton won Greysman of the Year.
Robbie Hoare won the bowling with 29 wickets and Derek also won the batting with 518 runs.
2014: Played 23 Won 9 Lost 12 Drew 2
The year featured a record-breaking match at Wivelsfield with the Greys scoring over 300 runs for the first and only time, featuring a partnership of 212 between Jerry and Derek. Fortunately, the Greys had just recruited a sports journalist in the form of Ian Winrow who not only scored the 300th run, but also recorded it in this report:
https://mightygreys.com/2014/05/30/tmgs-vs-wivelsfield-25th-may-2014-by-ian-wig-winrow/
Bizarrely, a real horse also dropped into the Constant for a pre-match pint before the game at Poynings.
The season ended dismally however, with the Greys losing nine of their last ten games, although Ian and Terry ran a five at Ansty this year.
In his first year as treasurer, Robbie H began a discussion on premium bonds that saw, for the first time, an AGM running into its fourth day.
| Rik Flynn
2014 – Played 63 Runs 1253 Wickets 11 |
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A classy opening batsman and fiery quick bowler, Rick would have played a lot more games, scored a lot more runs and taken a lot more wickets if QB hadn’t landed on his back early in his Greys career. Creator of superlative audio match reports |
| Ian Winrow
2014 – Played 19 Runs 65 |
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Wiggy has shown some staunch resistance at the top of the order with his old school technique to steadily accumulate runs with a solid, stylish, very straight bat. He’s also the first man ever to take TMGs over the magical 300 mark in an innings. |
Robbie Hoare won the bowling with 27 wickets and Derek Covill won the batting with 537 runs. Terry Burgess won PSM and Biff was Greysman of the Year.
2015: Played 21 won 6 lost 15 drew 0
There were ominous signs in the early part of the season when a dead shrew was found outside the Away changing room at Twineham. The Greys went on to lose fifteen out of twenty one games this year.
One of the six victories came when, having talked about it for a few seasons, the slightly more youthful Greys finally got round to playing a fixture against the Founding Fathers and true legends of the original Greys, at St James in Ditchling.
The Old Greys Whistle Test: From l to r: Andy Williams, Alan Gallagher, Guy Malyon, Jonny Woodford, Richard Hibbitt, Ian Sewell, Biff Line, Ricky Southon, Dave Smith, Ibrahim Azami, Ben Newland, Zack Maxwell, Rob Hoare.
Original Greysmen Robin Webb, Mike Davies and Mike Walder also played this game.
As with so many other years, the match at Warninglid was a tightly fought affair, played on the 38th anniversary of Elvis’s death. The ‘Lid were chasing our 158.
Ian’s match report for the second game is another Greys classic:
https://mightygreys.com/2015/08/23/tmg-versus-warninglid-16th-august-2015-by-ian-sewell/
With Dave Day and Derek Covill starting to play fewer games each year, and injection of youth, enthusiasm and ability was needed. It arrived in the form of these two.
| Zack Maxwell
2015 – Played 63 Runs 781 Wickets 11 |
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One of the Greys’ all-time great out-fielders, Zac has taken some memorable catches on the boundary. An aggressive batsman who loves to play through the V off the back foot, he’s justifiably known across Sussex for his ZackBack’nCrack. |
| Dom Ashton
2015 – Played 87 Runs 2151 Wickets 77 |
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At the same time as Dave Day started to play fewer games, Dom started making his meteoric rise up the Greys’ lifetime averages for both bowling and batting. An excellent all-rounder who seems to take out someone’s middle or off stump at least once a game, Dom has also taken some crucial catches at Cover, and turned games around for us. |
Biff resigned as Captain on the pitch after the last game at Balcombe (where Zack made his maiden 50) but got voted back in again at the AGM.
Chairman Terry’s annual targets were also introduced this year.
Biff won the batting with 345 runs and reached 6000 career runs. In a sign of things to come, Ben Newland won the bowling with 25 wickets, as well as Greysman of the Year. Ian Sewell won PSM of the season.
2016: Played 21 won 11 lost 6 drew 4
A much better year on the pitch for the Greys, beating teams like W.G. Gracefully and Bramber and Beeding but the standout victory took place early on at Twineham. Dom’s six into the trees not only brought up his maiden fifty but also took us to victory against Twineham for the first time that anyone could remember.
Even though we lost the Tour game at Sidbury, Ben Newland’s match report is another all time classic of the genre, deservedly winning the inaugural Match Report of the Year.
https://mightygreys.com/2016/06/26/tmgs-vs-sidbury-tour-11th-june-by-ben-newland/
Although both of the Tour games were lost, the Greys suffered only one more loss only lost once before the end of the season . This was at Poynings where Terry and Alex’s collision in the middle of the pitch will forever be known as the “Clash of the Titans”.
Despite playing only a handful of games, Dave Day became the first Greysman to pass 300 career wickets. The Dunckyclunk™ was also sighted for the first time this year.
| Duncan Edwards
Played 61 Runs 577 Wickets 11
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An enigma wrapped in a mystery encased in a riddle, Duncan has revealed himself as a demon leg spin bowler and a middle order bat growing in confidence, to the point where he now has his own shot named after him. Lives round the corner on the 45. |
Ben Newland won the bowling, smashing the club record with 45 wickets and Biff won the batting with 637 runs. Dom Ashton won both PSM and Greysman of the Year.
2017: Played 22 Won 9 Lost 10 Drew 3
The injection of people under 50 years old into the Greys didn’t immediately change the team’s fortunes, with the Greys losing more than they won in 2017.
The quality of match reports reached an even higher note this year though, with Rick Flynn’s contribution after the Twineham match. If you haven’t listened to it yet then find then ten or so minutes to treat yourself to this: https://mightygreys.com/2017/05/18/tmgs-vs-twineham-14th-may-2017-by-rik-flynn-audio/
Just when we thought he couldn’t produce anything as good, he did it again later in the season with his Poynings match report. https://mightygreys.com/2017/09/14/tmgs-vs-poynings-10th-september-2017-by-rik-flynn-audio2/
There was a welcome return of Derek Covill to the crease against Brunswick Village where he celebrated the occasion by notching up 110. Needless to say, Jerry Brasher won the PSM that day for falling over in the pre-fielding warm up.
Jerry also produced one of the stand-out batting performances by a Greysman this year, when his 78* for Luppitt ensured that the Greys, once again, lost the Sunday match on tour.
At Lindfield, Alex Fenton joined the list of senior Greysmen to play 300 games for the club.
| Ben Redfern
Played 17 Runs 126 Wkts 3 |
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First there was Dead Ben, Quiet Ben. And then there was Evil Ben.
A creative batsman, committed fielder and dynamic keeper, Ben’s star burned brightly for the Greys until the alpenhorns of Switzerland lured him away. |
Despite passing 7000 career runs during the season, Biff decided to really, really call it a day at the autumn AGM when, Marcel Marceau style, he literally threw the towel in. With the baton passed to Ben Newland, the sense that the guard was changing was completed when a new name – Dom Ashton – appeared on the batting trophy at the end of the season.
Dom won the batting with 619 runs and shared the bowling trophy with Ben with 25 wickets each. Biff won PSM and Robbie Hoare won Greysman of the Year.
Together at last: Dead, Evil and Quiet Bens on Tour 2017
2018: Played 21 won 10 lost 9 drew 2
Ben’s first year as captain ended with the Greys winning more than they lost.
Innovation continued in Match Reporting with the first ever Greys podcast recorded while Ben was waiting for the AA after our inaugural match against Jevington.
One of the highlights of the season came when Dom scored his maiden ton for the Greys on tour in Sidbury. Dave McHugh also recorded figures of 5-0-11-6 in this same match.
Ben got a Michelle at Lindfield, a week after getting a hatrick at Warninglid – the only one any of us can remember for the Greys. His splendid Match Report celebrating this is here:
https://mightygreys.com/2018/08/29/tmgs-vs-warninglid-26th-august-2018-by-ben-newland/
Ian Sewell also became the third Greysman (after Dave Day and Robbie Hoare) to surpass 300 wickets this year.
Dom won the batting with 538 runs and Ben won the bowling with 32 wickets. For walking out to the wicket without his bat, Duncan Edwards won PSM and Terry Burgess won Greysman of the Season.
2019: Played 24 Won 13 Lost 3 Drew 7 Tied 1
The Greys ended their thirty third season with one of their strongest performances, losing only three times, (once in a T20, the traditional Sunday loss to Luppitt, and the second match at Findon).
Significant wins were recorded against Twineham, W.G. Gracefully, Cutters Choice and Lindfield.
One of the main reasons for this was our batting, with RoborBob Meek, Dom Ashton and Rick Flynn all scoring more than 600 runs each during the season. Playing almost a full season for the team, RoborBob scored his first century for the club at Southwick Wanderers, following his 95 against W.G.Gracefully, ending the year with an average of 50.31.
There was also an infamous tied match at Findon, followed later in the year by a loss against them, our only loss in a full-length match in Sussex all year.
On tour, the Greys broke with tradition and played against Shaldon Optimists in Teignmouth in the Saturday match, a event celebrated by yet another classic Rick Flynn audio match report. Rick also came close to his maiden century for the Greys here, scoring 91.
Other noteworthy feats include Dom Ashton’s ton against Jevington (with this shot), his michelle at Lindfield, Ben’s Pfeiffer at Southwick Wanderers and Duncan Edwards’ maiden 50 at Lindfield.
The Greys also played – and won – a mid-week T20 at Poynings, spurring some within the team to sign up the Greys for the Sussex Slam in 2020.
RoborBob Meek won the batting with 654 runs, and Ben Newland – for the fifth year in a row -won the bowling with 33 wickets. Terry Burgess won PSM and Duncan Edwards won Greysman of the Year.
The Mighty Greys ended the decade – and their thirty-third year – looking like this:
Back row: Terry Burgess, Dominic Ashton, Rik Flynn, Duncan Edwards, Robbie Hoare
Front row: Del Covill, Alex Fenton, Ben Newland, Biff Line, Jerry Brasher, Zack Maxwell
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