Remnants vs. Wolfson College

Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Fitzwilliam College

Remnants (113/2; 13 eight-ball overs)
lost to
Wolfson College (114/5; 13 eight-ball overs)
by 5 wickets.

The preponderence of early-season wash-outs seems to have resulted Remnants becoming rather resigned to more of the same, which might explain why, when our opposition had a full team of eleven doing warm ups under ominous grey clouds, there were only five of us present at the appointed starting time.

Thus, we had no choice but to bat first, with Russell Woolf (17) and Phil Watson (27, highlighted by a perfect straight six) getting us off to a pretty quick start. Then Andy Owen ``niggled, nurdled, heaved and hurried'' his way to 43* which, with support from Faruk Kara (9*), took us to 113/2, a pretty reasonable -- if unlucky-sounding -- total in the sluggish conditions.

It was just as we took to the field, however, that the satellite link went down, and so the second half of the match has been reconstructed with the help of extensive interviews with Dave Williams and Andy Owen.

The big story of Wolfson's innings was the debut of Joe White, the fastest bowler (with the exception of Dave Norman) Remnants has had in some time. He got 2/22 on debut, but also found himself bowling extra deliveries, partly due to general rustiness and partly due to some over-zealous wide calls that could easily have been inspired by the more strict of the international one-day umpires. Les Collings (0/22) and Paul Jordan (1/25) both started their seasons well, although the latter must have been horrified when Mike Jones (1/34) shelled the simplest of chances at mid on . . . until he redeemed himself by holding onto an almost identical catch next ball. Another fielding highlight (even if he does say so himself) was correspondent Dave Williams's direct hit run out, no doubt a result of the rigorous off-season fielding training that is now a part of the Remnants culture.

Sadly, we're getting carried away with all this back-slapping: despite having Wolfson struggling at 84/5 after 10 overs (i.e., 30 needed off 24 balls), they started the last over marginal favourites, needing 9 more runs for victory and still with 5 wickets in hand. A boundary swung the game firmly in their favour and, a few half-chances notwithstanding, they calmly scored the winning run off the final ball of the match.