Remnants vs. The Engineering Department

18:00, Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Fitzwilliam College

The Engineering Department (181/4 in 20 6-ball overs)
defeated
Remnants (127/5 in 20 6-ball overs)
by 54 runs.

Increasingly regular (no, not like that) correspondent Paul Jordan had this to say about our encounter with Engineering this evening:

The forecast suggested a shower may pass through Cambridge early evening ... you can see where this is going, so we of course obliged. On arriving at Oxford Road we were greeted with the sight most Remnants players dread: a group of young, fit looking and enthusiastic players practising with bat and ball. Terrible reminders of our encounters with Fen Ditton and The Beehive shook us to our very core. Actually, we once did this as part of our pre-match ritual, so perhaps it is time to reinstate this - Joe please note. Our pre-match preparations did include speculation about who was playing and, more importantly, did George Speller really reach such a parlous state at the Beer Festival that he'd had to call it a day by 6:30pm? "Was he playing that night?" somebody enquired - fair comment, I suppose. Our ranks were boosted by the return of "Blakey" the misguided bus controller - sorry, I mean Councillor Clarke. How we missed his gentle barracking from short mid-wicket - and that was to his bowlers.

We went out to field and began brightly with both Eli Ellwood (1/22) and Joe White (1/14) bowling good opening spells and keeping the Engineering openers relatively quiet. Eli struck first with an LBW accompanied by a blood curdling appeal which put off a nearby jogger. The change bowlers gave the Engineering batsmen some generous deliveries and a combination of contemptuous dispatching of the bad ball along with some classy drives and cuts meant we had leaked far too many runs. Andy Bell (1/33) with his usual mix of swing, bounce and downright confusing deliveries contrived with a terrible full toss to remove another wicket - we were on a roll. At the other end Paul Jordan (0/420 had two bad overs and, according to Joe, produced an early "teapot". The batsmen had really got into gear and, despite some energetic and tireless fielding from Tom Serby, Roy Page, John Moore and Matt Hughes, we were facing the prospect of chasing a substantial total. John's bowling produced a run out from Paul from near the boundary which gave us a temporary lift, as did the retirement of the classy Engineering batsmen who must have scored almost a century by the time he headed off to "collect his pension". The bowling at the death was a lot tighter and threatening so we did at least finish with a sense of pride in our efforts.

Our turn. We surmised that if our batsmen got off to a flier we might be able to get close enough to their total and maybe even win, despite having only ten men. Surely they wouldn’t have a deadly combination of capable bowlers as well?

Nick Clarke (43 off ?? balls) and Roy Page (0 off ?? balls) began brightly enough, with Nick batting in his usual combative style in the face of some pretty sharp stuff from both opening bowlers. This was followed by more quick and accurate bowling which saw Roy back in the hutch, bringing Tom Serby (10 off ?? balls) to the wicket. He and Nick started to get the measure of the bowling when they succumbed rather too early on, which brought Eli Ellwood (28 off ?? balls) to the crease along with Joe White (15 off ?? balls). These two played well and were building a decent partnership. We may have fallen behind the run rate but at least we were not letting the opposition have it all their own way. By the time out innings closed we too had to face some occasional bowlers who entertained the spectators gathered in the steady drizzle and increasing gloom. One bowler had the most eccentric run up we had seen in a long time: he approached the wicket like a pole vaulter, with huge exaggerated strides, only to bring him to his final delivery stride at an almost complete standstill.

We finished up well short of the target. I think given the opposition and the ten playing for Remnants we acquitted ourselves pretty well. The bowling lacked some depth and we could have done with another bat. We fielded tirelessly really and Rob Harvey put in another good performance behind the stumps. Let's hope we have those missing ingredients for next Wednesday's annual war of attrition with our nemesis Granta first/fourths, depending on who needs batting practice before they play for the first team again (or return to Australia).