Finally a perfect day for cricket, and the perfect opposition to go with it: the Watson-tinged Girton boys. Most of the Remnants wanted to bat second, so as to be able to watch Liverpool vs. AC Milan in the Champions' League final later in the evening, and it was thus it was considered quite acceptable when Girton captain Tony Thornton won the toss and decided that we should field first.
And that was a task he took on personally, leading his top order to a healthy total of 134/5 without much bother. That we got a few wickets was more down to luck than any particularly good bowling, and certainly not due to good catching -- the best that can be said of our time in the field was that the likes of Andrew Lea, John Gull, John Young and Rob Harvey did some good run-saving at various distances from the bat. The pick of the bowlers were probably Alex Brown (1/19) and Martin Parry (0/19), although they would have ended with identical figures if not for a rare piece of cricketing karma: having dropped a fairly straightforward catch at mid-off, Martin then had a remarkably similar chance dropped off his own bowling. That's where the justice ended, though, as the guilty party, Daniel Mortlock, should have ended up with 0/26, but instead got 2/26 courtesy of Andy Owen's fantastic stumping off a near-wide and Andrew Lea's running catch at -- where else -- mid-off.
After Girton's innings proceeded at a remarkably constant rate of about nine runs an (eight-ball) over, it seemed only fair that we should maintain a steady pace as well . . . but, conveniently, of about ten runs an over. Most such innings have big overs and then lulls, but at no stage were we more than four runs either side of this rate today. Tony Malik (38* off 41 balls) and Andy Owen (25* off 26 balls) brought us home with a combination of experience and skill, having been given the perfect launching pad after John Gull (49 off 38 balls) and Andrew Lea (9 off 10 balls) got us off to such an aggressive start. This aggression was mainly in the form of big hits, especially from the colourfully-attired Mr Gull, as well as some amusingly ambitious running.
Indeed I had such faith in this aspect of the partnership that I started a book offering odds of 1:3 that the first wicket would be a run out. There were no takers at first, but after a diabolical quick single I reiterated the offer and found a sucker in Rob Harvey. And then, just as we we'd finished formalising the deal, Andrew played a lofted pull shot and was well caught on the boundary, and then wound up looking most confused when his team-mates greeted his return to the pavilion by rolling about in hysterics. After grudgingly paying Rob his one pound dividend it suddenly dawned on me that I'd surely been set up in an elaborate cricketing sting of the sort that is not entirely unknown on the sub-continent. I would have confronted a certain fruit-vendor with my theory but, what do you know, he'd just happened to have replaced Andrew at the crease.
At any rate, this second comfortable victory in two days went some way to erasing the horrors of the previous week's thrashings, and has brought us to the end of the season's first month with an even ledger: three wins, three losses, and that first up tie against Romsey.