There was a super crowd of players and friends past and present – it was great to see so many familiar faces to support the first team and help us celebrate and remember the contribution of John Downey.

The Trophy replaces the Hatchet Trophy which has been played since 1967 – conceived to ‘bury the hatchett’ between the two sides after an ill-tempered match when Bath left it to 5.40pm to declare. It marks the contribution of John Downey to both clubs – uniquely he captained both sides in a first team career that spanned 30 years.

Finally, we did bury the hatchet on Sunday with the planting of a commemorative tree in honour of John Downey and we look forward to continuing our friendly rivalry with Bath over many years of competition for the trophy. The intention is to challenge for it over a series of games through the summer – from Junior, to Senior and ‘veterans’ fixtures.

It was a great day to remember John amongst his contemporaries and family – many of which themselves have made huge impacts on cricket in Bath over the years. You can read more about John’s life at Lansdown and be reminded of the great men and women of our club in the upcoming book ‘Horse and Cart to Helicopter’.

If you weren’t able to make the game – or you did but were distracted by conversation, a short write up is below:

Bath batted first on a generally overcast afternoon and were soon in trouble as Tim Wyatt picked up the wickets of openers Ben Wells and Ashur Morrison with only 7 runs on the board. However, Bath gradually settled with Harry Hankins and Charlie Brain getting the innings back on track. Paul Muchall and Jack Scrivens then accelerated the scoring and looked set to score well over 200. They had reached 160 when Lansdown Captain Oskar Kolks' sharp off-spin broke the partnership. From there wickets started to tumble. Tim Wyatt (4 for 14) and Josh Smith (3 for 34) closed down the innings as the visitors finally reached 179 for 8 from their 20 overs.

By the time Lansdown started their innings the clouds had moved on and it appeared as if the rest of the match would be played in sunshine. There appeared to be real intent from opener Kiran Carlson as runs were free flowing – until Carlson fell on 40 in the fifth over – bowled by David Ford.

Jordan Smith was now joined by his skipper Oscar Kolk and this pair batted solidly for the next ten overs and seemed to be cruising until spin was introduced from Will Arney who had Kolk brilliantly caught one-handed on the boundary by Ashur Morrison.

With four overs to go Lansdown had fallen behind the run rate as the rain returned - getting heavier by the minute. Lansdown became more selective with their shots rather than speculative. Seven runs were needed from the final over and with the fall of Brandon Allen with only four balls to go, the balance was in Bath’s favour. But up stepped Jordan Smith to hit the winning runs and earning the home side a victory by 6 wickets.

This game was evenly matched and contained everything that cricket followers seek: skilled batting and bowling, athletic fielding and great spirit from both teams, in honour of a local cricketing ‘legend’.

You can find the match stats here: https://www.play-cricket.com/website/results/4515107