A quarter-century of Curchod & Co cricket

The Curchod & Co Cricket XI recently marked 26 recorded seasons of friendly matches at its annual end-of-season dinner, continuing a tradition at Farnham Cricket Club’s ground that began in the 1980s when the business was known as Wadham & Isherwood.

Since its inception, the team has taken on other property firms, accountants and solicitors across Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. While a handful of missing scorebooks from the 1990s may have left a few gaps, the records still go back over a quarter of a century.

Among the familiar names at the top of the averages from down the years are many who have shaped both the firm and the club.

Curchod & Co consultant, Chris Lock, one of the founding players, tops the batting list with more than 3,000 runs at an average of 29, and also leads the bowling figures with 139 wickets. His fellow founder, Geoff Reeve, also features prominently in the early records for the team that has combined cricket with steady friendship.

Nick Reeve, a Partner at Curchod & Co (and Geoff’s son), and local solicitor Alan Butt, each with more than a hundred innings to their names, have also been part of the side for decades. Steve Barrett holds the highest batting average of the modern era, at just under 33, while his bowling figures also rank among the best, showing how the team’s success has always relied on its all-rounders.

Over the years, more than ten bowlers have taken 35 wickets or more, and nine batsmen have passed 700 runs.

Nick Reeve said: “What’s kept the Curchod & Co XI going all these years is the mix of competition and camaraderie. We’ve always taken the cricket seriously enough to want to win, but never so seriously that it stops being fun. Some of us have been playing together for decades, and it’s fair to say the standard has varied over the years, but the enthusiasm never has. We’ve had some great matches, a few memorable collapses, and a lot of laughs along the way.

“It’s the kind of tradition you don’t plan; it has grown with the people involved and evolved into a group of colleagues, commercial property specialists and other professionals who still find time to play a good-natured game, share a post-match drink, and keep a long-standing tradition going.”

Download a copy of the batting and bowling averages.

NB. On Wednesday, August 18th 2010, during one of the team’s midweek matches, the BBC’s “Hairy Bikers” – the much-loved celebrity chefs – visited Farnham CC to film the baking of a Battenberg Cake, a classic element of any “Cricket Tea”. Dave Myers and Si King not only fed the two teams, but also posed for photos afterwards.

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